Profile – Kellie Morrissey

Name:

Kellie Morrissey

Job Title:

Research Fellow (tenure-track)

Place of work / study:

Open Lab at Newcastle University

Area of Research:

Digital Social Care

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m a Newcastle University Research Fellow in Open Lab, School of Computing Science, where I lead the Digital Social Care theme. My research interests lie mainly in the field of Human-Computer Interaction with an emphasis on digital social care and digital health for older people. My PhD (awarded 2017 from University College Cork, Ireland) was an ethnographic exploration of designing for and with people with dementia living in publicly funded care in the south of Ireland. I’m interested in participatory approaches to research through design with people with dementia and their carers, and the potential for digital design to enrich the lives of older populations. As a postdoc at Open Lab, Newcastle University, I carried out qualitative design work surrounding critical approaches to design for Dementia-Friendly Communities. I’m currently supervising several PhD students within digital design and social care, including those working on projects surrounding digital support for intergenerational interaction in dementia, open innovation in design for dementia and mental health, and the design of novel virtual reality experiences for people with dementia and their carers.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself:

I’ve read 52 books a year for the past 3 years and plan to do so again this year! I prefer fiction.

Why did you choose to work in dementia?

I think there is a huge need to develop complementary ways of working (in my case, designing) with people with dementia and their carers in ways that acknowledge a persevering and embodied sense of personhood even into the later stages of the condition. I think this is vastly underdeveloped and that we have an ethical obligation to do this.

Follow @kelliemorrissey