Business and Management

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Virginia Spiegler

Second supervisor: Dr Gabor Nagy

Research project: Managing perishability through privacy-preserving supply chain collaboration

Research description: Perishable foods are characterised as foodstuff which quickly and continuously deteriorate in quality the longer they are kept - particularly if they are not stored at the correct temperature. Perishable food management can be considered as part of the cold chain as commodities are typically kept refrigerated or frozen to preserve their condition and slow bacteria growth. A cold chain is a temperature-controlled supply chain system responsible for denoting a set of activities and processes to maintain the optimal condition of goods from harvest through to human consumption. Examples of perishable foods include; fruit, vegetables and meat.

Scholars and industry consider temperature monitoring as one of the most important factors in perishable food management. This is mainly due to its ability to decrease food waste volumes whilst correspondingly reducing associated costs. To add context, poor temperature management costs a multi-national retailer an average of £350,000 per store. It accounts for 56% of total store shrinkage and is responsible for 15% of all goods which fail to reach the consumer. From an operational perspective, this highlights the value of time and temperature information flow in cold chain systems.

Although there is recent emergence of research focusing on managing perishable food waste these studies tend to emphasise on improving replenishment processes or achieving optimal pricing strategies. Rather than the Value of Information (VoI) and its ability to reduce food waste. Of the studies that consider VoI as a mechanism to minimise food waste, they centre around how data can be obtained for inventory management. These have effectively demonstrated the feasibility of applying Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLTs) to enable total transparency across a decentralised network. However, research has shown that organisations are apprehensive in using such a system because of their open nature. In DLTs every transaction is recorded on a public ledger which is shared between nodes in the network. Making sensitive and confidential data easily accessible and transparent to participants in the network. Scholars argue that it is this sole reason why this peer-to-peer approach has failed to cultivate as predicated.

To address these identified gaps this research will investigate the application of zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) as an enabler for secure and private data exchange on open-source distributed ledger technologies. A zero-knowledge proof is a protocol by which one party can prove to another party that they know certain information without revealing the underlying information. ZKPs are commonly associated with cryptocurrency transactions as they allow verification without revealing the sender, receiver or transaction amount. This research seeks to take inspiration from other disciplines where zero-knowledge proofs have been researched to identify how it can be adopted into the operations management domain and how it can facilitate with reducing perishable food waste in a distributed ledger technology network.

Business and Management

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Jaideep Oberoi

Second supervisor: Nikolaos Voukelatos

Research project: Default Risk Correlations: The relationship between competition intensity changing events and default risk correlations within industries.

Research description: This research looks at incorporating a competition intensity factor into a default risk model in order to measure a more accurate value of default correlations between companies. Default risk correlations have profound effects on portfolio default rates, and a better understanding of the causes of these correlations will allow for better risk management.

Business and Management

(University of Surrey)

Main supervisor: Prof Xavier Font

Research project: Evaluation of sustainable tourism policy in Catalonia

Research description: Evaluation of sustainable tourism policy in Catalonia / Socialisation of learning

Business and Management

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr Vicky Weizi Li

Second supervisor: Professor Keiichi Nakata

Research project: Patterns in Continuous Glucose Monitoring Systems as a Complementary Biomarker for Type 1 Diabetic Patients

Research description: The research aims to consider the application and implication of using machine learning in the health domain, especially by understanding and predicting the impact of healthcare resource usage, and patient risk, on stakeholder engagement.

Business and Management

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Kathy Kotiadis

Second supervisor: Dr Tim Hopthrow

Research project: Uncovering the mechanisms of effective facilitated operational research using psychology

Research description: Whilst such tendencies are commonly cited in psychological literature (Meza, 2019), organisational research examining these processes has yet to emerge. Psychological insights may greatly benefit organisations through the development of interventions to poor group decision making. The proposed research will apply cutting edge psychological theory and methods in decision making to improve our understanding of facilitative operational research. OR is the discipline of applying analytical methods such as simulation modelling to make better decisions (Kruger, Verhoef & Preiser, 2019). This research will examine and overcome the processes inhibiting poor decision making when facilitated OR is used. Facilitated OR modelling (Franco & Montibeller, 2010), is an emerging mode of OR involving (stakeholder) participation in the process of modelling which aims to increase the group’s understanding of problems and resolutions. Facilitated modelling is primarily delivered via workshops (Franco & Rouwette, 2011). These are important to the practice of OR, with groups of people discussing problems and working through them in a series of workshops. Active participation of stakeholders during workshops produces strong ownership of problems and acceptance of responsibility needed for action to be taken (Rosenhead & Mingers, 2001), hypothetically leading to better decisions. My research will investigate underlying mechanisms for improvements in group decisions arising from these practices, and apply this to the development of optimal OR workshops to maximise group interactions.

Development Studies

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Yingqin Zheng

Second supervisor: Dr Katie Willis

Research project: Disempowering Technologies: Innovation, Interests and Impact of Mobile Gambling

Research description: Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have brought significant development benefits to communities around the world through, for example, the use of mobile phones for money transfers. The assumption of a ‘technological fix’ has also been significantly criticised, however, much less attention has been paid to the potentially negative aspects of ICTs. This thesis aims to contribute to this gap through a study of mobile gambling in Kenya. Rather than focusing solely on gamblers’ motivations, it also considers the variety of powerful interests inscribed in the technology and how these interact with users. To do this, it will use actor-network theory to unpack and map the common and contrasting interests at play in the socio-technical system emerging in Kenya in conjunction with the proliferation of mobile phones and mobile money.

Development Studies

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Ian Scoones

Second supervisor: Jeremy Lind

Research project: "Partir Pour Rester" - To Leave in Order to Stay : The Role of Absentee Livestock Owners and Social Institutions on Capital Accumulation in Southern Tunisia

Research description: A critical appraisal of migration and the different forms of “absenteeism” within the pastoral economy of Douiret, in the drylands of southern Tunisia, has revealed how “absence” embodied in a migration project or in the notion “partir pour rester” ( to leave in order to stay), is key in understanding contemporary processes of capital accumulation. Absence is often mediated by local social institutions, that help manage labour and land shortages collectively in different ways. These are interrelated dimensions that have allowed for the accumulation of capital “from below”, illuminating further on processes of social differentiation within and beyond the village. This thesis contributes to the literature on agrarian change in Tunisia, and the Maghreb, through a grounded perspective on processes of social differentiation in pastoral areas. The concept of “absenteeism” and how these dynamics have created possibilities for the accumulation of capital nuance dominant narratives of top-down visions of capital penetration. The analysis goes beyond a descriptive livelihoods approach and structural-material individualist class analysis. It does so by including discursive perceptions and institutional processes of change with social-demographic dynamics. Both the more structural features and the more dynamic processes of differentiation are therefore explored through livestock as a particular form of capital.

