Michelle Rickett

Biography

Michelle Rickett is a qualitative mental health researcher in the School of Medicine. She has a multidisciplinary research background, with an undergraduate degree in English (University of Bristol), an MA and PhD in Social Anthropology (University of Manchester) and postdoctoral research in critical gerontology.

Michelle’s PhD explored social memory, sense of place and citizenship in Cape Town, South Africa, through the experiences of older people who had been forcibly removed from their homes during apartheid and were reclaiming land or financial compensation through land restitution. This involved 18 months’ ethnographic fieldwork with older people and their families in the Cape Flats and the District Six Museum.

Following her PhD, Michelle was postdoctoral Research Associate for the ‘Ages and Stages’ programme, a partnership between Keele and the New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme, which explored the role of older people within the life of the New Vic and the role of the theatre in older people’s experiences and views on ageing and later life. This multi-method programme included qualitative, archival and arts-based research. Michelle partnered with the New Vic again to co-direct the 2019 ‘Live Age’ festival, celebrating older people’s arts, and ‘Meet Me at Live Age’, a programme of arts-based activities for older people from underserved groups in Staffordshire.

Since 2022, Michelle has worked on mental health research projects focused on early intervention, continuity of care and physical healthcare for people with severe mental illness, and on older people’s mental health, with a strong focus on lived experience involvement and engagement in research.

Current Roles:

• Research Associate, ANTLER 75+: Antidepressants to prevent relapse in depression in older people
• Co-Investigator, PREVENT: Prescription of statins and antipsychotics associated with diabetes development