Mhairi's research focuses on television policy, production practices, and representation on screen. Her interest in the role policy and labour play in shaping screen identities and cultural memory is informed by her own experience of working in televison as an archive producer for many years before moving into academia. Prior to joining ReCARE TV, Mhairi was a lecturer in the Film and Television department at the University of  Glasgow specialising in Television and UK Screen Industries.

Mhairi has written about media policy, production practices and screen industry labour, archival practices, and AI in television. her first monograph, Archiving the Referendum: BBC Scotland's Television Archive and the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum is due to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2025