Business and Management

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Carola Leicht

Second supervisor: Dominic Abrams

Research project: Transgressive leaders: A social psychological account of why leaders can break the rules

Research description: Unethical or transgressive leadership frequently dominates the news headlines. From Boris Johnson's unlawful prorogation of Parliament, Martin Winterkorn's dieselgate scandal at Volkswagen, to Donald Trump's numerous misdemeanours, transgressive leadership occurs across a wide variety of group's and domains. The deviance credit effect outlines that such transgressive leaders are typically treated more leniently following their misconduct than others. My research uses a social psychological framework to examine why leaders receive this leniency from their followers, drawing on constructs such as prototypicality (does this leader represent the group?), identity advancement (does this leader advance group interests?), and charisma. My work further examines the boundaries to this leniency, and considers at what point people decide to reject their leaders. My initial findings indicate that leaders are able to maintain endorsement from their followers by framing their unethical conduct as for the good of the group.

Twitter: @Ben_B_Davies_

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-davies-a70a85183/

Business and Management

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Prof Rajneesh Narula

Second supervisor: Dr. Irina Surdu

Research project: Stuck in the middle? Exploring how international activities relate to innovation in German SMEs

Research description: The purpose of this research project is to explore, using quantitative and qualitative methods, the impact of international activities, such as exporting and international alliances, on the introduction of new management (organisational) innovations in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany. Theoretically, this study draws on two complementary perspectives, namely, evolutionary theory (Nelson and Winter, 1982) and organisational learning to examine how firms 'develop' internally in a post- internationalisation context. Specifically, drawing on concepts such as inertia and routines, this study will test if and how international activities 'trigger' internal change inside SMEs in the form of structural and administrative changes. There has been much research in international business and management on how technological innovation drives international activities on the one hand. Additionally, some research has shown how international activities, FDI and exporting in particular, can also help firms to become more innovative due to the diverse knowledge inputs. However, while this complementary and bi-directional link between internationalisation and technological innovation is well-established in the literature, little is known about how internationalisation affects the firm's organisational innovation efforts. By using secondary data from the German contribution of the community innovation survey (CIS) and collecting primary data in the form of interviews, this study seeks to to shed light on these phenomena.

Business and Management

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Chiara Banti

Second supervisor: Professor Neil Kellard

Research project: Global liquidity, Money Market Funds and the crude oil market

Research description: The present study employs the global crude oil market framework of Kilian and Murphy (2014) to explore how the negative funding shock led by the 2016 US MMFs reform influenced the global crude oil market. We identify the structural shocks using Uhlig’s (2005) pure-sign restriction rejection method. Differently from previous studies which use global aggregates of broad money as a proxy for global liquidity, we employ a novel measure capturing an important component of the short-term credit aspect of global liquidity, namely the investment holdings of Prime MMFs by global issuance and by instrument.

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/miruna-ivan-840a91104/

Development Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Geert De Neve

Second supervisor: Anke Schwittay

Research project: Exploring gender equality and gender stereotypes: Experiences of women working in the male-dominated taxi sector in Spain and India

Research description: My research will explore women working in the transport sector as taxi or rickshaw drivers in Spain and India respectively. I am interested in exploring the different opportunities that working as taxi drivers offers to women, not only by getting an income, but also exploring if there are any changes in the way women self-identify. The central research questions for this study are built around how engaging in male-dominated occupations can shape the pathways of gender equality and women's empowerment. Through the research I will evaluate gender equality and the multiple facets of empowerment including elements such as women's knowledge, as well as their physical, emotional, economic and social autonomy. Data will be collected locally through observation, semi-structured interviews and photo-elicitation to participants. Research participants will be the women working as taxi or PHV drivers. To supplement their views and build a general image of the changes that have occurred within the community, short and informal conversations will be held with husbands, other family members and community leaders. I also intend to explore more about the strategy of app-based business model in regards to female drivers by speaking to human resources personnel and managers from Uber and Cabify.

Development Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Catherine Jere

Second supervisor: Dr Hannah Hoechner

Research project: “Education is the key to life”? – The fashioning of educated subjects in rural Tanzania

