Business and Management

(University of Surrey)

Main supervisor: Prof Caroline Scarles

Second supervisor: Prof Caroline Nicholson

Research project: The Creation of Immersive Travel Experiences and Their Effect on Reducing Social Isolation

Business and Management

Awarded PhD 2023

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Stephen Murphy

Second supervisor: Professor Melissa Tyler

Research project: A Feminist Account of High-Risk Leisure Consumption.

Research description: This research focuses on the experiences of the increasing number of women who voluntarily engage with high-risk leisure activities, here described as ‘edgework’. This research seeks to elucidate this increase in women’s participation within high-risk leisure consumption. The theory of edgework concerns the voluntary risk-taking behaviours that have the potential for life-changing injuries or death (Lyng, 1990). This includes boundary negotiation (Lyng, 2014), while seeking to push as close to the ‘edge’ of the boundaries, mentally or physically as possible (Lyng, 1990). Women’s experiences are continually neglected in the edgework literature, with many edgeworkers simply labelled as deviant. To explore edgework from a feminist perspective, the experiences of female aerial performers will be used to understand the social, cultural and structural characteristics that shape women’s increasing propensity for voluntary risk-taking. Aerial dance is well positioned to explore edgework as performers are suspended high in the air, using silk ropes, trapezes and hoops. Beyond these physical risks, aerial dance is a burgeoning leisure phenomenon and is a perfect place to explore the factors shaping women’s experiences of high-risk leisure. To study these experiences, the research will follow the Biographical Narrative Interview Method (BNIM; Wengraf, 2001), ensuring that the participants construct their own biographical narratives. Participants are also asked to pick 3 photos of their aerial dance that are of importance to them to also discuss. This research therefore aims to uncover and incorporate the experiences of women into a retheorization of edgework from a feminist perspective, using a Butlerian lens to understand these experiences. The main here is to develop a theory of edgework that is encompassing of the gendered differences in edgework, as opposed to neglecting and stigmatizing these differences. Additionally, a part of the aim here is to illuminate the aspects of risk that women are forced to manage on account of their gender. This includes the social risks associated with being a woman within a stereotypically masculine domain, and also the preconceptions that others may have in relation to women’s emotions hampering their capacity to manage high-risk situations. The research questions that are currently guiding this research focuses primarily upon notions of gender, and the impact this has on risk-taking. The questions outlined below emphasise the socio-cultural aspects of women’s experience of risk: 1. What types of risks do aerial performers experience? 2. How do aerial performers manage the risks involved with aerial dance? 3. How do social, cultural and structural conditions shape these experiences of risk?

Development Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Lyndsay McLean

Second supervisor: Pamela Zea

Research project: Precarious manhood and the link with School-Related Gender-Based Violence in Malawi

Research description: One in three women will experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, the majority of which will be perpetrated by an existing or former partner. There is a growing body of research aiming to understand the determinants of violence, and what works to prevent it. More recently this research has begun to look at the link between masculinities and violence, and how societal constructions of gender allow, tolerate and even encourage violence towards women. Additionally, men’s violence has been attributed to what Raewyn Connell (2012) refers to as a “crisis of masculinity” which can brought on, for example, by shifts in the status in the family and community or by political and economic transition. More recent research has suggested that this “crisis” can even be triggered by interventions intended to increase women and girls’ resources and power.

This research project will build on this nascent knowledge by looking at violence perpetrated against adolescent school girls in Malawi, Sub Saharan Africa, a region where violence against women and girls has been characterised as “normalized and tolerated”.

The research will unpack some of the contextual factors driving violence against school girls in Malawi with a specific focus on shifting gender identities. As gender identities are not constructed in isolation or in situ, but shift and transform over time and place , the research will look at how both male and female gender identities are constructed in Malawi, both current, and historically. It will then ask if school-related gender-based violence can be seen as a display of masculinity in a precarious context which has been triggered by girl and women’s growing empowerment and non-conforming gender behaviour.

Development Studies

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Sasha Englemann

Second supervisor: Dr Jay Mistry

Research project: Voicing the Eco-Political Agencies of Children Through Participatory Creative Methods

Research description: Youth climate activists are receiving unprecedented media attention. In increasingly visible ways, young people like Greta Thunberg, Jamie Margolin and Isra Hirsi are reacting to and confronting ecological conditions and futures. Yet there is an urgent need to complement our attention to these youth leaders in the Global North with better understanding of the political agency of children in the midst of the climate crisis in the Global South. As development studies literatures affirm, it is vital to engage with children in Global South cities who are negotiating complex climate change issues and pressures on a daily basis. However, as recent work in children’s geographies suggests, approaches to children’s agency should include attention to the multiple, often non-verbal modes in which children express themselves. The proposed project responds to these challenges by developing participatory methods to engage with Global South based, urban-dwelling primary school children to document their negotiations of local environments and the impacts of climate change. More specifically, I will investigate children’s agencies in relation to climate change through participatory methods featuring music and sound. I will do so by staging a series of musical and vocal workshops with seven to eleven-year-old children in Bogota, Colombia, a city where children are predicted to face, among other factors, increasing food insecurity, unhealthy exposure to the urban heat island, and dramatically increased rainfall driven by climate change. Building on my existing professional practice as a facilitator of musical workshops and learning spaces for primary school children in London, as well as my experience working with communities in Latin America, I will evolve two sonic methods: first, I will employ the histories and tonalities of Cumbia music (a musical genre that originated in Colombia) as a means to involve children in mapping stories and issues of the environment and climate change; second, I will facilitate vocal exercises and improvisation sessions to encourage children to invent their own space of communication and exchange. By engaging with children in Bogota, where I have access to space and resources through educational contacts, this project will further understandings of children’s political agencies and local environmental concerns. It will also engage inherited traditions of music and sound in the Global South, while decentring western perspectives on children and climate change. Bringing together children’s geographies, studies of political agency in the Global South and participatory creative methods, this project will make an important contribution to literature on children's political subjectivities in the midst of the climate crisis.

Development Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Paul Clist

Second supervisor: Arjan Verschoor

Research project: An investigation into the effect of bilingualism, place and cultural exposure on revealed preferences

Research description: My research has three key areas of interest:

To investigate the interaction between language and cooperation in a public goods game, exploring both norms, expectations or intrinsic preferences as a potential mechanism.

Consider the relevance of geographical context (‘place’) on norms and expectations, as well as interaction effects between language and place.

Explore whether cultural exposure affects norms and expectations in the context of rural to urban migration, particularly whether norms and expectations can be learnt and unlearnt. My research is based on field work conducted in Kampala Uganda, using lab-in-the-field experiments.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-hill-52938042/

Economics

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr. Juan Pablo Rud

Second supervisor: Dr. Ija Trapeznikova

Research project: Labour supply and the environment: evidence from Mexico

Research description: The effects of climate change, such as global warming and the increase of natural disasters, will seriously disrupt economic activities in the years to come. These impacts will be particularly harmful for the most vulnerable in the developing world, such as traditional farmers or low productivity and self-employed informal workers in urban areas. Their ability to cope with environmental disruptions and to adapt to a changing climate can have strong implications in terms of well-being for them and their families. My research focuses on how environmental factors, like temperature, precipitation and pollution affect the behaviour and outcomes of informal workers in Mexico. In 2017, around 30 million workers were in informal jobs (57% of the working population) and more than 22 million of them worked in own-account activities as domestic labour or agricultural jobs. Using detailed data on hours worked by day and high frequency data on weather and pollution, the project will look to understand how the exposure to harmful environmental conditions affect workers' labour supply, transitions into different labour force status and productivity and, ultimately, their income.

