Dr Louise Isham PhD, MSc, BA, QSW

Dr Louise Isham

Department of Social Work and Social Care
Lecturer in Social Work

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 2935
Email
l.j.isham@bham.ac.uk
Address
Muirhead Tower
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Louise is a registered social worker with practice experience in children and families’ social work and sexual violence services. She works as a social work educator and researcher in the Department of Social Work and Social Care. A key part of Louise’s role involves teaching and tutoring students as part of the qualifying Social Work programmes, and she enjoys leading the undergraduate final year dissertation module and second year enhancing skills module. Louise’s is interested in how social workers use and create knowledge for the benefit of citizens and social work services and the role of ‘research minded’ social work.

Louise’s research interests focus on gendered-based violence and care relationships. Her PhD explored the experience of female carers affected by harm and abuse by the older family member for whom they care, and the way professions identify, respond and ‘make sense’ of this complex and somewhat taboo social issue. Louise has also worked as a researcher on a range of projects focusing on victim-survivors experiences of domestic and sexual violence as well as projects investigating the needs of ‘vulnerable’ children, for example, in the context of receiving dental health services and in engaging in participatory research. Louise’s work draws on qualitative and mixed methods approaches and she is committed to ensuring people with lived experience and expertise play a central role in research.

Qualifications

  • Post graduate certificate in higher education (PGCHE), University 麻豆精选
  • PhD, University 麻豆精选
  • MSc Social Work, University of Bristol
  • BA History (hons), University of Cambridge

Teaching

  • BA3 Dissertation (Social Work)
  • BA2 Enhancing Skills for Social Work
  • BA1 Psychology for Social Work
  • MA Social Work

Postgraduate supervision

Louise supervises PhD students with an interest in the following areas: domestic and sexual violence; care relationships and experiences in adulthood. 

Publications

Highlight publications

Bradbury-Jones, C & Isham, L (eds) 2021, . 1 edn, Springer Nature.

Isham, L, Bradbury-Jones, C & Hewison, A 2020, '', British Journal of Social Work.

Isham, L, Bradbury-Jones, C & Hewison, A 2020, '', Sociology of Health and Illness, vol. 42, no. 1, pp. 80-94.

Isham, L, Bradbury-Jones, C & Hewison, A 2018, '', International Journal of Social Research Methodology .

Isham, L, Hewison, A & Bradbury-Jones, C 2017, '', Trauma, Violence and Abuse.

Recent publications

Article

Donnelly, S, Isham, L, McKay, K, Milne, A, Montgomery, L, Sherwood-Johnson, F & Wydall, S 2025, '', The Journal of Adult Protection.

Bradbury-Jones, C, Damery, S, Fruin, K, Gunby, C, Harlock, J, Hebberts, L, Isham, L, Jones, A-M, Maxted, F, Mighty, A, Parmar, P, Patterson, L, Schaub, J, Scott, F, Smailes, HL, Smith, D & Taylor, J 2025, '', Health and Social Care in the Community.

Fenton, S-J, Carr, S & Isham, L 2024, '', Clinics in Integrated Care, vol. 22, 100190.

Isham, L, Fillingham, J & Schaub, J 2024, '', Journal of Further and Higher Education.

Isham, L, Tighe, K & Fenton, S-J 2024, '', Social Work Education.

Damery, S, Gunby, C, Hebberts, L, Patterson, L, Smailes, H, Harlock, J, Isham, L, Maxted, F, Schaub, J, Smith, D, Taylor, J & Bradbury-Jones, C 2024, '', BMJ open, vol. 14, no. 9, e087810.

Gunby, C, Isham, L, Smailes, H, Bradbury-Jones, C, Damery, S, Harlock, J, Maxted, F, Smith, D & Taylor, J 2024, '', Violence against Women, vol. 30, no. 8, pp. 1783-1803.

Isham, L, Taylor, J & Scott, J 2021, '', Journal of Interprofessional Care.

Bradbury-Jones, C, Aveyard, H, Herber, OR, Isham, L, Taylor, J & O鈥檓alley, L 2021, '', International Journal of Social Research Methodology, vol. 2021, no. 00, pp. 1-14.

Taylor, J, Bradbury鈥恓ones, C, Held, J, Isham, L & Mcconnell, N 2021, '', Child Abuse Review, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 166-173.

Gunby, C, Isham, L, Damery, S, Taylor, J & Bradbury-Jones, C 2020, '', Journal of Gender-Based Violence, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 421-429.

Combes, G, Damery, S, Gunby, C, Harlock, J, Isham, L, Jones, A, Maxted, F, Parmar, P, Schaub, J, Smith, D, Taylor, J & Bradbury-Jones, C 2019, '', BMJ open, vol. 9, no. 12, e035739.

Bradbury-Jones, C, Isham, L, Morris, A & Taylor, J 2019, '', Trauma, Violence and Abuse.

Editorial

Bradbury-Jones, C & Isham, L 2020, '', Journal of Clinical Nursing, vol. 29, no. 13-14, pp. 2047-2049.

Review article

Bradbury-Jones, C, Damery, S, Fruin, K, Gunby, C, Harlock, J, Hebberts, L, Isham, L, Jones, A-M, Maxted, F, Mighty, A, Parmar, P, Patterson, L, Schaub, J, Scott, F, Smailes, H, Smith, D & Taylor, J 2025, '', NIHR Journals Library, vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 1-104.