Economics

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Marco Francesconi

Second supervisor: Michel Serafinelli

Research project: Inequality of Opportunity: Evidence from Brazil

Research description: Equal access to quality (higher) education is often seen as a key channel to promote social mobility and level the playing field in advanced societies. Yet, is clearly essential to inform economic policy also in developing countries since we know that small changes in educational policy design can greatly affect the outcomes for high-achieving, low-income students. My research focuses on university dropout choice, which is pertinent for developed and developing countries and is likely to shed new light on the education-inequality link. What circumstances drive university students to drop out? If universities provide qualifications with high returns, are these enjoyed by all individuals across the income distribution? Does state-sponsored financial aid work in the presence of possibly offsetting labour market forces? More specifically, how are university enrolment and completion rates affected if tuition fees are doubled or eliminated? How do dropout rates change if the local labour market is in a boom? These are the key questions I will explore using rich micro data from Brazil and employing discrete choice dynamic programming. The simulated-method-of-moments estimates from this model will enable me to address several questions relevant to policy making.

Economics

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Michael Spagat

Second supervisor: Professor Arnaud Chevalier

Research project: The Impact of Conflict on Schooling and Labour Market Outcomes in Iraq

Research description: The aim of this project is to investigate the extent to which conflict in Iraq affects schooling and labour market outcomes in Iraq. In particular, we look at different phases of conflict in Iraq to compare these outcomes. Furthermore, given that Iraq suffers from a persistent displacement crisis, we investigate how displaced individuals in Iraq are affected by conflict in terms of schooling and labour market outcomes. We also aim to extend this analysis to other countries in the region.

Economics

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Stephen Davies

Second supervisor: Franco Mariuzzo

Research project: The Impact of SuperStar Firms on Competition & Competitiveness

Research description: My project will consist of 3 key sub-projects The first, building upon the work of Autor et al 2017, will investigate concentration and competition within the UK and Europe using the Superstar firm model with a more realistic means of accounting for import competition and its effects on domestic firms. The second will highlight the unique issues presented by superstars via a number of high profile case studies. By looking at well known superstar firms and the competition cases they have already faced we can see what issues require further investigation if the prevalence of superstars continues to grow. The third chapter will look at productivity within superstar firms and/or sectors where SSFs are expected to be. This approach will use the methods seen in Olley and Pakes 1996, Levinsohn and Petrin 2003, and the recent works of both DeLoecker and Eeckhout.

Education

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof. Kwame Akyeampong

Second supervisor: Dr. Jo Westbrook

Research project: Quality education for youth: A case study of secondary education provision in Ghana

Research description: Ghana’s 2017 Free SHS policy is its boldest attempt to transform secondary education (SE) to date. A long-standing constitutional and electoral promise, the policy absorbs all direct schooling costs and expands upper SE to all students who successfully pass their terminal Junior High School (JHS) examinations. Despite the policy’s laudable ambitions, SE’s highly selective, colonial traditions mean the prevailing notion of SE, its purpose and expectations are not consistent with the Free SHS policy and its explicitly stated goals of providing access to quality and equitable SE in Ghana. Literature demonstrates continuous debates on conceptualisations of quality and problematises the dominance of human capital theory and rights-based approaches in development discourse. The extent to which this impacts on quality debates in SE is under-researched and inadequately theorised in existing literature on SE in SSA. Therefore, the research explores the ways in which global and national discourses on quality inform how quality is understood and enacted within Free SHS in Ghana. The research uses postcolonial and critical social theory to problematise global framings of quality education before critically analysing colonial influences on the evolution of secondary education in Ghana. Furthermore, it will analyse school and classroom practice for insights into differences in the experience of "quality" SE in Ghanaian secondary schools and its implications for equity. The main aim of the research is to develop theoretical and empirical insights into the production of quality in SE in a sub-Saharan African context. To achieve this, it examines policy discourses, teacher practices and student experiences and postcolonial influences.

Twitter: @pboateng88

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

Education

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Anna Traianou

Second supervisor: Anna Carlile

Research project: The mainstream’s edge: students at risk of exclusion and systems they inhabit

Research description: In England, 35 young people per day face permanent exclusion, which means that their access to a specific school is irrevocably revoked and they are removed from rolls (Department for Education, 2017). While this was formerly reserved for only the most serious offences, it is increasingly being used following escalating sanctions for issues such as general defiance and disobedience (Spink, 2011). The pathways open to a young person following this are reduced – many will struggle to find another mainstream school place and may enter alternative provision units or home education. As numbers continue to increase (Department for Education, 2017), the need to find solutions which allow mainstream education to be open to all has become critical, particularly as the Institute for Public Policy Research has highlighted the connection between permanent exclusion and poorer life outcomes (Gill, Quilter-Pinner, & Swift, 2017). However, research is starkly divided between intervention-based studies, which are generally experimental in nature and sparser in terms of theory, and interview-based studies which describe the experiences of young people, teachers and caregivers involved in the formal exclusion process, and often seek to generate theory. This division, observed across educational research, has been referred to as two distinct cultures (Biesta, 2015). Recently, there have been calls for interventions to be more solidly grounded in theory (Valdebenito et al, 2018), which requires a greater understanding of the process itself. To address this question, it is necessary to investigate the exclusions process in situ. This study will use a systems-based framework (von Bertalanffy, 1968) to consider how the perspectives of young people and their life experiences intersect with the sociopolical milieu in which they are located, paying attention not only to micro-level interactions but to how this relates to the national- and school-level policy contexts. It will begin drawing together elements of both pre- and post-exclusion literature by working with young people who have been identified by their academies as at risk of permanent exclusion. Using a variation of the ‘eclectic’ multiple case-study approach developed by Day Ashley (2012), data will be collected from a number of sources, including the young people themselves (via two-monthly semi-structured interviews over a calendar year), their teachers, their schools' behaviour and exclusion policies and Department for Education guidance. Analysis will use a ‘Framework’ approach (Ritchie and Spencer, 1994), modified with elements of Qualitative Content Analysis to interpret findings through the use of hierarchical nested categorisation and to identify the commonly occurring themes, interactions and occurrences which contribute to a young person either staying in or leaving mainstream education. The study will generate theory from data collected during the same time period that interventions (pre-exclusion) would normally occur. Furthermore, it will seek to provide teachers and teaching unions with research which can support them in demanding change for young people; in the current political environment, this has proved challenging without an abundance of evidence. It is hoped that by contributing to a growing body of literature, this study will help to effect change in the educational sector.

Human Geography

Awarded PhD 2023

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr. Oli Mould

Second supervisor: Prof. Philip Crang

Research project: From the Street to the Stadium and Back Again: An Analysis of Skateboarding's Inclusion into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Research description: This project critically examines the inclusion of skateboarding into the now delayed Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Specifically, it look at the effects of a subversive urban practice becoming further incorporated into the realm of institutionalised mega-sports, and the tensions this creates therein.

Twitter: @GazeresRhys

Instagram: @possiblyrhys

Linguistics

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Arpita Bose

Second supervisor: Fang Liu

Research project: The effects of linguistic variables on language processing in aphasia

Research description: Currently looking at the impact of phonological neighbourhood density on word-production across the lifespan and in people with aphasia.