Economics

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Oana Borcan

Second supervisor: Dr Amrish Patel

Research project: Global Integrity Education – A Behavioural Approach

Research description: Private sector corruption is a strong barrier to economic development across the globe, particularly in non-Western countries, struggling with entrenched cultures of rule-breaking and a lack of ethics and integrity training. In this context, we propose a topical research program in behavioural economics that will support integrity education programmes developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) or similar organizations, particularly those targeting young students and private sector professionals in corruption-vulnerable countries. The UNODC is an organisation with longstanding expertise in deploying education to promote values like integrity and combat corruption (see their flagship Education for Justice (E4G) initiative). The aim of the PhD research programme is to provide the scholarly foundation, measurement and impact evaluation of such interventions.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nikita-grabher-meyer

Education

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr. Naomi Flynn

Second supervisor: Prof. Suzanne Graham

Research project: Raising EAL learners' attainment (REAL)

Research description: Working in collaboration with the University of Reading’s Institute of Education and a network of Southampton schools, the REAL project aims to explore the effectiveness of the Enduring Principles of Learning, an evidence-informed rubric which has had success in systematically observing, measuring and improving classroom practice and academic outcomes (Teemant, 2020). At its core, the Principles encourage a collaborative relationship between teachers and instructional coaches, with the shared goal of raising pupils’ attainment through inspiring teaching practice rooted in sociocultural learning theories. Appropriate for both monolingual and English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners, the Principles foster opportunities for rich language and dialogue to occur amongst teachers and pupils, with its application already producing promising results in North American and European classroom contexts (Flynn, Viesca & Teemant, 2019).

The REAL project will concurrently explore the impact of the Principles on teachers and pupils, framed within the UK classroom context. This includes the delivery and evaluation of professional development underpinned by the Principles, in addition to the analysis of EAL pupils’ academic outcomes and their perceptions of the Principles applied to classroom practice. This study intends to contribute to the limited evidence base currently available regarding EAL pedagogy within the UK, with the findings of this research of particular interest to school leaders, teachers, researchers and other education professionals working closely with EAL pupils.

Twitter: @aniqaleena

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aniqa-leena/

Education

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Simon P Hammond

Second supervisor: Professor Nigel Norris

Research project: Exploring the transitions of young adults with SEND from education to work

Research description: My thesis will explore how young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) make sense of their transition experiences as they leave education, enter the workplace and attempt to sustain themselves there. Nationally, the employment rates of SEND populations are just 6%. As one strategy to address this issue, the Department for Education has recently introduced year-long education to work programmes called Supported Internships, which aim to prepare 16-24 year olds with SEND for competitive employment. The programmes are delivered by education providers and based full-time at a host employer workplace site. This research will engage with young people with diverse SEND (including autism, learning disabilities and sensory impairment) who are undertaking a Supported Internship and individuals who have progressed through this pathway. It is felt that an inductive, qualitative approach seeking first-person perspectives can facilitate rich and meaningful insight into these young people's lives. Drawing on these everyday, lived experiences can inform the development of policy and practice in this relatively new area, as well as provide valuable insight into the ongoing needs of people with SEND in employment.

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

Education

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr L H Gaazeley

Second supervisor: Dr J C Sutherland

Research project: Still Learning to Labour – exploring the dynamics of the construction classroom

Research description: This research explores the multi-layered dynamics of the construction classroom in three Further Education (FE) colleges in England. With increasing powers to exclude students or seek alternative provision, the flow of students perceived to be ‘challenging’ into FE is on the rise. The majority study courses preparing them for the workplace, highlighting the traditionally working-class nature of the FE context. The nature of construction subjects, such as bricklaying, carpentry and plumbing, is such that most lecturers will be male, working-class and employed for trade skills rather than pedagogic expertise. Like their students many of these teachers will have left school at 16, before progressing through the apprenticeship system to go on to become experts in their field. In the academic year 2020-21 the new T Levels are being introduced offering a mixture of classroom learning and ‘on-the-job’ experience. alongside the reintroduction of an employer lead and funded apprenticeship system. The way the new courses are structured and the new ‘higher’ standards that have been introduced have implications for the predominately male working class students. Construction classrooms are culturally and socially diverse and challenging learning environments. This research takes a case study approach and utilises a range of methods (observations, focus groups and interviews) to explore the interactions between students and teachers in the construction classroom; looking at the way relationships are formed and maintained, how teaching and learning are approached and how the behaviour of both staff and students affects the former. This is an under researched area, yet construction departments are increasingly required and expected to raise the ‘standards’ of young people who have been failed by compulsory education, whilst being both under-resourced and under-valued. Further Education is a unique educational environment and the approach to teaching and learning needs to be equally unique if we are to truly raise the standards of our learning to labour.

Education

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Louise Gazeley

Second supervisor: Dr Jacqui Shepherd

Research project: Transition from Alternative Provision to post 16 settings: navigating the challenges.

Research description: There is increased demand to know why pupils in Alternative Provision (AP) are less likely than their peers in mainstream school to transition to post-16 education and training (Timpson, 2019). AP is education arranged for pupils who are unable to attend school because of permanent exclusion, mental and physical ill-health or behaviour problems (DfE, 2013). The numbers of pupils in AP are rising - they currently stand at 1 in 200 each year (Gill, 2017). However, over 1 in 3 of these pupils fail to progress from Year 11 to Education, Employment and Training (EET) (DfE, 2018b). This research investigates how they navigate this transition and contributes to a national priority; how to increase the proportion who progress from AP to sustained EET (DfE, 2018). The focus in the study on what supports - and mitigates against - progression to EET, and therefore where opportunities exist to reduce the number who fail to progress, makes the potential findings highly relevant to policy and practice. AP includes a diverse range of provision including Pupil Referral Units, vocational courses delivered by charities and farm schools. Young people in these settings are some of the most disadvantaged in the education system and are more likely to be living in poverty, have Special Educational Needs, be Looked After or have mental health difficulties (Mills & Thomson, 2018). At the end of Year 11 they make a critical transition when they leave AP to continue their education elsewhere, either in a college, an apprenticeship or employment with training. If they engage and sustain participation in EET it can lead to positive outcomes such as gaining qualifications and economic independence. However, for those who do not progress and become NEET (Not in Education, Employment and Training) there are significant risks to their future mental and physical health, and employment prospects (Feng et al, 2015), potentially reproducing a cycle of disadvantage. This study draws on a definition of transition as ‘the capability to navigate change’ (Gale and Parker, 2014, 737) and uses an Ecosystemic model (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) to understand the systems and relationships that affect pupils' capability to navigate this change. Existing literature on transition from AP to EET predominantly focuses on the mechanics of transition, such as careers advice. This study seeks a more holistic understanding of transition, by exploring pupils' lived experience of the change from AP to EET in greater depth. This leads to the overarching research question: How do pupils navigate the change from AP to EET? The research will employ a qualitative, longitudinal design and use interviews to gather data from pupils, their parents/carers and education professionals. Data will be contextualised by collecting information (online and documentary) about AP settings and post-16 programmes.

Findings in this study will enable practitioners and policy-makers to develop strategies to increase post-16 participation that are grounded in an understanding of what supports or impedes pupils' transition. Findings are also likely to provide transferable insights to other contexts where there are similar concerns about post-16 transitions, such as in Scotland.

