Business and Management

(University of Surrey)

Main supervisor: Prof Caroline Scarles

Second supervisor: Dr Brigitte Stangl

Research project: Phygital Futures: Investigating the Potential for Physical-Digital Hybrid Visitor Engagement Solutions in Tourism Destinations in a Post-COVID Era

Research description: The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the biggest challenges in the history of the tourism industry (Gössling et al., 2020). To address the obstacles of limited global mobility, tourism destinations are adopting cutting-edge strategies and enhance the role of technologies to recover and re-imagine tourism (Radiogenic et al., 2020). One trend is the increasing use of phygital engagement solutions, a blend of physical and digital components that enable destinations to provide visitors access to on- and offline elements of experiences (Ballina et al., 2019). Thus, tourists can experience a destination without being physically present. From a demand side, tourists are increasingly familiar and willing to interact with these solutions (Geist, 2020). However, to date, there is no comprehensive examination about which phygital engagement solutions destinations have employed to handle the crisis, visitor satisfaction with these, and the benefits such solutions hold for future destination development. Working in partnership with SimpleView, a world-leading provider of integrated destination solutions, this study seeks to understand how destinations can become more resilient through the adoption of phygital engagement solutions. In detail, this study aims to: 1) investigate and critique the adoption of digital innovations and emerging practices of phygital engagement to facilitate continued visitor experiences with destinations during COVID-19; 2) investigate, through theory-based examination using Kano Modelling Technique, levels of visitor engagement and satisfaction with phygital innovations offered by destinations; 3) further theoretical understanding of cyberphysical tourism behaviour by developing a continuum of phygital engagement solutions; 4) develop a series of recommendations to support the appropriate implementation of phygital solutions and associated opportunities and challenges these offer for strategic decision-making in destinations.

Business and Management

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Prof Shaomin Wu

Second supervisor: Dr Virginia Spiegler

Research project: Development of demand forecasting models for sustainable supply chain management

Research description: Demand management plays a core role in supply chain management, but demand forecasting is insufficiently studied through the perspective of algorithm development and data analysis in the existing research. In practice, a small error in demand forecasting will make the information in the upstream and downstream of the supply chain seriously mismatched, resulting in a huge loss in finance and resources, which is the well-known bullwhip effect in inventory management. Besides, data collected for such analyses can be big, thin or incomplete (such as censored or missing). Mining valuable information from different data types has naturally become a focal point of research that needs further exploration. Existing algorithms for demand forecasting include classical statistical methods such as time series analysis including the exponential smoothing methods and the Box-Jenkins methods, and machine learning methods such as neural networks and decision trees. These methods are computationally complicated when modelling on dynamic big data. Additionally, there is little research exploring methods to forecast demands based on thin and incomplete data. This research therefore aims to develop data-driven algorithms to address the demand forecasting issue on big data and incomplete data, respectively, so as to eliminate the bullwhip effect and then facilitate more effective inventory control. In the development of demand forecasting models, both classical statistical methods and machine learning algorithms will be employed. The classical methods include the Poisson process, recurrent marked temporal point process and dynamic harmonic regression; and machine learning methods include recurrent neural networks such as the long short-term memory network. Further, online customer reviews, product attributes and other external impacting factors will all be considered in the development of forecasting models to investigate the impacts of possible covariates. Meanwhile, incomplete samples with missing or the censored data will be analyzed, which is closely related to my research during the master study. Finally, the proposed forecasting methods will be extended to the cases of multi-echelon supply chains and a longer forecast horizon.