Politics and International Relations

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Fabio Petito

Second supervisor: Dr Nadya Ali

Research project: Understanding engagement with religious actors under the Channel Programme from 2005-2015.

Research description: Despite the wealth of critique of Prevent, there exists scant analysis of its flagship de-radicalisation programme ‘Channel’ its most potent source of political and philosophical tension. Channel sees the state organise one-on-one interventions to alter British citizens’ behaviour and politico-religious beliefs. Pilot Channel projects, based on crime prevention initiatives, diverted individuals away from violent criminal behaviour. Yet since the 2011 Prevent Strategy, Channel has moved towards encouraging ideological change; not only targeting support for terrorism, but views considered part of ‘extremist’ ideology. This shift created two major issues. First, Channel focused mostly on Islamist extremism and thus religious attitudes, namely conservative or Islamist beliefs. Secondly, Channel has moved from engaging religious actors based on counter-radicalisation experience to restricting partnership to those who embrace liberal democratic values, despite concerns about their credibility in countering extremism. In each case, the state makes contentious religious judgements: namely, what religious interpretations and beliefs are acceptable. This is problematic for a secular, liberal conception of the British state, which despite the presence of an established church is purportedly neutral regarding religion. Yet through Channel the state increasingly endorses select religious denominations and alters the composition of religious communities, with troubling corollaries for the UK’s legal frameworks on religion and belief. This creates a dilemma for religious actors: do they support Channel for security’s sake, or preserve their religious independence? To address these issues, this research will address the following research question: How was engagement with religious actors understood and justified under the Channel Programme, from 2005-2015: what philosophical and legal principles was this policy practice based on, and how did religious actors rationalise their involvement theologically? This research will consist of two strands. The first is a historical account of the evolution in Channel’s engagement with religious actors; identifying drivers of change, how religious actors justified their role, and how state actors understood this engagement and the principles it rested upon. The second strand analyses the theoretical issues raised by this account: reconciling the state’s role with the UK’s state-religion arrangement and other secular and postsecular frameworks; and discussing implications of religious actors’ role in Channel for public reason and identities, contrasting Islamic perspectives on political authority, and critique from political theology. Both strands will use qualitative methods: the historical account will be based on interviews with key Channel stakeholders in civil society, policymaking, and police, supplemented by document analysis of primary and secondary sources; the theoretical strand will draw on this data and relevant theoretical literature in evaluating Channels’ religious engagement within legal, theological, and political-philosophical frameworks.

Politics and International Relations

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Prof Kristian Gleditsch

Second supervisor: Dr Brian J Phillips

Research project: Investigating the Effect of Territorial Control on the Micro-Dynamics of Domestic Terrorism

Research description: What is the role of territorial control in the dynamics and patterns of domestic terrorist violence? The literature on political violence attempts to explain the location, intensity, and drivers of violence at the sub-national level (e.g. Autesserre 2010; Cederman et al. 2015; Hammond 2018). The control of subnational space, and contestation over control, is one of the key explanatory variables identified in the literature (e.g. Kalyvas 2006; Toft 2003). The examination of such control, however, has focused almost exclusively on the behaviours of organised rebel and ethno-national movements, as opposed to terrorist organisations (e.g. Fjelde and Nilsson 2012). The significance of this failure is marked by the intensification of domestic terrorism in recent years (Dowd and Raleigh 2013). High-profile attacks on civilians, including mass killings, by terrorist organisations speak to a recent and dramatic shift in group tactics. Organisations such as Boko Haram and Daesh have evolved into progressively ambitious regional networks ”controlling large swaths of land across the Middle East and Africa” and stand as the most potent opposition force to many in the international community (Zimmerman 2015). An examination of the effects of territorial control on the micro-dynamics of domestic terrorism, thus, can be used as an instrument to improve the theoretical, practical, and methodological understanding of recent shifts in organisational behaviours of terrorist groups. In this project, I address the question of how terrorist organisation’s control of domestic territory affects the dynamics and patterns of terrorist violence. I take as a case study the example of terrorist organisations across the African continent and seek to understand how their degree of territorial control affects the levels, purpose, and patterns of violence within the domestic conflict environment. Overall, I seek to extend current research and inform policy-makers on recent shifts in the behaviours of terrorist organisations to inspire counterterrorism reform across the international community.

Politics and International Relations

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Chris Hanretty

Second supervisor: Professor Oliver Heath

Research project: The Impact of Voter Identification Laws on Participation and Perceptions of Electoral Integrity

Research description: This research seeks to develop our understanding of how voter identification laws affect voter turnout and people’s attitudes towards electoral integrity both at the aggregate and individual level. Much of what we currently know about this topic comes from literature on the USA. Furthermore, the literature lacks a consensus on the effect that laws have. This research will expand the narrow literature and address the debate within it. I will build on this work by analysing a wide number of democratic countries, with repeated observations over time at both the country and individual level. This research will contain three core themes: 1. The relationship between current laws and turnout 2. The effect that a change in law has on turnout and attitudes 3. How people’s attitudes are shaped by laws over-time These will help to guide and focus a series of inter-related research questions, which will use a mixed methods approach since large-N and case studies will be combined thus creating a nested design. The research will address three main questions: 1. What impact do voter identification laws have on turnout and political engagement? Is it always negative? How does this effect vary across different groups of voters, for example ethnic minorities and young people? How does this effect vary depending on the type of law implemented? 2. How does the impact of new voter identification laws on turnout vary over time? Do new laws have a short-term or a long-term impact on turnout? How does this depend on how strict laws are? 3. What are the motivations for the introduction of these laws? Is it merely fraud prevention or is it used by actors to consolidate their power by shaping the electorate?

Twitter: @_TomBarton

Psychology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Bonamy Oliver

Second supervisor: Prof Kate Cavanagh

Research project: Headspace for Parents

Research description: We're interested to see if giving parents of young children access to the Headspace app to practice daily mindfulness will result in an accessible way to help reduce their stress, improve their relationship with their children, and therefore improve their children's mental health and wellbeing.

Twitter: @BurgessAbi

Psychology

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Miroslav Sirota

Second supervisor: Dr Jonathan Rolison

Research project: Why do people expect antibiotics when they should not?

Research description: Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest global health risks of modern times. Clinically inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics in primary care is one of the key drivers of antibiotic resistance. Past research has found that patients' expectations are among the strongest predictors of clinicians' decisions to prescribe antibiotics. The link between patients' expectations and over-prescribing is well supported, however, the mechanisms underlying these expectations still remain unclear. My proposed research, therefore, aims to answer the question of why people expect antibiotics when it is not clinically appropriate. I will test a psychological theory that aims to explain this. Specifically, I will use the utility-based signal detection theory to measure when it is optimal for people to expect antibiotics. I will manipulate the three environmental parameters as defined by the model that are known to influence people’s decision-making in order to find the optimal criterion location in terms of their expectations for antibiotic prescription. I aim to identify which parameters and to what extent they affect the optimal criterion location, and when inappropriate antibiotic expectations will be minimised. Drawing on the framework of the model, I will further test how the risks linked with antibiotic overuse (i.e., antibiotic resistance) can best be communicated in an understandable and persuasive manner to reduce people’s inappropriate expectations. I will manipulate different factors of risk representation, while using vignettes, with the main goal to find the optimal framing format of antibiotic resistance that will reduce inappropriate antibiotic expectations. The proposed research has implications for the theory and considerable potential for societal impact. It will provide exact and testable mechanisms behind people’s antibiotic expectations, which will extend our understanding of the psychological reasons of why people expect antibiotics when they are not clinically appropriate. It will provide an evidence-based strategy to formulate messages about antibiotic resistance to which people will be receptive. The proposal can help inform national efforts to reduce antibiotic expectations and, consequently, antibiotic over-prescription in the UK. By decreasing people’s expectations, doctors will feel less pressured to prescribe antibiotics which will, in turn, reduce antibiotic prescribing. This will contribute to current global efforts aimed at reducing the future spread of antibiotic resistance.