Human Geography

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Johanna Forster

Second supervisor: Dr Trevor Tolhurst / Dr Irene Lorenzoni

Research project: Building resilience in coastal governance: ethics and justice in responsible innovation

Research description: My PhD project is a joint SeNSS-ARIES collaborative studentship project on building resilience in coastal governance, based at the University of East Anglia. Coastal zones are some of the most vulnerable areas to impacts of climate change in the UK, and this project looks at the social and environmental implications of the Bacton and Walcott sandscaping scheme, which has recently been introduced on the North Norfolk Coast to manage the coastal environment. This is in collaboration with North Norfolk District Council. This PhD project will bring together natural science data, such as modelling of geomorphological change, to underpin understandings of social change and implications for environmental justice, which this studentship focuses on.

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/isabel-cotton-4a57b6a1/

Other social media: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3967-3937/

Human Geography

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Katherine Brickell

Second supervisor: Dr Sally Lloyd-Evans

Research project: Seeing Red: Alter-Geopolitics of Menstrual Management and Activism in the United Kingdom

Research description: Despite being part of the lives of half the global population, menstrual management has received little academic attention as a gender and social justice issue. In the context of third and fourth-wave feminism, my PhD project “Seeing Red” will examine menstrual activism as a form of alter-geopolitics, a type of feminist geopolitics done through action and forged outside of elite geopolitical circles and the container of the state (Koopman, 2011). I position menstrual activism as geopolitical because of its call for the security of sexual and reproductive health and human rights, its emphasis on freedom from gender discrimination and violence against menstruation, and its momentum as a feminist movement globally. My research aims to explore off and online spaces of menstrual activism in the United Kingdom through ethnographic research with menstrual activists and groups, who are working to address matters of period poverty and transgender discrimination. The collection and analysis of menstrual activism materials and imagery will form part of the qualitative methodology and this will be accompanied by semi-structured interviews with key actors instrumental to the rise of menstrual activism in the UK, such as founding members of movements and bestselling authors. My PhD will bridge the gap between menstrual activism and scholarship, as well as making important contributions to feminist political and social geography.

At postgraduate level, it will also make a disciplinary contribution to efforts addressing the chronic under-representation of BIPOC students and staff in British Geography (Desai, 2017).

Twitter: @jazz_joanes

Human Geography

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr. Oli Mould

Second supervisor: Prof. Gillian Symon

Research project: Spatialities of homeworking and wellbeing: the case of the independent creative worker

Research description: The flexibility gifted by the rise of media technologies has seen the number of people working from home almost double over the last decade. Unaffiliated with an organisation and often characterised by precarious working conditions, independent workers are a growing segment of the workforce, and epitomise this trend towards individualised and lone work often conducted in people’s own homes. Wellbeing-related concerns regarding independent home-based work have been raised, with specific attention drawn to the potential problems facing creative workers, who constitute a large proportion of the labour behind the UK’s growing creative industry. This is because it has been argued that, flexible creative work, unbound by physical space and entangled with the non-economic lives of its practitioners, threatens to disrupt the sanctity of home life, with consequences for mental health. However, there is yet to be a rigorous investigation into the impact of this style and type of work on wellbeing. Responding to these trends and addressing this gap in research, this project will investigate the implications of this spatial conflation of the two spheres of work and home for the wellbeing of home-based independent creative workers. As well as contributing to the ESRC’s priority to research the changing nature and location of employment, the project will add to various bodies of academic literature, both across Human Geography and the interdisciplinary field of work and employment research. The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed (IPSE), and StoryFutures, an enterprise supporting the creative ‘Gateway Cluster’ to the west of London, are collaborative partners on this project. These partnerships are in place to help connect the project to potential participants, interested industry and policy institutions, and relevant bodies of work, research and campaigning.

Twitter: @WillBarnesx

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/will-b-12121987

Linguistics

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr. Kyle Jerro

Second supervisor: Dr. Laurel Lawyer

Research project: What Happens in Words: On the Effects of Negation and Distributivity in Real-Time Event Representation.

Research description: This project focuses on developing our understanding of how we process event phenomena at a psycholinguistic level, drawing on insights from research into event segmentation in psychology, formal linguistic considerations in semantic theory, and mental representations in psycholinguistic research. The aim of this project is to develop a more complete picture of how events are conceptualised, differentiated, and constructed into mental representations in real-time narrative comprehension, with a specific focus on how language users determine how many events are occurring at any given point within a narrative. Three sets of experiments will be conducted to test the effects of negation (whether an event occurred or not) and distributivity (whether an event is considered a single event or a collection of two or more events), as well as their interaction, in order to achieve this aim. Empirical insights from these studies will be used to augment theories of how our cognitive machinery translates linguistic meaning into abstract thought, and establish the groundwork for a larger research project into how the symbolic representations of events encoded within language interact with sensorimotor representations and embodied experiences being explored in cutting-edge psychological research today. Upon these results also rests the potential for better informed future research comparing typical and atypical populations, ideally leading to better diagnoses and treatments of disorders of language and cognition, such as aphasia and schizophrenia. Finally, being interdisciplinary in nature, the proposed project will bridge two often disparate sub-disciplines, semantics and psycholinguistics, promoting how insights from one can inform the other. Data will be collected via EEG, reaction time and reading time studies. (Changes have been made to the data collection process following the Covid-19 pandemic.)

Politics and International Relations

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Jane K Cowan

Second supervisor: Dr Nadya Ali

Research project: From private to public violence. Exploring the link between ‘intimate’ terrorism and mass public violence

Research description: Feminist scholars have long posited that the existence of a public/private divide functions to depoliticise male violence against women and place it beyond the realm of state intervention. The fact that public and private violence are conceptualised so differently also functions to obscure the relationship that may exist between them. However, persuasive anecdotal evidence suggests that the perpetration of domestic abuse and public terror attacks may in fact be linked: Out of seven 2017 attackers, for instance, four were known to have experienced or perpetrated domestic abuse; A brief survey of other attacks – including Nice, the Boston Marathon, Pulse Nightclub, Lindt Café and Charlie Hebdo – indicates a pattern. Despite this evidence, no systematic research exists to investigate a potential link between such acts of mass public violence and domestic abuse. Instead, much analysis rests on the heavily racialised ‘terrorism’ paradigm, which obscures similarities between ‘terroristic’ behaviours and myriad other forms of violence that are commonplace within patriarchal structures. In obscuring these similarities, such analysis cannot account for how ‘public’ and ‘private’ violence intersect. Drawing on the approach of narrative criminologists such as Lois Presser, Shadd Maruna and Sveinung Sandberg, this research will address that gap in analysis. Using in-depth case studies and subject-led interviews, it will investigate what the relationship between ‘private’ and ‘public’ violence might be from the perspective of those who perpetrate both by exploring the violent histories of so-called ‘Islamist’ offenders, far-right offenders and those who have committed gang violence. In doing so, it will seek to understand the worldviews behind these perpetrators’ criminogenic decisions and their own understanding of the escalation of their violence into the public sphere. By better understanding perpetrators’ perspectives, we can potentially learn crucial lessons in how to prevent further violence, with significant implications for questions of national security and for the urgency of concerted action to address domestic abuse.

