Doctoral students

• Luciano Bottini Filho

  Luciano Bottini Filho is a PhD candidate researching on the international right to health within health technology assessments under the supervision of Professor Keith Syrett and Professor Diego Acosta. He holds an LLM in Human Rights from the University of Nottingham, as a Chevening Scholar, by nomination of the UK Foreign Commission Office (FCO). Prior to joining Bristol, Luciano was a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Surrey, where he taught Public International Law and convened a postgraduate module in Intellectual Property. He has served with the Council of Europe, at the Social Affairs Committee, drafting reports on health policies such as nudge laws, stress at work and palliative care. As a journalist, Luciano had occupied numerous reporting roles in Latin America for the major news outlets in the region for 10 years, covering human rights violations in the war on drugs, mass trials, judicial activism and decisions on socio-economic rights.

• Sophie Chester-Glyn‌

  Sophie's research considers how the The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD) is important for people using social care. It focuses on those who might lack autonomy, involvement and equity of treatment in their care. It examines the divergence between domestic policies in social care, social care law and human rights, with a focus on adults with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities. It will focus on UK policy and law approaches and how enforcement action, such as those part of the Health and Social Care Act 2008, might improve human rights compliance. Funded by the ESRC on a 1 + 3 scholarship, currently completing her Masters degree in Socio-Legal Studies. Sophie's general research interests are social care law and policy and community law.

• Sara Davies

  Sara Davies is a PhD candidate researching in the area of surrogacy. Her PhD is entitled ‘Contracting pregnancy: an evaluation of the notions of autonomy and agency at the intersection of reproduction, technology and commerce in India’s international surrogacy industry.’ Sara’s research is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s South, West and Wales Doctoral Training Partnership. She is based at Cardiff Law School under the primary supervision of Prof John Harrington. Dr Sheelagh McGuinness (Bristol) and Dr Elselijn Kingma (Southampton) are co-supervisors. Sara’s general research interests include gender and law, feminist legal theory and reproductive rights and justice.

• Conor Francis

  Conor Francis Macis is a PhD student whose thesis has the working title: "Law and Governance: The Global Political Economy of Antimicrobial Resistance". Conor's research broadly encompasses global health law, Marxist jurisprudence, and the global political economy of health. Their thesis intends to address capitalistic preanalytical assumptions that pervade the global health approach to resolve antimicrobial resistance. He is supervised by Professor Keith Syrett, Professor Terrell Carver, and Dr Jacopo Martire. They are funded on a 1+3 scholarship by the ESRC and recently completed an MSc in Socio-Legal Studies at Bristol. They also achieved their LLM in Health, Law, and Society at Bristol, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust through CHLS, having attained his BSocSc in Politics and International Relations at the University of Southampton.

• Elena ‌Kucheiko

  Elena Kucheiko is a PhD candidate funded by the ESRC on a 1+3 scholarship, and has recently completed a Masters degree in Socio-Legal Studies. Her PhD is titled ‘Decision-making during pregnancy’ and is being supervised by Dr Sheelagh McGuinness and Professor Catherine Kelly. Her research interests include law in relation to reproduction, medical ethics, and health policy.

• Melanie Pottle Iddon

  Melanie's PhD focuses on clinical, ethical and legal issues relating to genetic information and whether clinicians owe a duty of care to third parties. She is interested in the symbolic value of genetic information, how this manifests in clinical environments and its impact on clinicians, individuals and their relatives. Melanie has worked for the NHS in a variety of roles, including as Clinical Commissioner at South Gloucestershire CCG, Public Health Analyst at NICE and the Health Development Agency, and at the sexual health charity Brook as Chief Executive of Brook Bristol and as Head of Operations for the South of England. While at Brook she developed an interest in law and the importance of confidentiality in clinical and therapeutic environments, especially when supporting vulnerable young people. Melanie's work inspired her to pursue a PhD in Law, for which she was successful in gaining a full scholarship from the ESRC (1+3) at Bristol Law School, enabling her to focus on her research interests.

• Bonnie Venter

  Bonnie Venter is currently a PhD candidate and Senior Associate Teacher in Medical Law at the University of Bristol Law School, having received a University of Bristol PhD Studentship. Her PhD research explores regulating the bioprinting of organs and tissue as a possible solution to address the limited supply of donor organs and tissue. Previously, she was appointed as Health Law Unit Head and Lecturer at the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, Health Sciences Faculty at the University of Witwatersrand. Her academic career has involved lecturing LLB modules, such as law of succession, criminal law, introduction to law, media law, fundamental rights and medical law. During this time, she also acted as a regular speaker at CPD/CME events and facilitated the training of legal practitioners venturing into the field of medical law in South Africa.

• Liam Davis

  Liam Davis is a PhD candidate and teacher at Bristol Law School, funded by a UoB PhD studentship. His PhD concerns queer families and birth registration, investigating how, if at all, the system might be changed to be more inclusive of families that depart from the ‘traditional’ ideal. His broader research areas fall within family and medical law, particularly the intersections between the two as concerns parenthood, family, assisted reproduction, fertility, and the ‘right to know’ one’s biogenetic origins. He is currently developing an interest in queer theory and abolitionist critique(s).

• Patricia Blardony Miranda

  Patty is a licensed attorney in the Philippines who joined the CHLS as a Wellcome Trust Scholar in 2021 and has since received her LLM Health, Law and Society with Distinction. She was awarded an SWDTP ESRC studentship in 2022 to conduct research on mental health law and migration, through a case study of the lived experiences of Filipino migrant women in England. Patty previously served as one of the five members of the Drug Price Advisory Council, an independent and technical panel of experts supporting the Philippine Department of Health implement the Cheaper Medicines Act. She also managed award-winning and internationally recognized campaigns on women’s economic empowerment and health promotion that adopt community-focused approaches to health and wellbeing in contexts disproportionately affected by disasters, armed conflict, and fragility.