Dr Jess Mitchell (PhD Biological Anthropology)
Chancellors Fellow
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Areas of interest for supervision
Thank you for your interest in undertaking PhD study here. You can find out more about our PhD in Agriculture and Food Security on this webpage:
https://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/postgraduate/degrees/index.php?r=site/view&id=957
Current PhD students supervised
Nick Bor PhD candidate GAAFS. Thesis Title: Exploring Antimicrobial use and stewardship in the Wildlife sector: A co-production approach.
Yoji Yordanova, Doctorate of Clinical Psychology candidate (Co-supervised at University of Leeds). Thesis title: Exploring the role of nature in the well-being benefits of green social prescribing (GSP).
Silken Tschofan, One Health Models Of Disease rotation project: How do risk and benefit perceptions influence behavior in the UK wild swimming community?
Research summary
I am a Behavioural ecologist with an interdisciplinary background across Zoology to the Social Sciences. I work across One Health sectors predominantly in Low and Middle Income Countries with international collaborators from different disciplinary backgrounds.
I am broadly interested in the behavioural drivers which underpin One Health challenges such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR). My research methods use community engagement and co-production approaches to understand these challenges, and co-develop locally meaningful solutions which can support behaviour change, feed into policy-level discussion and prompt sustainable systemic action.
My current Chancellors Fellowship seeks to explore antimicrobial usage and stewardship in wildlife-associated communities in attempt to contextualise our wider One Health understanding of antimicrobial resistance. This builds on six years of research with the CE4AMR network to develop community engagement approaches to explore and tackle AMR in low resource settings. I am also keen to expand these methods to exploring AMR in the context of displaced, conflict impacted communities and environments. I also sit on the Quadripartite working group for Youth Engagement with AMR and have led projects around AMR educational resource development in Nepal.
Beyond AMR I am interested in the role of nature and human-nature connection in prompting action on One Health challenges. Collaborating with Swansea University I am working on snake bite prevention in Uganda with a focus on story-telling methods to promote human-snake coexistence.
Current research interests
Behavioral Ecology of humans and animals, Antimicrobial Resistance, Snake bite prevention, Community Engagement & Behavior change methods, One HealthPast research interests
Cooperative Breeding behavior, Environmental EducationKnowledge exchange
Co-Lead: Community Engagement for Antimicrobial Resistance (CE4AMR) network
Active member: Quadripartite working group for Youth Engagement with Antimicrobial Resistance
Affiliated research centres
Project activity
The role of Wildlife in the One Health Challenge of AMR: Chancellors Fellowship
Developing Community-led solutions to AMR: Community Engagement for Anti-microbial Resistance (leeds.ac.uk)
Past project grants
The use of creative arts to engage Nepali schools with antimicrobial-resistance and create positive behaviour change on health-seeking behaviours. AHRC funded 2020-2022
Developing Community-Led Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance: Building a One Health Approach in Low and Middle Income Countries. ESRC funded 2020-2022
Scoping the local drivers of AMR in Wildlife in Uganda: Research England via University of Leeds Research Culture funding 2022.
Evaluating co-produced educational resources on AMR in Nepal. ESRC IAA funding via University of Leeds 2022.