Twitter: @Adela_Ryle

LinkedIn: Adela Ryle

Facebook: Adela Ryle

Instagram: @adelacarla

Psychology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Lauren Stewart

Second supervisor: Dr Casper Addyman and Dr Fabia Franco

Research project: Is song a superstimulus for language learning? An RCT intervention study

Research description: The importance of providing infants with a rich language environment within the family home is well known. Studies on shared book reading, and those using LENA technology reveal a clear relationship between the amount and quality of language that the infant hears, and their subsequent competencies in understanding and forming speech sounds. However, increasing the amount of spontaneous verbal interaction that occurs within parent-infant dyads is challenging. A promising route to increasing an infants exposure to language is through infant-directed singing. Language embedded within song is attentionally engaging and, we propose that if parents are supported to increase the amount of song singing they do with their infants at home, we will see significant improvement in language outcomes, measured longitudinally. Partnering with the award-winning Baby College Ltd, we will work towards a single blind randomized control trial to determine whether a programme of regular weekly classes for parent/infant dyads, tailored towards building awareness of the importance of singing for language development, as well as increasing parents’ confidence and building their repertoire of songs to use in everyday life will result in significantly improved language comprehension relative to a group of dyads who will be randomly allocated to engage in a similar programme of classes focussing on physical play.

Twitter: @alicerosebowmer

Psychology

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Saloni Krishnan

Second supervisor: Dr Jessie Ricketts

Research project: Investigating and enhancing motivation for reading

Research description: My PhD will focus on using decision-making paradigms to understand neural bases of reward and motivation when reading which could potentially develop intervention strategies aimed at increasing motivation for reading. During my PhD, I will be working in collaboration with the Reading Agency, a charity based in the UK promoting the benefits of reading with both children and adults.

Twitter: Amrita.brains

Psychology

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Professor Helen Dodd

Second supervisor: Dr Rachel McCloy

Research project: Adventurous play: A Randomised Control Trial examining the effects of a parental risk re-framing intervention on children’s adventurous play.

Research description: Children spend around 20% of their time playing physically, running, jumping, climbing etc. (McGrew, 1972; Smith & Connolly, 1980). Despite this, physical play is largely neglected in psychological research of child development (Pellegrini, Dupuis & Smith, 2007). When playing in a space that allows for it, and when they are not restricted by adult intervention children engage in adventurous, risky play which exposes them to moderate levels of fear (Sandseter, 2009a). This type of play is analogous to what has been observed in primates and other animals. The term adventurous play describes this type of positive, thrilling and exhilarating play, where the child experiences a level of fear and takes age-appropriate risks. In recent years children’s opportunities to engage in adventurous play have decreased in part due to children spending less time playing outdoors and also due to increased health and safety concerns making playgrounds less adventurous. This significant decline in adventurous play may be problematic for child development. It has been theorised that adventurous play provides children with opportunities to acquire skills in risk judgement, decision-making and coping in the face of uncertain and fearful situations. Therefore, ample opportunity for adventurous play might help children to cope with anxiety and fear. The benefits of adventurous play may also extend to children’s emotional well-being more broadly having a positive impact on hyperactivity, inattention and behaviour problems. Parents are one of the main determinants of how much children are allowed to engage in adventurous play. Their beliefs about risk can result in either encouragement or restriction of adventurous play opportunities through rules and supervision (Little et al., 2011). The proposed research therefore aims to examine whether parent beliefs about risk can be changed and how this affects opportunities for adventurous play. To achieve this, the project will evaluate an online risk-reframing programme, developed in Canada, which aims to change parent beliefs about risk taking during play. A sample of 200 parents of children aged between 6-11 years will be recruited. Using a randomised control trial design, half of parents will be assigned to complete the intervention and half to a waitlist control group. All parents will complete three online surveys at pre-intervention (T1), post-intervention (T2) and at 12-month follow-up (T3). Measures will be taken of the parents’ tolerance of risk during children’s play, beliefs about child engagement in risks, how much time children spend playing in different places and how adventurously they play in each (T1 and T3 only). A subsample (n = 60) of parents will also take part in a recorded play session with their child at a local park whilst wearing observable cameras. Sessions will be coded for parent physical and verbal behaviours and child behaviours as coded in Little (2010). The project will significantly contribute to research into children’s adventurous play and will provide insights into how to change parent behaviour and increase children’s opportunities for adventurous play. Findings will indicate whether children’s play can be changed via parent beliefs, facilitation and encouragement of adventurous play. If findings indicate changing play is possible, the risk-reframing programme has the potential to be disseminated more broadly and promoted as a way of changing beliefs and positively influencing adventurous play in children.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brooke-watson-3a874aa2/?originalSubdomain=uk

Psychology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Professor Kate Cavanagh

Second supervisor: Dr Clara Strauss

Research project: Optimising Mindfulness in Healthcare

Research description: Mindfulness is a meditation practice with proven benefits including amelioration of depression, anxiety and stress. The NHS is the largest and most stressed workforce in the UK with 1.5 million employees and a growing sickness absence rate. Bringing mindfulness and the NHS together makes intuitive sense and, indeed, recent evidence corroborates the hypothesis that mindfulness training and practice does improve the mental health and wellbeing of healthcare staff. However, little is currently known about optimum conditions for mindfulness to flourish in this population and vice versa.

Research aims:

• To understand the dose-response relationship for mindfulness-based interventions/practices for NHS staff.

• To understand what current staff do in relation to mindfulness, and what more can be done by staff/employers/others.

• To understand the most effective aspects of mindfulness-based interventions/practices, with a view to titrating and maximising their effects.

Psychology

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr Teresa Tavassoli

Second supervisor: Dr Zhiwen Luo

Research project: Understanding the learning experiences of autistic children in special needs schools through better understanding the indoor environment.

Research description: Children with autism are known to be at increased risk for under-achieving academically, relative to their level of ability. Additionally the DSM criteria now lists sensory reactivity symptoms as a core diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Given that we know the environment can deeply affect children with autism and that they can struggle academically, there has been little research into the role that the indoor environment of classrooms can play in their learning. The goal of this research project is to improve the learning experience of autistic children in special needs schools. The aims are to evaluate the perceived and physical indoor environmental quality in special-needs schools for autistic children, and to investigate if indoor environmental quality is related to cognitive performance, sensory reactivity, and classroom behaviour of autistic school children. This project is being carried out in collaboration with Autistica.

Twitter: @HannahMarcham

Psychology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Lucy Bates

Second supervisor: Dr George Wittemyer

Research project: The significance of matriarchal experience for effective leadership in African elephant societies