Twitter: andriana_theod

LinkedIn: Andriana Theodoropoulou

Psychology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Zara Bergstrom

Second supervisor: Professor Heather Ferguson

Research project: Counterfactual Imagination as a source of memory distortion

Research description: Imagining a false event often increases the likelihood that people will believe the event actually happened. An everyday example of this phenomenon could include the feeling of uncertainty when we cannot remember whether we locked the front door or if we are simply imagining ourselves locking the door. This effect is referred to as ‘imagination inflation’ and is suggested to be caused by imagined events feeling familiar and/or mistakes when assigning a source to the memory. Prior research has focused mostly on situations where participants imagined completely novel events, and so less is currently known for the effect of imagining counterfactual versions of true events that really happened. My PhD project aims to investigate the ways in which imagining a counterfactual version of a real memory influences memory accuracy. In order to maintain experimental control, all memories used in this project will involve simple motor-actions acted out in the lab, using every-day objects. This lab-based paradigm will be used in conjunction with Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings of brain activity, in order to distinguish the different neurocognitive processes involved in both retrieving memories and imagining counterfactual versions of a real memory. Furthermore, research suggests that older adults are more prone to forming false memories than younger adults. Therefore, I will recruit both young and old participants to investigate whether older adults are more susceptible to imagination-related memory distortions and, if so, how the associated mechanisms change as a result of aging.

Psychology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Kathryn Greenwood

Second supervisor: Andy Field

Research project: EYE-2 Early youth engagement in psychosis

Research description: This is a collaborative PhD studentship in Clinical Psychology alongside a national NIHR trial in multiple NHS sites across England that deliver care for young people experiencing a first episode of psychosis (FEP). Research shows that the first 2 years after a FEP is a crucial period and that engaging with mental health treatment services is imperative to maximise recovery and long-term outcomes. The EYE-2 is an enhanced model of care for NHS Early Intervention Service for Psychosis (EiP) that focuses on psycho-education, motivational interviewing techniques and a website featuring online resources and an interactive forum. This PhD investigates the role of psychological processes as mechanisms of change that could facilitate engagement for service-users who have received the EYE-2 intervention. It also evaluates the model from a clinical perspective to investigate barriers and facilitators of implementation into EiP teams. Finally it will review the feasibility of integrating a digital intervention into the treatment model to enable social interaction.

Twitter: @EllieRobsonPsyc

Psychology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr James Moore

Second supervisor: Dr Devin Terhune

Research project: Sense of agency in human-computer interaction: the role of mid-air haptic feedback

Research description: Whether clicking to go to the next page or turning a dial to increase volume, physical touch often accompanies human-computer interaction (HCI). In touchless HCI, however, there is no physical contact required; instead, users interact with a system using mid-air gestures (Marin et al., 2014). While this removes constraints of mediating HCI with physical devices, it also removes a sensory channel that is common to our interactions in the physical world. Sensory feedback from our physical environment is considered crucial for establishing the self and representing action (de Vignemont & Haggard, 2008; Moore & Fletcher, 2012), and the absence of tactile feedback may affect this. In an effort to improve this, recent technological advances in mid-air haptics enrich the user with vibrotactile information during touchless interactions, providing touch-like sensation (Carter et al., 2013). Here, it is important to understand how this artificially created and readily manipulated haptic feedback affects the sense of self. This is also of importance to HCI as Schneiderman and Plaisant (2004) emphasise the user’s sense of control over a system and how that system responds when designing interfaces. That is, a sense of agency in HCI. Agency is an aspect of the self that is contingent on cues associated with actions and their effects (Braun et al., 2018) and this project will investigate the role of mid-air haptic feedback. As well as furthering the understanding of this psychological mechanism, it aims to show ways this can be applied in HCI. To do this, the project takes three lines of investigation: (1) visual-haptic feedback for interactive objects in virtual environments, (2) haptic information for gesture recognition in cars and (3) predictability of haptic feedback and volition, including emulating symptoms of schizophrenia.

Twitter: @GeoEvangelou

Psychology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Markus Bindemann

Second supervisor: Dr Caoilte Ó Ciardha

Research project: Pupillary response and the measurement of sexual interest and interpersonal affect

Research description: Sexual interest often exists in parallel to other feelings, such as affection for a long-term partner and the sense of familiarity. In the study of cognition, these factors have only been considered separately, placing obvious limits on theoretical understanding of cognitive processes underlying sexual interest. I propose to disentangle these three elements by measuring how the size of pupils changes whilst viewing others. That pupillary response reflects sexual interest was discovered in the 1960s, but study of this phenomenon only gathered pace in recent years, facilitated by modern eye-tracking equipment. It has now been demonstrated across a range of conditions and may be impervious to conscious control, making it valuable for assessment in the study of sexual cognition. However, the reliability of this response has also been debated, as it is consistently observed in male but not female observers. There is some evidence, however, that pupillary response can be elicited in women with photographs of their romantic partners, indicating links between sexual interest, interpersonal affect and familiarity. Disentangling these factors may help explain the differences between pupillary response in men and women. As these differences resist wider explanation (i.e. they are also present with other measures), this project will inform general theorising on sexual cognition. This research also has clear relevance for forensic practice, for the assessment and rehabilitation of people who have sexually offended against children. Such offences are most frequently committed by family members, highlighting a clear need for research that seeks to understand the contributions of sexual interest, familiarity, and interpersonal affect. My project will include four key studies: In Study 1, pupillary responses of heterosexual men and women will be measured for unfamiliar male and female targets, which are also rated and ranked according to their sexual appeal. This allows investigation of whether pupil dilation occurs generally when viewing persons corresponding to observer’s sexual interest. Cross-referencing individual observer’s pupillary responses with targets according to sexual interest ratings and ranks will reveal whether these effects are also capable of revealing individual-specific interest in a specific other, and whether differences exist between men and women in the expressions of these effects. Study 2 examines these possibilities further with images of familiar people, who should elicit affect but not sexual interest (siblings) or both (partners/spouses), and will contrast this with responses to siblings and partners of others. Study 3 examines the role of sexual interest and affect further by controlling familiarity. This will be achieved by systematically manipulating affect for unfamiliar high- and low-attractiveness targets via vignettes and evaluative conditioning before recording pupillary responses to these targets. Variants of this design will also manipulate familiarity whilst controlling for sexual interest and affect. Study 4 will examine generalizability of affect and familiarity influences on pupillary response, by investigating whether this can be observed with non-human stimuli, such as an observer’s pet compared to other’s pets.

