Irum is a postdoctoral research fellow funded through the NIHR-ARC. She is focusing on mental health and wellbeing of women and girls, in the East of England region, especially those from underserved backgrounds. Her previous professional and academic research looked at young people’s mental health and everyday lives.
Centre for Better Living
Irum studied Psychology at undergraduate and graduate levels. She went on to complete a PhD in Education (concentration: Psychology and Youth Studies) at the University of Cambridge. Her research focused on young people’s everyday experiences in their social and material contexts. Drawing on sociological and psychological writings, she demonstrated how gendered experiences, social relationships, and structural affordances and/or constraints shape young people's wellbeing. She focuses on narratives for understanding lived experiences of marginalisation and disadvantage alongside the impact of these on individuals’ mental health and wellbeing.
Before joining Anglia Ruskin University, Irum worked at a youth mental health charity as a Research and Impact Analyst. There she researched mental health provision for young people in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. She evaluated service delivery and the impact of support on diverse young people.
Building on her experience of research and impact analysis, Irum is now focusing on the mental health and wellbeing of women and girls, especially those from marginalised communities. Her research aims to investigate their needs, understand their narratives, and contribute towards reducing health inequalities.
Maqbool, I. (2026). Narratives of young people in Lahore navigating multiple belongings, expectations, and aspirations in the process of ‘becoming’. In S. Bhatia, J. S. Fernández, & C. C. Sonn (Eds.), Decolonial psychology: Academic and activist perspectives (pp. 209–221). Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Irum Maqbool & Hilary Cremin (2023). Students’ experiences of extracurricular activities in elite secondary schools in Lahore, Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2023.2195048
Zengilowski, A., Maqbool, I., Deka, S. P., Niebaum, J. C., Placido, D., Katz, B., Shah, P., & Munakata, Y. (2023). Overemphasizing individual differences and overlooking systemic factors reinforces educational inequality. Npj Science of Learning, 8(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-023-00164-z