Research description: African elephants maintain highly complex social structures in which dominant females lead sub-groups of related females and their dependent offspring. Matriarchs are assumed to play a key leadership role and to be integral for the survival and fitness of their family group. In particular, older matriarchs with correspondingly more experience are posited to be superior leaders. Recent research supports this: there is evidence for groups led by older matriarchs responding more effectively to the threat of lion predation, having enhanced social knowledge of the wider elephant network and making superior decisions during extreme climatic events sufficient to result in survival and reproductive benefits for them and their families. However, the mechanisms by which the matriarch co-ordinates group behaviour and the extent to which group members survival strategies depend on learnt strategies from the matriarch, are unknown. If the matriarch has superior knowledge in the realms of navigational ability, risk proneness, threat perception and social networks, then the loss of a matriarch, or the establishment of a young and inexperienced matriarch may have far-reaching consequences. This is highly relevant as (i) matriarchs suffer selective-removal at the behest of the ivory trade due to their larger size and (ii) rapidly changing environments manifest in novel challenges which may demand effective leadership for elephant survival and reproduction. Using a combination of experimental and observational methods, and analysing existing long-term datasets, I plan to investigate the role of experience in matriarchs’ effectiveness as leaders. My proposal examines the means by which matriarchs make decisions, communicate to family groups, and derive cultural knowledge from experienced matriarchal predecessors. First family members’ awareness and response to their matriarch will be tested using playbacks of matriarch calls at locations incongruous with the matriarch’s current position. This naturalistic experimentation will elucidate the salience of audio or visual signals in order to throw light on the principal mode of communication and the methods used by the matriarch to coordinate group behaviour. Second, tracking data will be collected for matriarchs navigating water sources of variable threat level. Matriarchs experience will be graded on (i) their age and (ii) their overlap with and tenure of, the predecessor matriarch. It is predicted that more experienced matriarchs will exhibit safer decision-making when visiting water-sources. Finally, matriarchal takeovers will be described from pre-existing long-term data. Entire ancestries, births, deaths and family splits have been chronicled in the Samburu-Laikipia elephant population of Kenya for 3 decades. Akin to many areas of elephant behaviour, it appears that researchers are aware of patterns of matriarchal inheritance but this area is yet to be formally investigated. Understanding takeover patterns is the cornerstone to studying social learning in matriarchal systems.

Psychology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Kirsten Abbot-Smith

Second supervisor: Professor Heather Ferguson

Research project: How does we-intentionality influence conversational response timing in autism?

Research description: A defining characteristic of verbal communication is the interactional nature of conversational turn-taking. There are striking similarities across cultures in the timing with which one speaker takes the ‘conversational floor’ from another. Yet some individuals – particularly those with Autism Spectrum Conditions – exhibit real difficulties in this domain. For example, verbally fluent autistic children and adolescents tend to respond less, and interrupt more, than their neurotypical counterparts. My research will investigate if, and how, conversational response timing differs between verbally fluent autistic children and their well-matched neurotypical peers. This requires me to first determine the nature of turn-taking in neurotypical conversation. Previous studies on conversational turn-taking have primarily focussed on how people use cues to predict when their conversational partner will finish his/her turn. However, whilst prediction clearly plays an important role in maintaining the fluency of a conversation, I wish to determine the contribution of ‘we-intentionality’. This is the implicit understanding between two people that they are engaging in something together. That is, for a large proportion of conversational switches, the degree to which it is appropriate for a person to ‘take over’ the conversational floor may crucially depend on whether his/her new contribution ‘builds on’ the content of the previous turn and develops the co-constructed topic. Both prediction and we-intentionality have been proposed as core problems for autistic individuals. Consequently, both could potentially account for autistic difficulties with the timing of conversational turns. To investigate this, I will remove the demands of speech planning and production by initially focusing on how participants judge conversational floor-switching in others. Here I will manipulate both the degree to which the conversational response is on-topic and the timing of the response i.e. whether it occurs 200 milliseconds after the first speaker’s utterance (Typical) vs. 900 milliseconds later (Lag) vs. while the first speaker is still talking (Overlap). One possible outcome is that autistic children may consistently prefer the ‘Typical’ response timing, without taking the topic of the response into account. This would indicate that they largely ignore the role of we-intentionality. If this is the case, my follow-on studies will manipulate the types of responses provided (e.g. in terms of experience sharing). Another possible outcome is that autistic children are slower overall to use structural cues to predict response timing, and thus always find the ‘Lag’ responses acceptable. This would be consistent with a generic prediction-deficit account and/or prosodic difficulties. If so, I will then use eye-tracking measures to determine which structural cues are particularly problematic for their prediction. A final possibility is that the autistic group perform similarly to their neurotypical peers. In this case, I will adapt elicited production paradigms to investigate the factors influencing response timing in autistic speech production, such as difficulties accessing domain-relevant knowledge. Overall, my research will further our understanding of the nature of human conversational turn-taking. It will also allow clinicians to determine whether conversation interventions for autistic children should primarily focus on their conceptual understanding of turn-taking, or on their ability to generate responses.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-m-169964a9

Facebook: Lauren McGuinness

Instagram: @laurenmcguinness_x

Psychology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Brianna Beck

Second supervisor: Professor David Wilkinson

Research project: Memory for pain: neural processing and cognitive intervention strategies

Research description: Pain is a sensory and emotional experience that is important for learning, but, few studies have explored our ability to remember painful experiences as an objective in its own right. Understanding the mechanisms underlying memory for pain could help us understand and intervene in pain-related disorders. Some of these disorders, indeed, have been recently characterised as stemming from maladaptive pain. Guided by two primary aims, my studies are committed to this line of investigation. The first, to investigate the neural processes involved in working memory for pain (i.e. short-term storage of pain memory). This will provide an understanding of the early stages of pain memory consolidation—the process by which short-term memory is stabilised into long-term memory. My research uses psychophysical, electrophysiological and brain stimulation methods to investigate the neural mechanisms involved in holding pain in working memory, and the extent to which they overlap with working memory for nonpainful touch. I will compare participants’ performance on painful and non-painful stimulus discrimination tasks requiring them to hold one stimulus in memory and compare it with another, whilst transiently disrupting brain regions known to be involved in tactile working memory. My second aim assesses how we can interfere with associative pain memories that have already been stabilised into long term memory, as in cases of chronic pain (i.e. pain lasting ≥3 months, after any physical damage has healed). According to a well-grounded and rapidly advancing paradigm of memory research known as reconsolidation interference, reactivation of a memory trace initiates a window of vulnerability to memory interference. Specifically, it may be possible to use a dual-load paradigm in which neural processes recruited by a cognitive/behavioural task interfere with those required to reconsolidate the memory, destabilising the memory trace. This offers a potential mechanism to erase maladaptive pain memories. This possibility will be tested using experimentally induced pain and a cue conditioning procedure in healthy volunteers. During a reactivation phase, participants will perform a working memory task that targets either sensory or emotional processing, since those two processes are fundamental to pain experiences. In the final phase, I will measure arousal responses to the visual cues previously paired with pain to determine whether the interference procedure was effective. These studies will determine whether sensory or emotional processing is more important for consolidating pain memories, and therefore more successful at interfering with their reconsolidation. Additionally, in the long term, I would like to apply the successful interventions to spontaneous clinical pain. This will provide insight into the nature of memory for pain in clinical pain samples and direct potential intervention strategies in these populations. My studies address three overarching research questions: Which brain areas are involved in working memory for pain, compared with tactile working memory? Does the reconsolidation of associative pain memories depend more upon sensory or affective working memory processes? Which reconsolidation interference strategies are most successful at weakening associative pain memories?