Psychology

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof David Fowler

Second supervisor: Prof Andy Field

Research project: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Auditory Verbal Hallucinations – what should it be doing and how will we know when that’s happened?

Research description: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is recommended as an adjunct psychological treatment for psychotic symptoms including Auditory Verbal Hallucinations (AVH) (NICE, 2014). Despite evidence supporting its effectiveness, CBT has been highly criticised in reference to its diverse delivery, which has led to a debate in the field (Thomas, 2015). More precisely, broad CBT treatments address a range of presentations including positive (e.g. hallucinations), negative (e.g. anhedonia) and general psychopathology symptoms (e.g. depression). Therefore, to capture this heterogeneity the majority of research trials have used broad outcome measures (e.g. Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; Kay, Opler and Lindenmayer, 1987) which ultimately measure factors not targeted by CBT such as symptom severity. These criticisms have led to the field taking a symptom specific approach (i.e. targeting specifically AVH) as an effort to improve outcomes and reduce heterogeneity (Birchwood & Trower, 2006; Lincoln & Peters, 2019; Thomas et al., 2014). However, research studies of CBT for AVH have used a range of outcomes (e.g. compliance; Trower et al., 2004, psychological distress; Dannahy, Hayward, Strauss, Turton, Harding & Chadwick, 2011, voice impact; Hazell, Hayward, Cavanagh, Jones & Strauss, 2017), demonstrating that there are conflicting views as to what the outcomes of CBT for AVH should be. Furthermore, these outcomes have been assessed using an array of measures. For example, anxiety has been assessed using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS; Henry & Crawford, 2005), the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS; Zigmond & Snaith, 1983) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD7; Spitzer, Kroenke, Williams & Lowe, 2006). This range of outcomes and measures has complicated efforts to compare outcomes across studies and investigate AVH related processes and therapeutic components linked to the outcomes. Therefore, the aim of this PhD is to clarify outcomes and improve their measurement to enable evaluations of future trials and the use of CBT within routine clinical practice to be clear and consistent. This will be achieved by 1. Undertaking a systematic review with the aim of identifying the variables that have been used to measure the longitudinal course and impact of voice hearing and how these change over time with and without psychological interventions. 2. Undertaking qualitative in-depth interviews with service users to explore what outcomes of CBT for AVH are important to them. 3. Undertaking cross-sectional and longitudinal modelling of secondary data to explore any factors across items/measures.

Twitter: @SofiaLoizou

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Andy Jordan

Second supervisor: Irene Lorenzoni

Research project: Governance by evaluation? The role of knowledge in governing decarbonisation

Research description: My 1+3 PhD focusses on the role of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), a non-departmental public body, in the governance of UK decarbonisation. My Master's dissertation involved a content analysis of the CCC's mitigation recommendations provided to UK Parliament between 2009 and 2020 and a computational text analysis of the CCC's evaluation of UK decarbonisation progress over time. My PhD project aims to more broadly investigate the role of the CCC in UK climate governance, particularly its monitoring, evaluation and advisory role.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/harriet-dudley-9a6b12109/

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Rajindra Puri

Second supervisor: Dr Ian Bride

Research project: Rethinking heritage grain revival through the past, present and future of “pillas” - a naked oat once widespread in Cornwall

Research description: My research centres on heritage grain revival and its potential for building social-ecological resilience. Grounded in first-hand experience, it seeks to re-cultivate and re-discover the value of "pillas" - a naked-grained oat once significant in Cornwall, which has survived in seedbanks despite disappearing from fields some 150 years ago. Drawing insights from its past through historical ethnobotanical research, exploring its present and future reinvention in collaboration with farmers, and reflecting on examples of other revivals - both heritage crops in the UK and further afield, as well as other forms of cultural heritage such as language - it will examine how the narratives we form around food, agriculture, identity and time, shape both ourselves and the landscapes we live in.

Twitter: @harrietgendall

Instagram: @harrigendall

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Maria Savona

Second supervisor: Tommaso Ciarli and Mattia Di Ubaldo

Research project: Positioning in global value chains and innovation: an empirical analysis of firm-level data

Research description: In recent decades, advances in information and communication technology and falling trade barriers have led firms to retain within their boundaries and in their domestic economies only a subset of the production stages, generating a growing process of international fragmentation of production. While there is an extensive literature analysing the link between trade in final goods, or being part of a multinational corporation (MNC), and economic performance, especially at the firm-level, much less attention has been placed on how the position of a given production stage in global value chains (GVCs) affects firm performance. The aim of this research project is to investigate the productivity and innovation effects of a firm’s position in global production by building on the methodology developed by Antràs et al. (2012), Antràs and Chor (2013), and Antràs and Chor (2018) based on input-output analysis. The ultimate goal of this research is to contribute to a better understanding of how firms benefit from GVCs and speak to the policy discussion and the body of research on firms’ upgrading in GVCs, knowledge transfer and innovation drivers. Policy makers have traditionally encouraged internationalisation with the expectation that the latter is linked to productivity and economic growth. Innovation, which involves the creation and diffusion of new products and processes, is long seen as a key driver of productivity and playing an important role in the creation of new businesses and new jobs as well as in addressing societal and global challenges. Based on this rationale, innovation has become a policy priority to foster economic growth. However, innovation is a complex process and the conclusions drawn from the internationalisation and trade research may not be true when the position of a firm’s production stage is taken into account. The analysis unfolds in the following ways. Firstly, I examine the impact of a firm’s position in GVCs on productivity and innovation. Secondly, I explore the channels through which it can affect a firm’s ability to innovate. I argue that the international fragmentation of production can affect innovation via knowledge spillovers, as well as through higher incentives to invest in intangibles, which might be crucial to decode and absorb the new knowledge to which the firm is exposed. Finally, in the last step of my research, I plan to explore cross-country firm-level data to study whether the skill endowment of a country’s and a sector’s workforce influences the way in which firms benefit from GVCs.