Research description: “Elimu ni ufunguo wa maisha” (education is the key to life) is a common Tanzanian saying. Drawing on Stambach and Hall’s (2016: 5) understanding of education as a “way of doing or perceiving life, a way of being in the world, and of coming to know it”, this research will explore how young people in rural Tanzania are fashioning themselves as educated subjects. Drawing on the growing body of work on education and identity within the field of development studies and anthropology, this study will explore this main research question through the sub-question ‘how are educated identities produced and performed?’, allowing me to explore further questions of what these identities do in the lives of young people, how they vary across different spaces, and how they are intersected by multiple identities. Particular attention will be given to the performance of gender through educated identities, developing on previous studies to extend the focus of educated femininities in a similar way to work on educated masculinities, that moves beyond educated identity as a singular to instead consider the plural. The study takes the form of an ethnography located in Iringa, Tanzania. The research is premised on the idea that rather than there being a generalised ‘educated identity’ the production and performance of identities, while patterned, varies across time and space. The research, therefore, explores the lives of a diverse group of 30 young people as they navigate their identities across different spaces in the area over a prolonged period of time and through key events to fashion themselves as educated subjects (see previous work by Davidson, 1996; Levinson, 2001; Rushworth, 2018). This ethnographic study will move with the young people between different identity spaces to explore how they (re)fashion themselves as educated subjects in these varying sites through the production and performance of educated identities. In keeping with the view that education is a way of being in the world, the study will move both within and beyond formal educational spaces, to provide flexibility and openness to capturing the different ways learning may take place in the lives of the young people. Several significant formal and informal spaces have been identified by drawing on key ethnographic works, such as: Lindhardt’s (2010) work on religious institutions in Iringa; the barbershops of Weiss’ work in urban Arusha (2009); the family homes surrounding the village school on Mount Kilimanjaro (Stambach, 2000); and the local state structures through which citizenship is practiced and performed (Phillips, 2018). While observing the everyday life of these young people, the study will also focus on several key events in which the production and performance of educated identities may be more emphasised or re-fashioned (such as school exam periods, graduations and promotions, the upcoming 2020 election, baptism events at the church, family decisions about migration).

Twitter: @KaraSheppard

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kara-sheppard-5a5117bb/

Other social media: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kara_Sheppard

Economics

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Marcus Chambers

Second supervisor: Marco Francesconi

Research project: Robust Inference in Panel Data Models

Research description: Longitudinal data are often characterised by heteroskedastic disturbances. Prudent data analysts control for heteroskedasticity with robust standard errors that use White-type formula for panel data (Arellano, 1987). Despite a vast cross-sectional literature on the downward bias of robust standard errors corrected à la White, the relative issue of over-inflated rejection rates has not been extensively discussed in a panel data framework. The joint combination of small sample size, heteroskedasticity, and influential points is expected to have a detrimental effect on the validity of inference, as suggested in the cross-sectional literature. We investigate the finite sample properties of a battery of Heteroskedasticity Consistent (HC) estimators for linear panel data models under these circumstances, and propose a new estimator with better size and power performances than White’s estimator. With Monte Carlo simulations, we show that conventional robust standard errors are always dominated by more conservative HC estimators in short panels with data contamination and independently of the degree of heteroskedasticity, but have satisfactory performances in sufficiently large samples without leveraged data, especially under homoskedasticity. Empirical examples from studies published in the American Economic review are provided.

Economics

Awarded PhD 2024

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Professor Melvyn Coles

Second supervisor: Professor Marco Francesconi

Research project: An Equilibrium Analysis of the Decision Whether to Date, Cohabit or Marry

Research description: In stark contrast to 60 years ago, it is now commonplace for people to cohabit with a partner to whom they are not married. Despite its pervasiveness, there has been limited research into what triggered the rise in cohabitation, the behavioural impacts of cohabitation and how it fits into the standard economic theory of the family. I will investigate these questions empirically considering the UK using advanced quantitative methods, and theoretically using a search framework. In this process, I will address whether cohabitation is a distinct state from marriage, how behaviour differs in cohabitation compared to marriage, whether cohabitation is temporary or long-term and the role of institutional change in the rise of cohabitation. With cohabitation continuing to grow in popularity this research will be useful for both social scientists and policymakers who are interested in future family formation and stability. Importantly, it will try to inform debates regarding child welfare as increasing numbers of parents are choosing to cohabit.

Economics

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Arnaud Chevalier

Second supervisor: Melanie Luhrmann

Research project: Ageing, automatization and the future of skills in the labour market

Research description: Most OECD countries are experiencing an ageing of their population. This impacts on their labour force as large cohorts of retiring workers are being replaced by smaller cohorts of younger workers. To maintain economic growth, the productivity of workers needs to increase, or additional workers need to be attracted. Increased productivity relies on increased capital, partially in the form of robots, and increased human capital; i.e. workers need to acquire new skills. This project specifically focuses on how the interaction of an ageing population and increased automation alters the supply and demand of skills in the working age population.

Education

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Professor Anna Robinson-Pant

Second supervisor: Professor Nitya Rao

Research project: Nutrition literacy, exploring communicative practices to engage in health-related knowledge in Malika, Senegal

