Will Byrd

Will is a a doctoral student in the Department of Social Policy, and a part-time Research Assistant in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre.

Research topic:
Workplace solidarity and collective action in adult social care in Britain since the 2022 cost of living crisis

His research aims to analyse why care home workers and trade unions are organising and/or taking collective action, why there are challenges, and how cultural values and gendered norms impact organising and/or collective action.

Will has been awarded an ESRC DTP Studentship, and was awarded an NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) Career Development Award to develop the PhD proposal.

Before starting the MPhil/PhD programme, he worked as a Research Assistant in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at LSE. Will worked on multiple projects, mainly focusing on understanding interventions and policy measures implemented in long-term care in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, both in the UK and internationally. Another major focus was on the direct and indirect impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on unpaid carers, and interventions implemented to mitigate these impacts. He also briefly worked in the Department of Methodology, undertaking a peer-led research project (funded through LSE Change Makers) to understand the work and life experiences of early career researchers at LSE, with a specific focus on the impact of casualisation.

Will graduated from KCL with an MSc in Climate Change: Environment, Science and Policy in 2020, and from the University of Cambridge with a BA in Natural Sciences in 2018.

Supervisors: Professor Timo Fleckenstein, Dr Isabel Shutes