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Joseph Tzanopoulos

Second supervisor: Dr Robert Fish

Research project: Sustainability performance of ecological approaches to farming at regional scale

Research description: Agriculture faces the twin challenges of meeting increased demand from a growing and more affluent population, while also conserving key natural resources that underpin the sustainability of our societies. Moreover, different farming systems vary in the extent to which they provide or challenge public goods and ecosystem services, such as drinking water, air quality, landscape appearance and biodiversity. Therefore, there is a need to assess how far new environmentally-friendly farming approaches can promote improved performance and sustainability at the rural areas in which they are located. It is also important to understand how socio-economic and policy drivers affect the development of these farming systems and assess their environmental, social and economic performance. However, novel farming approaches tend to be linked to the land and territory where they are implemented, and so the ecological and socio-economic impacts of these approaches may vary at a regional scale. Comprehensive sustainability assessments of these farming systems should therefore be conducted beyond the farm level, accounting for the provision of public goods and ecosystem services at regional scale. This interdisciplinary project will involve a mix of ecological, social and economic research, with the ultimate aim of conducting a sustainability appraisal of ecological approaches to farming at regional scale. Research will be conducted in two case study regions in south-east England, with different natural and agricultural characteristics. The project will start by investigating the socio-economic and policy drivers affecting adoption of ecological approaches. Insights into these drivers will be used to inform the development of different future scenarios for the expansion of ecological farming across the landscape. Analysis of the literature on environmental, social and economic impacts of these farming approaches will be used to understand how the different spatial patterns of farming practices under each scenario affect the provision of public goods and ecosystem services. These findings will then be combined in an integrated sustainability assessment, where ecological farming approaches will be assessed against regional sustainability targets, using network analysis to examine the interactions among the cause-effect relationships linking drivers to impacts for each approach. The combination of sustainability assessment, scenario and network analysis employed in this research will provide a valuable framework for understanding how ecological farming approaches can contribute to sustainable development in rural landscapes. Critical paths and possible barriers to achieving sustainability targets will be identified, highlighting priority areas for further research, agricultural policy and rural landscape management. The research has the potential to support and inform the EU’s Horizon 2020 Low-input Farming and Territories (LIFT) project, of which the University of Kent is a key partner.

Social Anthropology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Paul Boyce

Second supervisor: Elizabeth Mills

Research project: Self-cutting in Digital Communities

Research description: This ethnographic project examines self-cutting, peer-support, and advocacy in digital communities. Specifically, I explore the rising presence of self-cutting imagery and discourse in digital spaces and the role of online communities in mediating the practise of self-cutting. Through the use of cutting edge methods in digital ethnography, this research will shed light on the resultant impacts of self-cutting upon the material body and wider society. This research addresses the imperative set out by multinational agencies, including the UN (2013) and WHO (2015), to make mental health and stigma priority areas for global research. The UK government in particular, has struggled to articulate a coherent solution to what they view as the necessary management of self-cutting images in online spaces and the engagement of young people in those spaces (Dept of Health & Social Care, 2019). This research engages in this critical domain - the rising presence of self-cutting in online spaces - with a view to understanding emerging forms of peer to peer mental healthcare taking place in the digital world and the implications this may have for clinicians. Drawing on the relational ontological theories of Karen Barad (2007), Donna Haraway (2008), and Jane Bennett (2010), I consider the ways in which self-cutting can be conceived of as a social act that implicates others, and ask how the embodied private, social, and digital practises of people experiencing psychiatric symptoms can challenge both psychiatric treatment regimes, and notions of the individual as pathological. This research further engages material feminist theory (Coole & Frost, 2010) to explore the role of the image of a cut, or blood, in the mediation of intimacies. An understanding of such intimacies will be helpful in understanding the rationale of 'sharing' images of one's own cut and bleeding body. This is a timely and relevant project which addresses the rising challenges brought forth by our posthuman existence in an increasingly digital world. Finally, as a researcher with a history of self-cutting, I seek to challenge boundaries between researcher and research subject and circumvent potential ethical concerns in research among marginal or vulnerable groups.

Social Anthropology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Massimiliano Mollona

Second supervisor: Dr Henrike Donner

Research project: What's Left of the Town? An ethnography of class in Terni.

Research description: My project is an ethnographic study of class in the city of Terni, my hometown. Terni is a steeltown and a formerly important centre for textile and chemical production which, in the last fifty years and as the regional crisis of siderurgy has deepened, has been radically restructured by mutual processes of deindustrialisation and tertiarisation. While attempts to regenerate local industry and requalify the city have stalled, new forms of labour and new livelihood strategies have appeared in the context of emerging processes of value-production. My project engages these local forms of labour and livelihood strategies through subjective narratives, to investigate everyday experiences of class as a set of material, situated and heterogeneous social relations and interrogate what forms of political consciousness and collective subjects could arise from them. It is also an account of the processes that have transformed my hometown—deindustrialisation, the contraction of the local job-market and the fragmentation, precarisation and informalisation of work, but also emigration and immigration—from the point of view of those that have directly been touched by them. The main research questions I seek to answer are three: What is the current material composition of the working-class in my field? Are there instances in which a self-conscious political subject emerges from these material relations, and if so, how? Where this does not happen, what are the obstacles to its political composition? These questions open onto broader theoretical and political interrogatives about the nature of the relationship between economic structures and political subjectivities, about the life-cycle of cultural formations, and about the conditions of possibility for the emergence of sustainable mass class politics in the current historical moment. In order to answer these questions, I intend to recuperate the most productive aspects of two competing approaches to the study of class, the class-composition and class-consciousness models, and synthesize them with the insights of feminist and historical-structuralist perspectives. The methodologies I intend to use are broadly those of auto-ethnography and oral history: my main object of analysis are the stories people tell about themselves and the world. The patterns of social change experienced by my generation and my parents’ generation in Terni are in no way unique to our locality. They fit into wider transformations that have interested Italy since the end of world war two, and are themselves enmeshed in global processes that are both material and cultural and that have been studied under the rubric of late capitalist development. This project seeks also to find in the intimate, situated and particular narratives of my interlocutors openings through which global processes can be given flesh and seen otherwise. My research engages with theoretical debates within contemporary Marxist anthropology, and more broadly within current Marxist scholarship, on the themes of class, labour, value, subjectivity, identity and agency.

Social Anthropology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner

Second supervisor: Dr Karis Petty

Research project: Biotech practises and changing cultural identities in Iceland.

Research description: In the aftermath of the discovery of the human genome, many people now turn to genetics and biomedicine for answers about disease and identity. In Iceland, the biopharmaceutical company deCODE genetics has been a decisive part of this process. My research is about how genetic research and technology in Icelandic society is underpinned by contested ideas and ethics of the family and identity. It follows on from multiple controversies such as the debates about creating a national health sector database, and more recently accusations of eugenics regarding the use of prenatal screening technologies to diagnose and abort foetuses with Down Syndrome. My research sets out to clarify and draw out the social, economic, and political contexts in which ideas of the family and identity emerge between different groups of the Icelandic population, and thus contribute to enriching the theoretical debates in anthropology about disability, kinship, and biomedicine. I plan to carry out long term immersive fieldwork amongst people who have personal experiences of genetic conditions, as well as with professional physicians and clinicians in Iceland. Moreover, I also focus on these groups in the context of reproduction and family planning.