Research description: The starting point for undertaking my PhD is to research literacy as social practice. I originally wanted to explore what it means to be ‘digitally literate’ in Senegal, an emerging digital environment where initiatives and the will to promote Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in adult literacy, in particular among girls and women. The idea was to explore the experiences of adult literacy learners, mainly women, with the mobile phone by bridging the digital practices inside the national literacy programme classroom and those in their everyday life. Staying over 10 months in Malika, a town in the suburbs of Dakar, I volunteered in a local NGO in literacy and development, and gradually accessed to different domains of social life in the town. After couple of months in Malika, the participant observations and my personal engagement with the persons I met encouraged me to explore health literacy practices and in particular nutrition literacy. In Senegal, infectious and communicable diseases like respiratory tract infection, HIV/AIDS and malaria remain important but statistical evidence from WHO suggests that they have diminished. However, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as diabetes, are growing and affect patients more seriously as they are diagnosed too late mainly because of the lack of prevention and health education, and poverty.  To explore how Malika residents learn about NCDs, I observed the everyday environment and practices to access, produce and share health-related information. I analyse the non-formal and informal learning that is taking place in this community, the mediation around health information and resources by trusted members and how youth and adults are engaged in this information. I include a focus on digital media, in particular WhatsApp and investigate the type of disseminated information. An interest in the ways of sharing has shaped my study. I intend to highlight the potential of mediation for enhancing community health in a context where poverty and the lack or weakness of a State health-care system often limits access to health-care service and to medicines, increasing the negative impact of overall social injustice.

Implementing the qualitative research approach of ethnography was and remains a key motivation in my learning. Undertaking this doctoral research, I aim to engage more actively and solidly in adult literacy and learning. In this thesis, I intend to describe how this methodology is equipping me to work with and access people's aspirations and experiences, and to work for and with them in complex political and economic contexts.

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/h%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne-binesse-90776012

Education

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Vally Lytra

Second supervisor: Rosalyn George

Research project: The discursive construction of identities for 1st year BA Architecture Students

Research description: In a political climate where tensions around race, ethnicity and social class have surfaced as separate but increasingly urgent questions of social justice, universities are faced with addressing stubborn racial, ethnic and class-based inequalities in outcomes for students from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME), and lower socioeconomic backgrounds. However, the fixed and separate identity categories employed in statistically-driven efforts to address inequalities are at odds with the fluid intersectional understandings of identity provided by contemporary social and cultural theory (Fraser, 2000; Hall, 1996; Gilroy, 2001). Furthermore, at a policy-level, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) note that the causes of different outcomes involve a complex mix of wider socio-historical structures, the social contexts of individual Higher Education (HE) providers, and day-to-day communication between staff and students at the level of micro-interaction (HEFCE et al, 2015:ii). The need for research into the complexities of identity has been highlighted in a number of recent reviews of inequalities in Higher Education and Architectural Education. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) report, Causes of differences in student outcomes noted ‘appetite for more research understanding the intersectionality of different student characteristics and their link with progression and attainment outcomes’ (HEFCE et al, 2015:95). The Higher Education Academy highlight the importance of treating the BME category as a non-homogeneous group and dealing with disciplinary specific inequalities, (Finnegan & Richards 2015). Meanwhile, reliable reporting of socio-economic classification has been unavailable due to high percentages of missing data (Woodfield, 2014:22). Research within the architecture profession shows particularly stark inequalities. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA, 2017) show the Black/Black British percentage of student population at entry to undergraduate study to be 6.8%, dropping to only 1.2% on full qualification. RIBA-commissioned reviews into architecture and race have suggested the need for longitudinal studies (CABE, 2005:5) and the need to ‘review and address language and communication issues’ (CEBE, 2005/6:22). Aims and objectives The research project aims to explore processes of identification beyond and across categories of race, ethnicity and social class using sociolinguistics. It will do this by working with first year architecture students to explore the different ways in which identities emerge in interaction over the first year of study. The project takes a linguistic ethnographic approach that connects day-to-day interactions with wider social structures and processes. It will use interviews, linguistic analysis of audio recordings and observations of architecture studio interactions to better understand the ways in which these identifications correspond to, resist, and rework the identity categories used in policy initiatives aiming to address inequalities in education. The analysis of these accounts will draw on and inform relevant social and cultural theory with the aim of providing research capable of contributing to policy initiatives responding to inequalities in HE.

Human Geography

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Tahir Zaman

Second supervisor: Michael Collyer

Research project: Migrant Lives on the Edge of Europe; from the Camp to the City

Research description: How do irregular migrants living in precarious conditions in Greece negotiate their everyday lives? Though broad in scope, this project aims to draw out refugees/undocumented migrants’ daily experiences and encounters, and how they interact, reclaim or contest the spaces they inhabit. The term ‘negotiate’ is intentional, acknowledging the agency of migrants and the various compromises that characterise their everyday lives. Lines of research that fall under this broad enquiry include an exploration of survival tactics employed by undocumented migrants, the idea of community formation, the concept of ‘home’, the notion of belonging, negotiation of ‘cultural differences’ and the maintenance, erasure or adaptation of norms, habits and traditions. A range of ethnographic methods, including participant observation, interviews and informal conversation will be employed to elicit the perspectives and experiences of undocumented migrants and evoke densely descriptive and textured interpretive representations of everyday life.