Psychology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Andy Field

Second supervisor: Prof Zoltan Dienes

Research project: The role of robust statistical methods in the credibility revolution of psychological science

Research description: The credibility movement in psychology arose as a response to failures to replicate a number of effects that were previously considered robust (Open Science Collaboration, 2015). Previous research indicated that the flexibility the researchers exercise when deciding how to analyse their data, which transformation to apply, and which cases to retain or exclude (Steegen et al., 2016), has contributed current replicability issues. Analytic decision making can be influenced by a number of factors, including bias towards producing results that are more likely to get published because of statistical significance, but may subsequently fail to replicate. This project will investigate how limiting analytic flexibility in the research process - namely by preregistering analytic plans and applying robust statistical methods that remain unbiased under conditions where other commonly used models underperform - can help address some of the problems with replicability in psychology by reducing the possibilities for generating false-positive effects and improving power to discover effects that would otherwise remain undetected. It will do so by: (1) querying psychology researchers about their knowledge and understanding of the assumptions of the general linear model (GLM), the most commonly applied statistical model in psychology, and about the solutions they apply to counteract bias from commonly occurring characteristics of data from psychological research; (2) using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to text-mine information from published papers and examine the language the researchers use to describe their data, statistical models and draw conclusions about the effects under investigation; (3) assessing the performance of robust statistical methods under real-world conditions of psychological data (e.g., typical distributional characteristics, presence of outliers and influential cases, etc.); (4) evaluating the robustness of published effects for preregistered and non-preregistered studies. The project will shine a light on current statistical practice within psychological research and lead to specific ‘best practice’ recommendations for psychology researchers at all career stages. This work will address the emerging methodological challenges in the areas of Open Science, replicability, and transparency of research practice, thus having a direct impact on the improvement of psychology as a scientific discipline.

Twitter: martinasladek

Psychology

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Professor Sheina Orbell

Second supervisor: Dr Veronica Lamarche

Research project: Improving outcomes of chronically ill patients through promotion of effective self-regulation

Research description: The research project aims to establish the psychological mechanisms that need to be incorporated into patient care in order to guide patients in self-managing their chronic illness with immediate focus on chronic kidney disease. Chronic illness significantly impacts society and healthcare. Optimal management of many diseases requires patients to make behavioural changes, with which they struggle. Limitations in the existing evidence base indicate the need to identify self regulatory processes that might be targets for psychological intervention within health care settings. The main study objectives are: (i) To develop a theoretically informed schematic model of self-regulatory processes likely to be involved in self-management of chronic disease. (ii) Identify modifiable self-regulatory processes associated with effective/ineffective self-management of renal disease assessed by objective clinical measures. (iii) Explore the relationships between adherence and depressed mood and the role of self-regulatory processes in this relationship. The proposed research has the potential to not only increase our understanding of some of the barriers in self-regulation but also lead to improved treatments for people with chronic disease.

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof. Dr. Karoline Rogge

Second supervisor: Dr. Matthew Lockwood

Research project: Competition between alternative drives? Introducing socio-political factors to the study of multi-technology interaction

Research description: My PhD project examines how manufacturers or policymakers, as powerful actors, influence the sustainability transition of the transport sector by differently portraying alternative drives in relation to one another. Changes in dominant technologies are a key contribution to reducing global CO2 emissions and achieving sustainability transitions in sectors such as energy, agro-food, or transport. Such sustainability transitions are defined as “radical shifts to new kinds of socio-technical systems” [1, p. 3]. Despite this system perspective, most research on the role of innovation within transitions has focused on the development and diffusion of single technologies, such as fuel cells, or battery-electric vehicles (BEV). This is a problematic shortcoming as technologies do not exist in isolation but can compete, develop in parallel, or support each other’s development. The few studies on multi-technology interactions in the field of sustainability transitions describe these interactions exclusively from a techno-economic perspective. So far, studies have neglected how these interactions come about in the socio-political context, for example through strategies of organizations. Since sustainability transitions are societally steered and highly negotiated processes with uncertain trajectories and outcomes, this presents a significant research gap, which is addressed in my PhD. As a case, my project focuses on alternative drives for cars and trucks, which are technologically feasible but have not yet widely diffused to replace status-quo technologies: battery-electric solutions and electrified roads, hydrogen and fuel cells, as well as synthetic fuels. These technologies present a highly contested field where powerful actors, centrally manufacturers and policymakers, favour certain technologies over others and communicate their visions of future technology trajectories through media and other channels into society. To achieve the most beneficial technology developments for a sustainable transition of the transport sector, multi-technology interactions and their societal origins and impacts need to be consciously addressed. If perceptions and activities around technology relations remain a black box, this creates the risk that powerful actors further single-technology or open-ended visions, which underutilize the potentials of a systems view and could hamper rather than accelerate the transition.

[1] Köhler, J., Geels, F. W., Kern, F., Markard, J., Onsongo, E., Wieczorek, A., . . . Wells, P. (2019). An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2019.01.004

Twitter: @alinescherrer1

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aline-scherrer-772873106

Science, Technology, and Sustainability Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Prof. Douglas Macmillan

Second supervisor: Dr. Joseph Tzanopolous

Research project: The sustainability of a Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) reintroduction in Scotland

Research description: The aim of my research project is to assess and compare the sustainability of a Eurasian Lynx reintroduction in Aberdeenshire and the Kintyre Peninsula, Scotland, and address concerns raised by local stakeholders and relevant organisations. With an abundance of prey densities and a high economic cost to control these populations, a large carnivore reintroduction into the UK may be beneficial, as for example a successful Eurasian Lynx reintroduction could control deer populations, encourage natural forest regeneration and, increase tourist activity and visitor numbers. Previous lynx reintroductions in Switzerland, France and Germany have resulted in human caused mortalities from poaching, by hunters and livestock breeders; a potential issue for a lynx reintroduction in the UK. An important lesson learnt from a lynx reintroduction in the Palatinate National forest, Germany, is that building local support for and engagement in the reintroduction project is key for successful implementation. A large predator reintroduction in the UK brings much controversy as the UK public have not grown up in an environment with a large carnivore presence. Although, research has reported a lynx reintroduction would be favourable among the public, there are understandably concerns from farmers, livestock breeders, hunters and their associations. It is thus, extremely important to involve these parties in any discussion or plan for a future species reintroduction. Recent research has identified potential sites in Scotland (Aberdeenshire and Kintyre Peninsula) for lynx reintroduction projects but has also highlighted that further research is vital in order to provide an integrated sustainability assessment of the social, economic and biodiversity performance of the Eurasian lynx reintroduction project and investigate its potential challenges and opportunities for local communities.

LinkedIn: Faye Whiley

Instagram: @theconservationdiaries

Social Anthropology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Pamela Kea

Second supervisor: Dr Hayley MacGregor

Research project: Continuity and change: Help-seeking behaviour and understandings of mental wellbeing among Ghanaian migrants in London

Research description: The Ghanaian diaspora in the UK has doubled in size in the twenty first century to over 113,000 people and a recent study found that over half suffered from psychosocial stress (Awuah et al. 2018). The active promotion of a hostile environment policy alongside stresses related to being an ethnic minority in post-Brexit Britain has fostered a state of precariousness and situationally-induced stress factors for migrants which has heightened the risk of mental health issues occurring and made the challenges encountered with treatment even more complex. This treatment is also affected by a lack of cultural awareness and evidence of institutionalised racism within UK healthcare, in which black people are four times more likely to be detained under the Mental Health Act compared to the rest of the population (Singh et al. 2014).This ethnographic study aims to explore how Ghanaian communities in London understand mental wellbeing in regards to it's causes, effects and where help should be sought. This research looks at the ways in which struggles with resettlement in the UK and association with the broader diaspora both helps and hinders mental wellbeing in light of racism and discrimination, as well as the effects of pluralistic approaches to mental wellbeing, employment difficulties, family relationships and religious affiliations. By undertaking a multi-sited ethnography in London and Ghana, I will analyse the effects of this physical and emotional dislocation from a shared cultural system upon how Ghanaian people understand mental wellbeing and what they expect from their mental health care, and ideas of continuity and change in beliefs from home to host contexts. Key research aims:

Develop an understanding of the pluralistic approach to mental wellbeing within Ghanaian communities and the degree to which these approaches continue in the UK diaspora.