Social Anthropology

(University of Roehampton)

Main supervisor: Dr Jonathan Skinner

Second supervisor: Dr James Davies

Research project: Public Discourses on the Silence of Inherited Trauma

Research description: This will be an investigation into contemporary discourses around enslavement, particularly with a focus on the silence that surrounds the topic of slavery in the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda, a former British colony in the Caribbean. I aim to investigate the positive and negative aspects of these discourses, what they could potentially mean for the Black Caribbean community and for a social policy of reparations and post-enslavement wellbeing. Karen Fog- Olwig (2007) points to a 'conscious forgetting' of this highly emotive historical period among the descendants of formerly enslaved peoples in the Caribbean. This 'forgetting' is manifested in an apparent silence on discussions of slavery among Antiguan's and Barbudan's. Despite this, physical evidence of the period of enslavement is clearly observable on many Caribbean islands, not least in Antigua. This work follows a similar vein as proffered by Gueye and Michel in their compilation of 'Collective', 'Public' and 'Officia' memories of slavery, which was the culmination of several conferences and debates on the subject. Their work focuses on 'the recognition or the denial of the memory of slavery in (Africa, Europe and The Americas)'¦ as a tragedy which has been silenced for over a century in many modern states' despite its contribution to the shaping of 'the course of history in the past three hundred years' (Gueye & Michel, 2018; 18).

Based in Antigua, ASMS's mission statement aim's to 'reconcile the duty of remembrance and historical truth, while highlighting the consequences for our societies today' (Oladele, 2016). To this end, they are currently in the process of the establishment of an African Slavery Museum on Antigua and Barbuda, and the restoration and preservation of existing slavery sites. In this way, theirs is a tripartite project which will provoke engagement with its supporters and critics, while challenging the extant silence. This is an area which is underrepresented in the UK and Caribbean education curriculums, intensifying the ASMS's overall aim to contribute to a fuller picture of the history of Caribbean people prior to and since their enslavement.

I propose to conduct an ethnography of the ASMS as they implement their Museum Project in Antigua and Barbuda, paying particular attention to how it is received by the Antiguan community. I will further this exploration through the establishment of informant / ethnographer relationships with Antiguan families. A key feature of this project will be the local (Antigua and Barbuda and the UK) dissemination of findings to young people - the participant observation, oral histories and other forms of data gathered - to develop a positive and healthy knowledge of their ancestors and their traumatic ancestral history.

This research will link in with contemporary discourses such as the Official Memories of Slavery (Hourcade, 2018), the history of slavery, identity politics, the sites of memory (Otele, 2018), and 'second hand memories' (Paul, 2010). The research also corresponds with the work of others who recognise the contemporary relevance of unresolved historic trauma (Gilroy, 1987, 1993; Besson, 2002, Schwab, 2010 & Long (2015).

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Professor Gillian Ruch

Second supervisor: Professor Michelle Lefevre

Research project: Exploring empathy between social workers and parents in child protection services

Research description: The aim of my research study is to explore how empathy is understood and experienced between social workers and parents in the context of child protection in England, prioritising the lived experiences of participants The significance of empathy in the relationships between social workers and parents in the context of child protection social work is uncontested. Yet the lack of clarity and coherence in how empathy is conceptualised within social work policy and practice guidance poses a significant challenge for the child protection system and the 30,000 social workers and 500,000 families who are involved in it. Its significance is supported by research which demonstrates the importance of empathy to social workers and parents. Research also indicates the complex and relational aspects of social worker empathy, incorporating cognitive, affective and social dimensions, reflected in theoretical models incorporating biological, psychological and social perspectives and processes. The complexity of social worker empathy has rarely been embraced in empirical research, with the majority of studies adopting a quantitative approach or exploring a single perspective with a solitary method. There is a clear need for research to address a notable gap relating to how the meaning and practices of empathy are constructed and experienced by social workers and parents in their relationships and how these constructions and experiences relate to the immediate and wider practice contexts. In my study I propose to adopt a psycho-social ethnographic approach to explore how empathy is understood and experienced between social workers and parents, prioritising the lived experiences of participants. Recognising some complex ethical and practical issues, I am committed to adopting reflexivity and integrity throughout the research process, extending to the dissemination and impact processes.

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Professor Michelle Lefevre

Second supervisor: Dr. Kristine Hickle

Research project: A Gendered Landscape: Exploring the experiences of female social workers and young male clients in the context of Child Sexual Exploitation and Harmful Sexual Abuse

Research description: Social Work practice entails working with vulnerable children and young people including those in the context of possible child sexual abuse (CSA), child sexual exploitation (CSE) and harmful sexual behaviour (HSB) concerns. Research has consistently identified concerns about the quality of social work communication and engagement with children (Lefevre, 2015). This is noted to be a particular difficulty when having to converse about sensitive topics such as sex and sexuality. There are numerous factors which likely influence the nature and quality of these conversations. This research is interested in the prevailing gender narratives in respect of sexual abuse and social work practice which serve as a backdrop to these conversations. Social work is a ‘female majority profession’ (McPhail 2004) and as such, the majority of conversations with male young people about CSA, CSE and HSB in social work practice are undertaken by female practitioners. Alongside this, the majority of perpetrators of CSE/CSA/HSB are male children and adults (Hackett, 2014). Given this context, this research will provide an in-depth exploration of how do female social workers and adolescent males negotiate and experience conversations in the context of possible CSA, CSE and HSB concerns? This research will employ a qualitative multi-perspectival design with interpretative phenomenological analysis (Larkin, Shaw & Flowers 2019) in order to gain a rich picture of how communication and engagement is facilitated or impeded between female social workers and young male clients in these exchanges. The intention of this research is to provide analysis of a contested and complex area of social work practice with the hope of learning what helps shape whether these conversations are successful or not. The approach will be exploratory and inductive in nature, given the lack of prior research on this topic. It is anticipated that a body of knowledge will be generated and theorised, allowing for further empirical research within the practice domain with consideration being given to how future social work practice could be best improved.

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Charles Watters

Second supervisor: Prof Paul Statham

Research project: Mental Distress Related Beliefs and Practices among Buddhist Migrant Communities in the West