Human Geography

Awarded PhD 2022

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Katherine Brickell

Second supervisor: Alex Dymock

Research project: The financialisation of student housing: A case study of Dublin, Ireland

Research description: Housing financialisation – the increased dominance of financial markets in the housing sector which treats housing as a commodity – is rapidly entering new market segments and urban territories. Student accommodation is no exception. Accelerated by substantial private equity and institutional capital, Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) has emerged as an international asset class and has become a more visible and politically contentious feature of university locations. In collaboration with the Dublin Housing Observatory (Dublin City Council), this research uses the case study of Dublin, Ireland, which has seen the construction of for-profit PBSA, and rent increases, skyrocket. Drawing upon ethnographic research, including key informant interviews, focus groups, and documentary analysis, this research contributes to and expands understandings of rental market financialisation and explores the impacts of financialisation on the wider housing market, access to education and the lived experiences of students. The outcomes of this research will have important implications for both housing and higher education policy.

Twitter: @alice1_reynolds

Linguistics

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Professor Ludovica Serratrice

Second supervisor: Naomi Flynn, Astrid Dineen (Hampshire Council)

Research project: The Young Interpreters Scheme: Linguistic features of peer-topeer input and educational experience of participation

Research description: The Young Interpreter Scheme (YIS) is an award-winning scheme created by Hampshire EMTAS - the Collaborative Partner in this proposal. The specific mission of the YIS is to facilitate the transition to school for children who are new to English, i.e. novice EAL (English as an Additional Language) learners. Young Interpreters (YI) are either children who have an additional language themselves, but who have advanced English language skills, or monolingual English-speaking children. Their role is to act as mentors to novice EAL learners in everyday school activities. Young Interpreters take part in a 4-part training programme where they are taught about their role and responsibilities, the cultural and linguistic needs of the novice EAL learners that they will be helping, and different methods to aid communication with their EAL peer. The training is delivered by a designated member of school staff using resources made available online by Hampshire EMTAS on Moodle. The scheme has now been adopted throughout the UK in more than 800 primary and secondary schools, but it has not yet been the subject of any systematic research investigation. The project has two aims; Aim 1: To address the impact of the YIS on related educational and linguistic levels (language use, empathy and intercultural awareness) through a variety of standardised and non-standardised assessments, both 1:1 with the researcher and audio-recordings of children working together for tasks designed specifically for this project. Young Interpreter children (50) will be compared to a control group of non-YI children (50) in the same school. Aim 2: This project will also collect survey information (via onlinesurveys.com) from teachers and other school staff about their experience of the YIS with a specific focus on 1. the drivers for schools’ participation in the scheme 2. the ways in which participation has affected the schools’ attitude and approach to home language maintenance 3. the perceived effect on children’s social well-being This aim will also include focus groups with select respondents from the questionnaire.

Twitter: @debrakpage

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debra-page-985611127/

Other social media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srcn69ePZYc

Linguistics

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Prof. Ludovica Serratrice

Second supervisor: Prof. Vesna Stojanovik

Research project: The Development of Language and Cognition in Deaf Children

Research description: My PhD thesis will explore the development of language and cognition in deaf children who use cochlear implants and two spoken languages, with English as an Additional Language (EAL). By crossing the bilingualism and the deafness dimensions in a 2×2 design we will assess the contribution of each to the children’s language and cognitive skills. We currently know that bilingualism may confer an advantage in cognitive skills and that deafness has a detrimental effect. An outstanding question is whether bilingualism may have a protective effect in the case of deaf children. An investigation into the advice given by UK professionals to parents on raising a deaf child to use two spoken languages will also be conducted.

Politics and International Relations

Awarded PhD 2024

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Nadine Ansorg

Second supervisor: Dr Harmony Toros

Research project: Religious beliefs, modern politics and conflict resolution in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Research description: My project questions whether international efforts to build peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) omit the dimensions of traditional religious beliefs and how far do such omissions undermine the efficacy of these peace-building efforts. My research project seeks to investigate the interplay between religious beliefs (the African Traditional Religions (ATRs), ‘modern Africanised forms of Christianity’ and other supernatural beliefs) and modern politics in the DRC, looking at their significance, influence and place in the modern peace processes. The project will seek to better understand the role that these religious beliefs play in modern political processes and peacebuilding.

Politics and International Relations

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Professor Alan Finlayson

Second supervisor: Dr J. Turnpenny

Research project: Quality, Economic Reason and State Classification: A Rhetorical Political Analysis.

Research description: This research project is concerned with an examination of the politics of 'quality' in secondary and further education in England. Quality first came to prominence in public policy in the UK in the late 1980s In general terms the concept led to a focus on the idea that quasi-market mechanisms provided a more efficient and more equitable means of governing the public sector and saw a proliferation of business and market rhetoric in political discourse. The use of the concept has been particularly notable in the field of state education. Quality seems to have become thoroughly naturalised and institutionalised. These developments prompt the following research questions:

What are the social, political, cultural and ideological provenances of quality.?

How have political actors defined and used the term 'quality'?

Why did political actors adopt the concept of quality for use in state education policies?

To what extent does quality represent particular collective interests and how is the relationship between collective interests and state structures best explained?

