Dr Levana Magnus
Research Associate

Profile

Biography

Levana joined the School for Business and Society as a Research Associate as part of the Support2Work
project in October 2025.

Her current research draws on qualitative approaches to explore transitions between un- and under- employment, frontline delivery of employment support, active labour market policy, and welfare reform. Policy and practice engagement is a key focus of her work, with a particular interest in how research can better understand the complexity and temporality of everyday lives to inform social security policy, support provision, and employment practices.

Previously Levana was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Bristol Business School working on the Underemployment Project, a mixed-methods study exploring the causes, consequences and lived experiences of underemployment. In 2024, she completed her PhD at the University of Bath, which examined how the UK's active labour market policies are enacted at the street-level (the Jobcentre) and in private (the household) spaces.

Levana is a co-lead of the SPA Employment Policy Group and is an honorary senior research associate at the University of Bristol Business School.

Research

Projects

Current projects

Support2Work Project: A NIHR Research Project sponsored by the Tees Esk and Wear Valley NHS Trust examining the role and impact of Employment Advisors in NHS Talking Therapies.

Recent Projects

Underemployment Project: A sociological investigation of underemployment and the lived experiences of
underemployed workers. April 2023- December 2025.

Mapping Pathways to Good Quality Work: Creative Change with Somali and Sudanese Women in Redcliffe.
Principal Investigator, ESRC Impact Acceleration Award. September 2024 – June 2025.

Publications

Full publications list

Journal articles

Magnus, L. and Wood, M. (2025), ‘“They’re Not Thinking on the Same Side We Are”: Street-Level Activation of Parents under Universal Credit’, Social Policy and Society, pp. 1–15. doi:10.1017/S1474746425100869.

Book Chapters

Beck, V., Fuertes, V., Kamerāde, D., Magnus, L., Torres, L. & Warren, T. (Accepted/In press). Underemployment's Impact on Vocational Behavior: A Multidisciplinary Exploration and Methodological Innovation. Research Handbook on Vocational Behaviour. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Selected Reports

Beck, V., Fuertes, V., Kamerāde, D., Magnus, L., Morris, C., Torres, L., Warren, T. (2025) Unlocking Workforce Potential. Final Report of the Underemployment Project. University of Bristol.

Magnus, L., Beck, V., Yusuf, S., Cohen, S., Musa, S., Ali, A., Jama, H., and Ishag, S. (2025). Unlocking Potential in Redcliffe: Skills, Work and Opportunity for Refugee and Migrant Women. Mapping Pathways to Good Quality Work Project. University of Bristol

Fuertes, V., Magnus, L., Beck, V., Morris, C., Kamerāde, D., Munoz, M., Torres, L., Warren, T. (2025). Employers Perspectives on Underemployment. Policy Bristol. Bristol University.