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Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's College London

Ruth Levitt, PhD, is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Dept of Political Economy at KCL. She and William Solesbury are undertaking research into policy ‘tsars’ and the impact of expertise on policy development and professional practice.

Ruth Levitt is an independent researcher working on public policy analysis and evaluation studies in academic and not-for-profit environments. Studies include the role of evidence in the UK’s policy making on GM crops; the role of outsiders in Whitehall, and the use of evidence in audit, inspection and scrutiny of UK government. She also undertakes cultural history projects and public sector organisational consulting, particularly in the higher education and cultural sectors. She is also a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of North American Studies at KCL; and a Research Fellow at the Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide. Her PhD research was in art history. Previous posts include applied social research in the NHS, university teaching, parliamentary research and active politics; she has also worked in large and small private sector companies.
Selected publications:
R Levitt and W Solesbury, Policy tsars: here to stay but more transparency needed, King’s College London, 2012; http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/politicaleconomy/research/tsars.aspx
S Nutley et al, ‘Scrutinising performance: how assessors reach judgements about public services’, Public Administration, August 2012.
‘Debate: Tsars – are they the ‘experts’ now?’ Public Money and Management, January 2012, 47-8 (with W Solesbury).
R Levitt, H Goreham and S Diepeveen, Higher education collaborations and partnerships – implications for leadership, management and governance, Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, 2011, LFHE, 2011.
R Levitt et al, Assessing the impact of arts and humanities research at the University of Cambridge, RAND, 2010.
R Levitt, S Martin, S Nutley, W Solesbury, Evidence for accountability: using evidence in the audit, inspection and scrutiny of UK government, Nuffield Foundation, 2010.
R Levitt et al, Language Matters: the supply of and demand for UK born and educated academic researchers with skills in languages other than English, RAND, 2009.
R Levitt et al, The evidence base for the classification of drugs, RAND, 2006.
R Levitt and W Solesbury, Evidence-informed policy: what difference do outsiders in Whitehall make? ESRC UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice, Working Paper 23, 2005.
R Levitt, GM Crops and Foods: Evidence, Policy and Practice in the UK; a case study, ESRC UK Centre for Evidence Based Policy and Practice, Working Paper 20, 2003.
R Levitt et al, The Reorganised National Health Service, 6th ed. Nelson Thornes, 1999.

Experience

  • –present
    Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's College London