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-c-abbott-3a404318a/

Politics and International Relations

Awarded PhD 2023

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Kaat Smets

Second supervisor: Sofia Collignon

Research project: Political Influencers? The Effect of Elites and Opinion Leaders on Online Polarisation

Research description: Political discussions on social media are beset by partisan conflict. This often seen as a consequence of social media users selecting into echo chambers. However, this hypothesis is contradicted by majority user behaviour which is less partisan than often assumed. In contrast to audience-driven explanations of online polarisation, this study explores the effects of elite discourse on partisan opinion. It hypothesises that partisan leaders (both political elites and online influencers) who express “outrage” towards political opponents increase ideological and affective polarisation amongst partisan audiences. Following work on Social Identity Theory, it predicts “partisan outrage” - anger towards perceived moral transgressions by political opponents - motivates feelings of partisan identity, making partisans more susceptible to elite influence.

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Clara Strauss, Helen Startup

Second supervisor: Claire Rosten, Richard de Visser

Research project: Mindfulness Based Interventions for people diagnosed with 'Borderline Personality'

Research description: People diagnosed with 'Borderline' or 'Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder" can experience enduring intense emotions and high levels of distress. It can be hard to get access to the right kind of psychological treatment and health practitioners working with this group of people often find it hard to know what to offer. The diagnostic label itself can sometimes be stigmatising and a barrier to treatment. We know that Mindfulness Based Interventions can be acceptable and effective for some people. It may be that this is by helping them to be less troubled by emotional states. My research project will be exploring what kind of adaptations might need to be made to standard Mindfulness Based Interventions to increase their acceptability, suitability, safety and effectiveness for people with this diagnosis. I will start by reviewing the existing research literature. I will explore whether a measure of emotion regulation is reliable and valid for people with these experiences. I will then use qualitative methods to consult with relevant staff and people with lived experience. I hope to go on to adapt a standard protocol for Mindfulness Based Interventions and run a feasibility and acceptability trial and subsequent qualitative interviews. The hope is that this will increase the options available for people diagnosed with 'Borderline' or 'Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder' so that they can more easily access psychological help and improve the quality of their lives.

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Kate Harvey

Second supervisor: Cathy Creswell, Brynjar Halldorsson

Research project: Improving Access to Psychological Treatments for Children with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

Research description: This project aims to increase access to psychological treatment for children with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). To achieve this, a systematic review has been conducted to understand the psychological and familial mechanisms which maintain childhood OCD. Qualitative interviews with parents of children with OCD have also been conducted to examine parents' experiences of parenting a child with OCD, and parents' views towards how and whether parents should be involved in treatment for their child. The results from these two studies will be used to inform the development of a treatment for children with OCD, that can be delivered via parents. This PhD project is a collaborative project with Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

Twitter: @ChessellChloe

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2022

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Polly Dalton

Second supervisor: Szonya Durant

Research project: Situation Awareness in Remote Operators

Research description: If a problem arises in an automated vehicle that prevents it from navigating independently to its destination, a remote human operator may be required to intervene. Using information second hand” from the scene will unavoidably result in reduced situational awareness (SA). This PhD research project considers what level of awareness is sufficient to remotely control a vehicle safely, how long is required to build up this level of awareness and whether SA would be improved by the provision of additional information (e.g. VR, auditory relay). My first study investigated how participants build up mental representations of naturalistic remote driving scenes and whether the information provided from the rear-view footage is fundamental to that process. Study 2 looked at whether there was an effect of providing audio from the scene, as well as rear-view footage. Study 3 will be a real-world project using virtual reality and eye tracking to explore the optimal method of delivering SA information to RVOs while they are controlling an AV remotely. The research has real-world engineering applications in the design of remote control operations crucial to the introduction of autonomous vehicles.

Twitter: @claremutzenich

LinkedIn: @clare-mutzenich8778

Psychology

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr Katie Gray

Second supervisor: Professor Bhismadev Chakrabarti

Research project: How the Encoding and Learning of Unfamiliar Faces Is Affected by Their Similarity to Already-Known Faces

Research description: Unfamiliar faces are extremely difficult to process: when we encounter a number of new people at the same time, we can find it difficult to remember their names and tell them apart. Conversely, familiar faces are trivially easy to recognise over a huge range of different conditions, including different emotional expressions, lighting conditions, and hairstyles. What happens as an unfamiliar face becomes a familiar one is an important question, but this process is poorly understood. Current theoretical models of face learning suggest that unfamiliar faces are not faces, but they become faces when observers have accumulated sufficient visual experience with an identity. Consequently, most research in this area has examined how individual faces are learned, with little regard for how unfamiliar face encoding might interact with previously learned faces. Interestingly, in everyday life, we are often struck by how similar a newly-encountered person is to someone whom we already know. Using a variety of explicit and implicit methodologies, I will explore processing differences between familiar, similar-to-familiar, and unfamiliar faces. I make the novel prediction that the encoding of unfamiliar faces is performed in relation to pre-existing face representations.