Research description: Mental health and illness research has undergone considerable change over the past decades with anthropologists gradually challenging the universality of the dominant psychiatric worldview and arguing for the cultural particularism of conceptions of mental distress. Arthur Kleinman has been particularly influential by introducing the concept of ’Explanatory Models’ to refer to the ways mental difficulties are explained, understood, and experienced within a particular cultural group. Explanatory Models are strongly influenced by religion and in turn inform individuals’ health seeking behaviours. Similarly, Mark Nichter’s work on ‘Idioms of Distress’ has shown that the means by which people express distress take multiple forms (somatic complaints, religious performance, claims of spiritual possession, etc.) according to the cultural group’s core values and norms. The particularistic view of mental health entails that some migrant minorities have understandings, expressions, and practices around distress that differ from the biomedical model prevailing in Western societies. These differences appear particularly pronounced where minorities hold religiously or spiritually influenced understandings of distress that are at odds with the Western medical secularism. I thus propose to focus on Buddhist migrant minorities to explore the interplays between Western biomedical and non-Western spiritually informed ideas around mental distress. The research project will explore how interactions with the Western environment – in terms of infrastructure, medical systems, religious and health beliefs – impact on Buddhist ethno-minorities’ understanding, management, and treatment of mental distress. A qualitative methodology with comparative elements will be used. The research will focus on the Tibetan community in Switzerland and the Thai community in England. They each constitute sizeable national communities in Europe and represent two main Buddhist traditions, Mahayana/Vajrayana and Theravada. Comparing different Buddhist schools provides a better understanding of how Buddhism informs mental health beliefs and practices and the extent to which differences between schools of thought lead to variations in outcomes. Data will be gathered through semi-structured interviews and participant observation to allow the expression of beliefs and collection of data in a way that is less undermined by the researcher’s cultural beliefs and preconceptions. While cultural conceptions of mental health among migrants are frequently researched, there is a dearth of studies about the dynamic interpenetrations of ideas relating to mental distress in a global context, i.e. how different cultural elements are combined into wider frameworks of understanding to produce new and diverse ways of approaching distress. Also, very little research has been conducted on Buddhist minorities’ ideas and practices around distress, with studies focussing on larger migrant groups. Buddhist diasporas in Europe and the UK however are significant and growing. By better acknowledging their obstacles to mental wellbeing and their position in relation to dominant epistemological frameworks, social care and health policies can be improved to benefit these communities and religious minorities in general. Additionally, Buddhist ideas are of distinctive interest given their growing influence on Western mental health related policy and practice. Increased understanding of Buddhist perspectives shall improve the incorporation of Buddhist elements in Western practice, not least by involving and directly engaging with the Buddhist communities.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Professor Donald McGillivray

Second supervisor: Dr Bonnie Holligan

Research project: Back to the land: legislative design for land management with environmental and social benefit

Research description: This research addresses how law constrains and facilitates environmental decision-making in the UK. The focus is on land governance that is informed by ecological thinking and adopts participatory processes. Socio-legal case studies draw on practitioner experience of collaborative land management at landscape-scale and address governance frameworks and their implementation in each devolved nation. The intention is to provide an in-depth study of land governance in the UK, test innovations in UK environmental law and ecological and participatory land management, and set out the legislative design needed to facilitate positive environmental decision-making from local to national levels. The research is of wider public interest in its relevance for environmental governance.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Sally Sheldon

Second supervisor: Julie McCandless

Research project: Egg freezing for ‘social’ reasons: Reproductive autonomy and legal regulation

Research description: In recent years, an increasing number of women have chosen to freeze their eggs for ‘social’, or non-medical, reasons to delay motherhood until they feel ready, either emotionally, socially or economically. In my research, I will address two broad questions: firstly, to what extent does ‘social’ egg freezing enhance women’s reproductive autonomy? Secondly, how should egg freezing for ‘social’ reasons be regulated in the UK? I will be conducting interviews with women who have chosen to freeze their eggs to find out how this has affected their reproductive autonomy, and what they want from regulation.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Sally Sheldon

Second supervisor: Ellie Lee

Research project: Communicating the Risk of Taking Medicines to (Potentially) Pregnant Women post-Montgomery: A Socio-Legal Exploration

Research description: Clinicians face complex ethical and legal issues in communicating risk information to (potentially) pregnant women. While the Supreme Court's recent decision in Montgomery v Lanarkshire (2015) suggests that women should be warned of any 'material risk' and empowered to make their own healthcare decisions, this can be difficult to operationalise in practice. Through desk based study and a series of interviews with clinicians, this PhD will explore how healthcare professionals negotiate thorny ethical and legal issues in the context of advising (potentially) pregnant women regarding the risks of taking specific medications. How do clinicians manage tensions between ensuring informed consent and the precautionary principle ('if in doubt, don't risk it')? How do they negotiate certainty, uncertainty, risk and fear? How do they balance complex ethical concerns for the woman's health, her autonomy, and the health of her future child? What role do regulatory frameworks play in this process? The project will be conducted in close collaborating with BPAS, a large reoproductive health charity and abortion service provider, which promotes public education on matters relating to pregnancy and advocates for women's access to evidence-based information.

Twitter: R_Arkell

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Nick Scharf

Second supervisor: Morten Hviid

Research project: Copyright and Blockchain: Can Blockchain fix digital copyright and will regulation be required?

Research description: Using a socio-legal approach, this research will analyse the impact of Blockchain on digital copyright and highlight legal challenges that may arise. Qualitative empirical research will consider current copyright issues from the point of view of individuals involved in blockchain technology in the creative industries, and explore how the current regulations are perceived and practised within the field. The research will consider whether current laws are capable of adapting to the changing technological landscape or whether new regulation or a totally new way of thinking is required in order to support blockchain developments, foster innovation, ensure fair remuneration and promote a level playing field in the digital creative environment.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: David Mead

Second supervisor: Michael Hamilton

Research project: How does media coverage influence the effective exercise of the legal right to protest?

Research description: My project aims to evaluate the media's role in protecting protest rights. It will do this through a mixed methods study of coverage of Extinction Rebellion protests from 2018 to 2021 and of subsequent criminal court cases. It will focus on how media coverage impacts the legal right to protest and public perception of those rights.

Sociology

Awarded PhD 2022

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Alison Phipps

Second supervisor: Dr Tanya Palmer

Research project: Exploring domestic homicide reviews as a mechanism for change

Research description: In 2011, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) were introduced in England and Wales. DHRs tell the story of a homicide, describing the circumstances prior to a victim’s death. By identifying learning, they aim to improve prevention and intervention strategies and reduce the likelihood of future homicides. I am interested in how DHRs work. Specifically, I am researching their part in the coordinated community response and the difference they make, including whether they bring about system change and reduce the likelihood of future homicides.

Twitter:https://twitter.com/jh_rowlands/

LinkedIn:https://uk.linkedin.com/in/james-rowlands-0a155255/

Other social media:https://profiles.sussex.ac.uk/p450624-james-rowlands/

Sociology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Alex Stevens

Second supervisor: Caroline Chatwin

Research project: Illegal Drugs or Ancient Medicine?

Research description: The present criminological research project will generate crucial knowledge and insight about the emerging trend of illegal psychedelic drug use, specifically the relationship between current forms of control and the proliferation of criminal networks and unregulated psychedelic drug markets. The early 21st century has brought forth a renewed scientific interest in the clinical application of psychedelic substances when treating a wide range of mental illnesses. As lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and the dimethyltryptamine (DMT) brew ayahuasca are being thrust into the spotlight as miracle wonder drugs (despite their long-prohibited status as harmful illegal substances), their use outside of regulated medicinal settings is growing rapidly as a consequence. This emerging trend of non-medicinal psychedelic drug use is occurring within ‘entheogenic’ contexts, that is, in ceremonial and ritualistic settings, and to induce religious and spiritual experiences. Such practices, and their associated markets, present fertile ground for criminal networks; whilst LSD, magic mushrooms and ayahuasca remain classified and controlled as illegal substances, they are being made widely available via an unregulated market of psychedelic wellness ‘retreats’, mobilised by a host of similarly unregulated and potentially criminal facilitators. The present research project will therefore investigate how the illegal status of psychedelic substances shapes and stimulates this newly emerging psychedelic drug market, focusing on the subsequent growth of related networks in the Netherlands and United Kingdom.