Understand the impact of migrating between Ghana and the UK, and the degree to which experiences of mental distress can be mediated or indeed increased by the continuation of transnational practices.

Explore the conceptualisation of mental wellbeing among Ghanaian migrants, and the ways in which these understandings affect where they seek support and develop relations of care.

By detailing specific cases, this study will draw on themes evident within home and host communities of medical pluralism and contextualise these experiences within the wider issues faced by migrants in UK society. This research has clear potential for impact in creating awareness around the way specific migrant populations view their health and the ways in which Ghanaian people communicate their ideas about mental health experience and treatment. My study will offer further insight into theories of migration and health, religious and cultural understandings of wellbeing and stigma within the Ghanaian community and highlight the importance of case-specific, culturally aware healthcare.

Twitter: @AlexisStill3

LinkedIn: Alexis Hawthorne

Social Anthropology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: EJ Gonzalez-Polledo

Second supervisor: Gavin Weston

Research project: Become Human: Affective Personhood and the Emergent Body in Single-Player Video Games

Research description: This research explores what it means to be human in the digital age through an ethnographic study of single-player video games (SPVGs), players and game developers. It examines how particular ideas about personhood and the body become embedded in and disseminated through SPVGs; shaping how people come to imagine the meanings of personhood, its boundaries and constitutive relations. In asking questions about the technologies, economies and practices that make us human in the digital age, this research reimagines and extends anthropological theories of personhood and the body as well as anthropological literature on the co-constitution of persons and technologies to resituate personhood at a time of quickly accelerating technological change, thereby making this research an urgent and timely intervention. Though significant anthropological research has been done on Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing games (MMORPGs), this work has not expanded to incorporate other types of video games such as SPVGs. These SPVGs offer uniquely interesting fieldsites for anthropologists due to their capacity to allow players to co-produce cinematic, affective, embodied and tactile gaming experiences and worlds with the games and game developers. This research develops an analysis of Euro-American science-fiction SPVGs released between 2007-2020 as a lens to examine ideas of what it means to be human. It focuses on how gaming influences players understandings of personhood and the body vis-à-vis science-fictional worlds which allow players to explore other worlds, “other” bodies and other futures and the pivotal role played by game developers in shaping emotional, conceptual and political landscapes for vast numbers of people who interact with their games. It contributes an original and unique piece of research which examines the still largely unexplored worlds of SPVGs, players and game developers, and the evolving relationships between them, at a time where over 2 billion people play video games worldwide and the gaming industry is worth $98 billion more than Hollywood. To answer the kinds of questions that my research asks, I use a combination of multi-sited ethnography with digital, embodied, sensorial and visual methods to explore how conceptions and (re)configurations of personhood and the body are experienced, negotiated and understood by players and game developers.

Twitter: @redrocketpanda

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/avery-delany/

Other social media: www.fieldnotesfromthefuture.com

Social Anthropology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Professor Dimitrios Theodossopoulos

Second supervisor: Dr. Rachel Seioghe

Research project: "Nothing is Certain, Other than Uncertainty Itself": How Young Turkish Cypriots Think About the Future

Research description: Lily is conducting ethnographic research with young Turkish Cypriots living in the UK and Northern Cyprus to explore their understandings of the Cyprus conflict and their imaginations for/of the future. Cyprus is an island caught in a ceasefire, divided ethnically, politically, linguistically, and socially since 1974, and experiencing intercommunal violence since 1955. In daily life, the two halves function as separate entities but internationally, the Turkish-speaking north is considered to be an occupied region of the Republic of Cyprus. The lack of recognised nationhood coincides with international demonisation, historical violence, economic embargoes, geographic isolation, and recent financial crisis to create a context of socio-political entrapment for Turkish Cypriot youth.

Lily's PhD research considers this context to explore how young Turkish Cypriots think about their personal futures, the future of Cyprus, and the future of the Turkish Cypriot people, as well as the role of the UK in the Cyprus conflict. This project will investigate the first generation of Turkish Cypriots without lived experience of the war, focusing on their understandings of history, time, violence, colonialism, recognition, and insecurity. In particular, the research aims to understand how young people deal with chronic uncertainty, economic crisis, and political liminality, and how they imagine and prepare for their futures in light of a precarious present and violent past.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/l-a-gibbs/

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Professor Charles Watters

Second supervisor: Dr Liam Berriman

Research project: Nurturing or neglecting green minds: what value is placed on accessing nature across different state and private educational settings?

Research description: There is a large and growing body of evidence that time spent outdoors is good for mental health and wellbeing in children, with a number of studies linking green and open spaces with wellbeing, resilience, improved behaviour and better learning outcomes. Green Mind Theory states that the embedding of a pro-environmental stance in the early years will have profound consequences for the future, with green minds developing greener and more prosocial economies. However, as a society, we are spending more time indoors and less time accessing nature, with children spending on average half as much time playing outside as their parents did, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds and from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic populations even less likely to engage with nature. Now more than ever, children may be particularly dependent on educational settings to enable their access to open spaces. In England there is an increasingly complex mixed-market education model which encompasses a huge range of state and privately funded settings for children of all ages, with the state education system in particular currently going through a time of great change. This research will explore what opportunities children are getting to access nature in primary schools and nurseries across both state and private sectors and across a range of diverse populations. It will examine whether this access is perceived as beneficial to children’s subjective wellbeing and learning and what ideas practitioners may have about what the drivers and inhibitors of accessing outdoor spaces at school and nursery might be. National and local policy documents on this subject will be assembled. Personal accounts will be gathered from the adults working in these settings. Children will be asked to photograph outdoor spaces at school or nursery and to discuss these photos and their meanings in focus groups. By giving voice to different stakeholders, particularly to the children themselves, we can provide a narrative with which to understand the value that is placed on accessing the outdoors across different educational settings and to what extent state or privately funded contexts enable or inhibit that access, thus nurturing or neglecting green minds.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnaRidgewell

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-ridgewell-9b286b181/

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Professor Jonathan Dickens

Second supervisor: Dr Georgia Philip

Research project: Mothers’ and social workers’ perspectives on social work interventions in domestic abuse cases

Research description: This research will examine the nature of social work involvement with families in cases involving domestic abuse by looking at the experiences of mothers and social workers. Statutory children’s services frequently focus their interventions primarily on the mother, including in domestic abuse cases where the mother has experienced the abuse. The negative consequences, particularly for the women, are well known from research capturing mothers’ experiences and perspectives of children’s services in the context of domestic abuse. However, a more nuanced approach is needed to take into account the complexities of social work practice in such cases; the wider context of austerity; and newer understandings linking domestic violence with aspects of a person’s context and experiences (including poverty and ethnicity). An intersectional feminist approach will be used to enable all these issues, and their intersections, to be fully explored. Intersectionality is a way of understanding the interconnectedness of multiple oppressions and identities. Gender, heritage, sexuality, income and all other aspects of people’s social context and identity intersect to shape their experiences and therefore their needs. These experiences need to be understood within a broader analysis of systems of power and domination. Qualitative interviews with mothers and social workers will be carried out using a narrative approach. The approach will allow the voices and experiences of participants to be heard. The study will be carried out in two locations: an inner city local authority and an area with rural poverty, providing a broad range of participants. A smaller study will be carried out for the MRes dissertation involving interviews with mothers in one location. The aims of this research are to improve social work practice with mothers, children and families, and contribute to the development of more sensitive policy and theoretical frameworks for working with families. Understanding and addressing the needs of families requires social workers to understand the experiences and contexts of the families they are working with. This then also needs to feed into social work policy as the policy framework social workers operate within can limit, or enable, work carried out with families. The importance of using an intersectional lens is demonstrated by growing evidence linking socioeconomic factors and domestic abuse, child abuse and neglect.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Kirsten McConnachie

Second supervisor: Joe Purshouse

Research project: Assessing asylum claims: a critical investigation of the key factors influencing UK Home Office administrators in their decision-making processes.