Twitter: @atkinson_maddie

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr. Caoilte Ó Ciardha

Second supervisor: Professor Theresa Gannon

Research project: Self-regulation in the pathway from adverse childhood experiences to problematic sexual behaviour

Research description: My research focuses on the developmental trajectory of risky and problematic sexual behaviour in the context of childhood adversity. Specifically, I am interested in the mediating role of various psychosocial deficits; including emotion dysregulation, relational difficulties, and sexualised coping following traumagenic experiences in childhood. I am also interested in understanding the neurological functioning which underlies a propensity towards sexual risk-taking behaviours.

Twitter: @MonicaReis214

Psychology

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr Stella Chan

Research project: Effects of Maternal Mental Health on Mother and Child Outcomes

Research description: My research aims to explore the associations between perinatal mental health and mother-infant relationships. In particular, my research focuses on the role of maternal expectations around birth and the transition to motherhood, and their relationship to birth trauma and the perinatal mother-infant relationship. The role of maternal cognitions will be explored by considering whether birth expectations, and both pre-existing and birth-related mental health difficulties influence maternal self-efficacy, as well as the quality of maternal representations held, and attributions made about the infant. It is hoped that this research and resulting thesis will expand upon our understanding of factors contributing to maternal negative associations to infants, and whether this, in turn, plays a role in the quality of caregiving in the postnatal period.

Twitter: @RMatthewsPsyEdu

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-matthews-81287490

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Professor Karen Douglas

Second supervisor: Dr. Aleksandra Cichocka

Research project: Attachment, Coping, and Belief in Conspiracy Theories

Research description: Research suggests that conspiracy theories have important social consequences. Specifically, conspiracy theories have been associated with the erosion of trust in politics, media, and science, and these outcomes can be harmful. That is, although conspiracy theories often promote healthy scepticism, they can also damage democratic values and fuel populism, as well as decrease vaccination intentions, for example. The current project aims to provide more psychological understanding to this phenomenon. My PhD project is concerned with the psychological antecedents of belief in conspiracy theories, including attachment in interpersonal relationships, and the coping strategies people use in stressful situations. I am interested in knowing why people come to believe in conspiracy theories and whether they are endorsed as a coping strategy to meet unfulfilled psychological needs. Using principles drawn from attachment theory, I am especially interested in knowing whether people with an insecure attachment style endorse conspiracy theories as a way of fulfilling the need to feel secure.

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Professor Theresa A. Gannon

Second supervisor: Dr Caoilte Ó Ciardha

Research project: Reducing Sexual Aggression in Male University Students: A Study of Self-Help Interventions

Research description: Sam’s main research interests centre around sexual assault and harassment in institutional settings, clinical/forensic treatment options for persons who have sexually offended, and sexual violence policy in higher education. Within his PhD research, Sam is investigating sexual offending across the UK’s higher education (HE) system and the means by which psychological knowledge can help policymakers to develop more robust interventions to tackle the issue. Within the first stream of his research, Sam is performing a treatment needs analysis to explore the psychological factors that predispose heterosexual male university students—the most common perpetrators of university-based sexual aggression—to commit illegal sexual acts during their studies. Sam is also interested in the risk assessment and management procedures for students who display a propensity toward sexual aggression. This is reflected in the second stream of his PhD research, where he will develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of an evidence-based clinical self-help intervention for male university students who are at risk of committing sexual harm. Sam's PhD research will extend current academic understanding of university-based sexual aggression and the treatment options available for students who display a proclivity toward sexual offending. Sam intends to increase the impact of his work during his PhD through academic publications and dissemination of his research findings at relevant domestic and international conferences.

Twitter:https://twitter.com/hales_samuel

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelhales/

Other social media: https://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/people/1268

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of Surrey)

Main supervisor: Angela Druckman

Second supervisor: Tim Jackson

Research project: How will welfare systems cope without economic growth?

Research description: My research is focused primarily on the question of how we deliver societal well-being in a post-growth economy. Using a political economy approach I ask how the social care sector is dependent on economic growth, and what a social care system might look like in a non-growing economy.

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Rob Fish

Second supervisor: Joseph Tzanopoulos

Research project: Barriers for community resilience to climate change

Research description: The project focuses on climate justice, informality, and socio-economic-political barriers to building resilience to climate shocks and stresses. The research will involve informal settlement communities in Cape Town, South Africa, to understand the challenges they face in a complex social and political environment. Agency and formality arguably play a vital role in developing policy for vulnerable communities, as without local expertise and political input climate and development interventions may be ineffective. Developing bottom-up resilience strategies to work alongside top-down interventions could support sustainable, effective climate policies that enable communities to thrive in the socio-economic sphere.

