Dr Ieva Eskyte

Profile

I am a Lecturer in Social Policy (Teaching & Research), specialising in Disability Studies, Social Policy, and Social Research Methods. Between 2011 and 2014, I was a Marie Curie Fellow at Leeds, a fellowship that culminated in my first monograph, Disability and Shopping: Customers, Markets and the State (Routledge, 2019). I am also a co-author of Primary and Pre-primary Education in Lithuania: State and Possibilities (with J. Ruškus et al., 2012), and the forthcoming Disability, Accessibility, and Mobility Justice: A Multinational Analysis of Rights to Inclusive Pedestrian Journeys (with A. Lawson et al., 2026). Previously, I worked as a policy analyst for the Academic Network of European Disability Experts (ANED) and have extensively published on disability and various forms of social inequality.

Research interests

Since my first research role in 2008, I have led and contributed to projects spanning social inequalities, service development, behaviour change, labour market participation, decision-making, and social justice. I have developed expertise in a wide range of social research methods, including interviews (walking interviews, elite interviews), focus groups, Delphi studies, critical systematic reviews, and virtual reality (VR) research. My work has taken me across Europe, South Asia, Africa, and the United States, collaborating with stakeholders from diverse sectors including academia, NGOs, and industry.

The most recent project I led, Inclusive and Accessible Research: Making Research Possible for Disabled Participants (UKRI Enhancing Research Culture, £39,000), explored researchers’ understanding of and experiences with accessible social research, as well as the support required to ensure that academic research is as inclusive and accessible as possible.

Qualifications

• PhD Social Policy
• MA Social Work
• BSc Social Work

Professional memberships

• Social Policy Association
• Social Research Association
• Centre for Disability Studies
• Social Research Methods Centre

Student education

I lead and teach on several modules across the School at undergraduate and postgraduate levels including Key Debates in Social Policy; Inequalities: Exploring Causes, Consequences and Interventions; Disability Studies: An Introduction; Building Enabling Futures; and A Human Rights Approach to Disability.