Research description: My socio-legal research focuses on bureaucracies and immigration. My PhD thesis investigates the construction and negotiation of the UK border through immigration decision-making, and I am particularly interested in the involvement of state and non-state actors in bordering processes.

I use qualitative research methods to capture the 'multi-modal' nature of asylum decision-making, and employ criminological and sociological theories and perspectives in my research.

Twitter: @connielahiff

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Professor Rosemary Hunter

Second supervisor: Professor Helen Carr

Research project: Agreements to avoid? The use and experience of s20 agreements in child protection.

Research description: This PhD project will use empirical research to investigate the experiences of both parents/carers and social workers who have made s20 agreements in safeguarding circumstances. Section 20 of the Children Act 1989 (“s20”) allows social workers to accommodate children in foster or residential care with the agreement of those with parental responsibility for the child. This section was enacted with the intention to provide respite for families suffering with illness or disability. However, it has gradually morphed into a safeguarding tool. Social workers now frequently resort to making ‘s20 agreements’ with parents to enable them to remove and accommodate children due to child protection concerns. Accommodation under s20 occurs without judicial scrutiny and often without any prior legal advice to the parents and/or the social worker. This has, in recent years, become a cause for concern; particularly following a number of reported cases where s20 has been used to remove children unlawfully or for lengthy periods with no legal security. This research will focus on the tension between the legal ‘rights’ surrounding s20 and children’s services’ use of s20 agreements as a disciplinary device. It aims to provide a new perspective on the often troubled relationship between law and social work in the child protection process.

Twitter: @indiahughes28

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Professor Rosa Freedman

Second supervisor: Professor Paul Almond

Research project: The Protector/Perpetrator Paradox: Preventing Sexual Exploitation and Abuse in the International Aid Sector

Research description: The communities served by the international aid sector have the right to strong safeguarding from sexual exploitation and abuse (SEA) perpetrated by those working in that sector. Since the uncovering of widespread SEA across a 1992 mission in Cambodia, there have been frequent reports from other humanitarian and development operations. While policies introduced by international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) and international organisations (IOs), including the UN, demonstrate that organisations are open and aware of the need for safeguarding, the continued SEA perpetrated by personnel in this sector shows how much work there is to be done. That work must be evidence-based and context-specific, and to that end it is crucial that academic research is undertaken on different aspects of safeguarding in this sector. This research project will develop a preventative and analytical lens through which to probe existing policies and proposals for change, and to investigate the factors that enable widespread SEA. The aim is to establish 'what works' in prevention through the completion of extensive multidisciplinary doctrinal research, and through conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with key INGO stakeholders. I will also explore International Human Rights Law’s possible role in globalising standards and creating a legal framework through which to enforce policy and uphold practice.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Professor Paul Almond

Second supervisor: Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou

Research project: Privacy in Public Space: Reassessing Live Facial Recognition Technology

Research description: This research explores how the deployment of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology impacts on the understanding of public space and future regulation. It examines the legal framework regulating LFR and argues that a reconceptualised definition of public space could provide a rational basis for unified regulation. This study evaluates the legal framework regulating the use of LFR by the public and private sector in public spaces, by considering the minimum standard of privacy rights provided by the Data Protection Act (DPA) 2018. While this arguably provides adequate protection, the constitutional framework in England and Wales places more onerous obligations on public sector organisations. This results from a strict divide between public and private bodies within administrative law. Furthermore, the Human Rights Act (HRA) 1998 does not apply when a private company undertakes public functions. This was illustrated in YL v Birmingham City Council [2007] UKHL 27, where the House of Lords concluded that the contracting-out of a public function does not place the same legal obligations on the private body undertaking the same role. This research argues that this situation is detrimental to a clear understanding of an individual’s rights since, in the context of LFR, these rights vary depending on who is behind the camera. Consequently the law governing privacy in public spaces is inadequate, lacking in clarity, and does not effectively enable an individual to know and vindicate their rights. This study also considers the definition of public space and argues that this could provide a rational basis for unified regulation. The re-assessment of public space takes a multi-disciplinary approach to develop a conceptual model, which explores and challenges different legal, geographical and sociological perspectives. This approach is used to articulate a new model applicable to the current use of LFR, taking into account factors such as the design and accessibility of land, management of premises and ownership of property. The conceptual model will be tested through an observation-based study assessing different indicators of public space. This study takes place at locations where LFR has been used, or is likely to have been used, by public and private sector organisations. The data collected is used to analyse the extent to which public space changes, as the nature of ownership and management does. This approach is valuable, as it informs a consideration of how the legal framework is applied in practice, the extent to which future use of LFR should be regulated, and the form which regulation should take. The final stage of the project will thus analyse whether the definition of public space developed within this study should form the basis of any future reforms.

Sociology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Kate Nash

Second supervisor: Dr Kiran Grewal

Research project: Death, discourse and human rights: The construction of controversial deaths in the coroner’s court

Research description: This research project will explore how human rights discourse operates to order controversial deaths as they are recounted in the coroner’s court. Through ethnographic research it will seek to examine whether the coronial narrative decontextualizes death by reformulating and reinterpreting it, utilising the discourse of human rights to foreground certain factors whilst obscuring others.

Sociology

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Professor Nick Allum

Second supervisor: Dr Laurie James-Hawkins

Research project: Questionable Research Practices, Preference Falsification and the Normative Framework of the Social Sciences

Research description: Ioannidis’ 2005 article, Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, prompted a stream of new research focused on the process of research itself. This emerging field of metascience recently examined ‘questionable research practices’ (QRPs). The field aims to reduce wasted research resources while improving the quality of science. Integral to its exercise is the elucidation of factors that cause and prevent QRPs. With this in mind, the proposed project asks how research norms, integral, yet understudied components of the system of science, influence research integrity. Simply, the question is: to what extent are QRPs legitimated by the norms and expectations of research communities? The project seeks to examine the normative frameworks of appropriate research practice, primarily in the social sciences, and asks how research norms influence attitudes and behaviours. To achieve this, the project will draw on data from focus groups, a large-n survey of European researchers and an experiment, utilising advanced quantitative methods.

Twitter: @robinbrooker3

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Sociology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dawn Lyon

Second supervisor: Vince Miller

Research project: Two sides of the fourth wall: YouTube as modern work and its impact on young people’s futures

Research description: This research is concerned with new forms of digital work. It focuses on the digital space of YouTube both as a site of work and a source of influence in shaping young people’s imaginations of their future working lives. It seeks to document young people’s experiences as they engage with income-generating YouTube content as producers and consumers, and ascertain the impact of the digital culture supported by YouTube on young people’s future (work) orientations. Despite the strength of its online presence, YouTube is a particularly understudied digital platform. This is a significant gap in the literature given the recognised importance of digital culture in young people’s lives and one that this project seeks to address.

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