Twitter: @LivIFBlair

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-blair-6995671b2/

Facebook: Liv Blair

Instagram: @LivIFBlair

Social Anthropology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Rebecca Prentice

Second supervisor: Dr Paul Gilbert

Research project: An Ethnography of Cryptocurrency Trading

Research description: My research seeks to examine cryptocurrency trading in the United Kingdom, using the emergent crypto market as a lens to unpack contemporary understandings of money, value and speculation within the socio-economic context of political austerity, Brexit and the 10-year anniversary of the global financial crisis. In so doing, this research will contribute to urgent theoretical debates regarding the nature of money, value and speculation and provide timely and critical research into the formation of new institutions and socio-technological arrangements, as investment, speculation and trading in cryptocurrencies proliferates under political and economic uncertainty. I plan to undertake ethnographic fieldwork among cryptocurrency traders in the UK over a 12-month period, engaging in both online and offline participant observation as well as personally trading cryptocurrencies, immersing myself in the community as much as possible in order to gain insights into the perceptions, practices and actions of those involved with the market.

Social Anthropology

Awarded PhD 2022

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Massimiliano Mollona

Second supervisor: Victoria Goddard

Research project: Adapting to the New Normal: Economic reforms and livelihoods in the Chinese steel industry

Research description: The steel industry has been the backbone of China’s economic development. Now, as China is changing its model of growth from a focus on manufacturing and heavy- industry to a knowledge-based, innovation-driven, ‘green’ economy, the Chinese steel industry is due to change. While this has led to localised de-industrialisation, the Chinese government continues to strengthen state-owned enterprises. Thus adapting industrial policies, which differ significantly from the deindustrialisation processes of steel industries in post-Fordist and post-socialist contexts. The study reflects on Chinese steel workers’ and their families’ place within this unique model of development. It asks what the implications of China’s changing industrial policy might be for the ways in which workers devise socially, economically and culturally valued livelihoods and how this may influence workers’ expectations of the future.

Social Anthropology

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Cecile Jackson

Second supervisor: Ben Jones

Research project: Subjectivities and everyday forms of faith: a case study of convert Muslim women in Norwich

Research description: My doctoral research ‘Subjectivities and everyday forms of faith: a case study of convert Muslim women in Norwich’ is interested in collating the everyday lived experiences of first- and second-generation British convert Muslim women. It seeks to identify how everyday forms of faith and practice, which play out across life trajectories, including home and working lives, effects models of self, personhood and ethical imagination. In proposing an alternative approach to reducing people to national, cultural or religious categories this study aims to deconstruct stereotypical and reductionist binaries which permeate current popular and political Islamophobic discourses to reveal a more intricate tapestry of contemporary British Muslims.

Social Work and Social Policy

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Professor Beth Neil

Second supervisor: Georgia Philip

Research project: The Experiences of Prospective Adopters attending the Preparation to Adopt courses

Research description: This study explores how prospective adoptive parents come to understand the needs of adopted children and their tasks as adoptive parents, with a focus on the role of pre-adoption training. For the last twenty years, adoption within England has been predominately used as a child protection measure for children unable to live safely in their birth family. Children are likely to have experienced, or been at risk of, some form of abuse and neglect, in addition to the loss and separation inherent in adoption. These experiences can create additional parenting tasks for adoptive parents, in building trusting relationships, and managing behavioural, educational and health needs. They also need to develop skills in coping with adoption related loss and stigma, and the psychological and practical tasks of contact with birth family. There is a requirement for all prospective adoptive families to have intensive training as they are prepared and assessed to become parents to these children. Pre-adoption training has been shown to be an important factor in developing realistic expectations of adoptive family life. Existing literature on prospective adopters’ experiences on these courses mostly describe pre-adoption training as useful, but full of horror stories and worst-case scenarios. Much research in this area is based on retrospective interviews with adoptive families and does not provide detail on the real-time changes that occur in this process. This research builds on a previous study undertaken as part of my MRes, which looked at the experiences of social workers in England delivering pre-adoption training. The study found that social workers viewed the course as an opportunity to give adopters a realistic view of adoptive family life, needing a delicate balance to ensure that that the material did not alienate or dishearten the prospective adopters. My interest in how adoptive parents make sense of their children’s needs comes from my work in supporting adoptive placements, including running a therapeutic parenting course. This study will use a qualitative longitudinal research design to walk alongside prospective adopters during the preparation period, beginning with their attendance on the pre-adoption training to hear their experience of the process. Qualitative longitudinal research has been chosen as a methodology which enables looking at process of change, how it is experienced by those undergoing it, and what they name as particularly significant in creating that change. This study will focus on the group preparation programme as it is a discrete intervention that all prospective adopters in England access early in their journey to become adoptive parents and is the only required training that they must receive. As an intervention it represents a significant investment for both the prospective adopters and the adoption workers. Prospective adopters will be interviewed on three occasions during the preparation period: just before attending pre-adoption training, just after the training, and then within four months of completing the course. It will explore how their understanding of adopted children’s needs changes during preparation, and how their perceptions and expectations of adoptive parenting develop over time.

