Rachel Burr is co lead on Student Experience and Associate Professor in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sussex.

She is an anthropologist and Social Worker with an international background in child protection, having practised in England, the USA, Ireland and Vietnam. Her overarching focus is on developing practitioner-orientated techniques for working with and enhancing emotional strength among children and young people living in challenging and difficult circumstances.

On arriving at the University in 2008 Rachel drew upon her background as a Social Worker to teach on the qualifying degree and MA programs in social work.

She has also been instrumental in setting up both the MA and BA in Childhood studies and between 2017 and 2021 was the degree lead for the BA in Childhood and Youth Studies which in 2023 was ranked number one in the country and in 2021 was ranked third for a degree by the National Student Survey (this also made it the top ranked degree at Sussex University in both years. 

She previously worked as a member of the academic team at the Open University, where in 2001 she contributed to the development of their degree in Childhood and Youth Studies. In 2003 Rachel's co-edited book 'Changing Childhoods: local and global' with Wiley press was published as part of the OU series.

She also has long-standing involvement in Vietnam where she has a continued interest in child-focused research among street and working children, and among local and international aid workers. Her research in this context focuses on to child rights and the UNCRC. She is the author of Vietnam’s Children in a Changing World (2006) Rutgers and various other articles on childhood morality, the experiences of refugee children in the UK and childhood coping strategies in the school context.

Her growing interest in teenage mental health has more recently resulted in a four year secondary school based fieldwork project in which she and a group of students developed a group centred resilience program with a view to challenging some of their preconceptions about mental health. Her book based on this work 'Self-worth in Children and Young People: Critical and Practical Considerations', was released by Critical Publishing in September 2022. 

In 2023, 2024/25 and 2026 she received research funding through the Sussex Knowledge Exchange Fellowship.

In 2023 her research focused on developing mental health support with a meditative focus among primary school children

In 2024/25 and 2026 funding focused on intergenerational support of older people in the community working alongside students from Sussex university at the Hop50+ cafe in Brighton.