Dr Carrie Ryan

Research summary

Carrie's research in the United States and the United Kingdom focuses on ageing and care.

Carrie's anthropological research is informed by her extensive work experience as an Activities Director in nursing homes and retirement communities in the United States. These experiences led her to research end-of-life care decision making during her MPhil degree and to conduct ethnographic fieldwork in a Continuing Care Retirement Community in Los Angeles for nearly two years during her DPhil. Carrie is turning her doctoral research into her first monograph, which explores how social practices in the retirement community - from communal eating, to daily activities like bingo, to resident governance, to friendship - helped older residents find meaning in their ageing trajectories and shaped their biosocial health and wellbeing. Carrie is also currently writing articles on the biosocial impact of older people's loneliness in care homes during covid-19, the politics of facial hair grooming in adult social care, and the importance of play to ageing wellbeing.

Inspired by her research on the importance of bingo in ageing care, Carrie has recently turned her research attention to the impact of play and games on ageing wellbeing. She has developed a Grand Challenges and Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) funded, global, interdisciplinary research network called the Ageing Playfully Network, which gathers scholars and private and public sector actors interested in the place of play and games in old age. The Network aims to examine why games and play are neglected topics in ageing research and calls for a 'ludic turn' in the anthropology of ageing and in gerontology. 

Teaching summary

Carrie teaches biosocial, medical, social, and applied anthropology through a range of topics, including: ageing, care, loneliness, wellbeing, play, games, end-of-life care, gender, kinship, friendship, time, rhythm, affect and emotion, chronic disease, embodied inequalities, critical medical anthropology, nursing, public health, institutional ethnography, participatory and creative methods, and more.

Carrie convenes:

• Aspects of Applied Medical Anthropology (UG/PG)
• Biosocial Medical Anthropology (PG)
• Biosocial Anthropology, Health and Environment (PG)

She also teaches on: 

• Being Human (UG)
• Introduction to Medical Anthropology (PG)
• Anthropology for Medical Students (UG)
• Theory, Ethnography, and Professional Practice (PG)
• Nutrition, Health, and Culture (UG/PG)

Carrie situates student engagement, inclusion, and diversity at the heart of her lectures, seminars, and tutorials. For her commitment to creative and immersive teaching, Carrie was recognised as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2020. Carrie has received two UCL ChangeMaker grants to include students in pedagogical development for UCL's Department of Anthropology and UCL's Faculties: 'Applied Medical Anthropology: An Interview Series' in 2021 and 'Utilising Authentic Assessment to explore UCL's historical links with eugenics in Medical Anthropology' in 2023. Carrie has also facilitated the publication of over twenty student Advocacy Letters, written as an assessment for the module Aspects of Applied Medical Anthropology, through the 'Advocacy Letter Series' on UCL's Medical Anthropology blog. She supervises UG and PG dissertations every year on a variety of topics, including ageing, gender and health, games, play and sport, bioethics, creative wellbeing, and more, and serves as a Personal Tutor for UGs and PGs.

Education

University of Oxford

Doctorate, PhD |

Diploma of HE, BA |

Masters, MPhil |

Publications

Show more publications