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Tish Marrable

Second supervisor: Prof Charles Watters

Research project: Lone Mothers Living In Emergency or Other Temporary Accommodation, The challenge of Identity Maintenance Under Austerity

Research description: This project investigates the phenomenon of the growth in female headed lone parent families who are moved into emergency homeless and temporary accommodation (EOTA) and asks how this phenomena has affected the identity of the single mother. Lone mothers are one of the groups that the accusatory gaze of austere public policy has fallen upon. Consequently, single parent families are now disproportionately affected by homelessness. The first quarter of 2018 shows that there were 80,720 families in EOTA in the UK, of these, 36,110 (43%) are female headed single parent families (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2018) although they make up only 23% of all families (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, 2016/2017). This is the discrepancy that forms the basic premise of my research. The instance of disproportion in the area of homelessness is symptomatic of policy driven societal and economic barriers experienced by single mothers. In the psychosocial realms of society, shame and stigma and the processes that actualise marginalisation construct the single mother. It is important to ask how we have arrived at a point where single parent families are housed in substandard, temporary accommodation and made subject to personal hazard, material deprivation and social exclusion, and how this has come to pass with little commentary or opposition from society. To do this I consider the links between processes that actualise the marginalisation of single mothers, processes such as shaming and stigmatisation (Goffman, 1963), alongside governmentality (Foucault, 1970), the weaponisation of targeted rhetoric, and the use of disciplining neoliberal policy within the modern state. This combined analysis allows me to ‘loop back’ (Hacking, 1999), to the identity construction of the lone mother living in emergency or temporary accommodation. Originally conceived as study combining semi structured interviews and ethnography to the methodology has been adjusted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and I now use online survey and Zoom interview to attain the data. Society has been heavily impinged on by the Covid-19 outbreak and this necessitates further analysis into how this group have been affected, as well as how the research project has similarly been adapted.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Sally Sheldon

Second supervisor: Julie McCandless

Research project: A socio-legal experience: The case of abortion in Italy

Research description: How does feminism ‘meet’ law and vice versa? In asking and answering this profound question, this thesis investigates, beyond the formal analysis of the law, this study will explore the role of the feminist movement in shaping Italian abortion law and policy in the 1970s, and – conversely – the ways in which a focus on abortion law reform shaped 1970s Italian feminism. It thus explores the connections among Italian feminism as a social movement and law reform, socio-political and legal change.

Twitter: @elena_caruso_

Socio-Legal Studies

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Charlotte Skeet

Second supervisor: Bal Sokhi-Bulley

Research project: The Tactics and Strategies of Civil Society Organisations: A Critical Analysis of Feminist Legal Responses to Transactional Sex

Research description: My research focuses on how law is configured as a strategy and tactic in feminist problematisation and responses to transactional sex (particularly pornography and prostitution). I investigate the role that civil society organisations have held in shaping such configurations of law through a methodology of governmentality. By examining archives and carrying out analysis on online communities, I aim to situate the past differently and to show how conceptions of radicalism have become shaped by law and rights discourse.

Sociology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Elke van hellemont

Second supervisor: Caroline chatwin

Research project: Impression Management in the Bottom Level of Uk drug markets. A Case Study of Kents coastal towns

Research description: This project aims to deliver an innovative contribution to our current understanding of Uk drug markets. Three case studies will be explored in lines with goffmans face work. These three case studies are magic mushroom pickers. 5-9 dealers and benevolent brokers.

Sociology

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Susie Scott

Second supervisor: Prof Tim Jordan

Research project: Structures and Interaction: A micro-sociological analysis of online harassment

Research description: This project investigates the relationship between patterns of digital sociality and the micro-sociological structure of the setting of online interaction. It does so by conducting an in-depth case study of a single computer mediated communications website, focusing upon the orchestration and evaluation of campaigns of harassment, which are frequently cited as originating within this particular online setting. To investigate the phenomenon, the project employs methods of virtual ethnography and qualitative content analysis to produce an in-depth study of the relationship between online interaction and socio-technological and micro-sociological structures. This enables analysis of the relationship between the site’s specific structure and the purpose, meaning and conduct of campaigns of online harassment, which has direct consequences for which experiences, discourses, and persons are able to exist peacefully online.

Sociology

Awarded PhD 2023

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Michaela Benson

Second supervisor: Dr Emma Jackson

Research project: Navigating precarity: children & families' experiences of housing insecurity in austerity Britain

Research description: My doctoral research explores what housing insecurity means in the everyday lives of children and families in austerity Britain. Housing is a key site through which the austerity regime (re)produces and intensifies precarity. Conceptualising precarity as a structure of feeling (Berlant, 2011; Williams, 1977), my research seeks to open up ways of thinking about insecurely housed children and families’ experiences, connecting analyses of affects to wider questions of power and inequality.

Foregrounding children’s perspectives, this ethnography uses arts-based methods to build a relational account of how children and their families live with, navigate and resist precarity as a household. In particular, the project develops collaborative art-making, in the context of a family arts club, as a method for attending to relational dynamics.