Business and Management

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Prof Ileana Steccolini

Second supervisor: Prof Pawan Adhikari

Research project: Financial Resilience of Local Authorities

Research description: Councils have, over the past 12 months, experienced unprecedented financial and economic challenges which have tested their financial resilience and sustainability. This has coincided with the increasingly important role that Councils are playing in society, tasked with ensuring community cohesion and wellbeing, caring for the vulnerable as well as establishing and developing policy, infrastructure and investment to drive growth and prosperity in their local economies. However, this period of challenge and duress builds on a period of evolution across the local government sector over the past decade; Councils have transformed the means through which they are funded, structured and account for their performance. With further socio-economic and financial challenges inevitable, a comprehensive assessment of the means through which Councils can achieve greater financial resilience is vital to ensuring that the sector can continue to deliver the essential role it plays in our communities. These challenges include the ability for Councils to accommodate, weather and respond to material shocks, such as the one caused by the Covid-19 crisis, as well as their ability to cope with the longer term shifts and trends, such as an aging population and a possible deterioration of the economic outlook. This acknowledges that the sector can’t be viewed as a whole, with variance in local authority financial resilience will differ according to factors including regional, socio-economic and structural matters. With consideration towards the ongoing evolution of Councils, this research would provide an assessment of the degree to which this evolution helps or hinders Councils’ financial resilience and their ability to anticipate and cope with the outlook they face.

Business and Management

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Zografia Bika

Second supervisor: Prof Nitya Rao

Research project: Homebuyers ‘plotting’ a move to the UK countryside? A study of counter-urbanisation and entrepreneurial emergence in rural areas. Do social capital and spatial contexts affect rural in-migrant entrepreneurial emergence in the context of a persistent glob

Research description: This study draws parallel lines of research in entrepreneurship, counter-urbanisation, and social capital to understand contemporary processes influencing rural and regional development in the context of a persistent global pandemic that potentially launched a 21st century ‘rural renaissance’ as UK city dwellers began buying houses in rural areas, looking to ‘flip’ their lives to the countryside and reassess what is important amid increased home working that is here to stay. This study will address the following overarching research question: Do social capital and spatial contexts affect rural in-migrant entrepreneurial emergence in the context of a persistent global pandemic and how does this impact the wider development of rural livelihoods? 60 rural in-migrant entrepreneurs will be interviewed from rural locations in Norfolk, Suffolk, or Essex to establish the importance of social and spatial contexts and their affordances; the advantages that an environment offers a perceptive individual for entrepreneurial emergence (Gibson, 1966). The researcher will spend time in the micro-study areas to augment the contextual understandings of local affordances and facilitate focus groups sessions with new or aspiring entrepreneurs to understand in real time, perceptions of rural locations and their affordances.

‘Rurality’ has no precise definition, but development scholars generally characterise rural areas by their environment and structural deficits of underdevelopment (Wiggins and Proctor, 2001: 427-428). These issues may be more acute in low-income developing countries, but rural areas of England can face similar issues of underdevelopment of infrastructure, hidden deprivation, and poor access to services (Norfolk County Council, 2013). Migrants, however, have the potential to become ‘agents of development’, contributing to rural economic growth and improving rural livelihoods; that is why orderly, safe, and regular migration of people underpins the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN, 2018). Understanding how underlying ‘affordances’ create and sustain dynamic rural economies will provide knowledge about how personal mobility, social networks and diverse perceptions of rural places can interact with features of a local context to create new entrepreneurial opportunities to enhance local development potential and provide individual livelihood opportunities.

Business and Management

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Phillip Wu

Second supervisor: Prof Phil Crang

Research project: Platform Sex Work: examining the labour process within online sex work

Research description: Whilst the gig economy has received widespread media attention, the logics and practices that underpin it – notably the centrality of digital platforms as the infrastructure through which actors meet and where power is exercised – are spreading out into areas of our economy, shaping the lives of workers in ways that has been largely left out of broader debates within digital labour studies. This research project seeks to address this literature gap, looking at digital labour platforms involved in the mediation of digital sex work, defined as forms of sex work ‘organized by online platforms acting as intermediaries between workers and their employers and clients’ (Huws , et al., 2018 p.115 in Rand, 2020). Specifically, I will look at the relationship between firms and workers and the role the platform plays as the nexus of the socio-technical practices and rules through which power and agency is exercised within the labour process.

Business and Management

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Sara Connolly

Second supervisor: Dr David Watson

Research project: The good economy in the Norwich City region

Research description: Increasing recognition that the economy is not working in the interests of many people in society has prompted interest in concept of the sharing economy as one possible alternative approach. However, definitions of the sharing economy are contested and overlap with related concepts (e.g. collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer economy) and encompass a range of different business models Advocates of a sharing economy highlight its ability to make use of under-utilized resources and inclusiveness, but it has also been seen as part of the evolution and continuation of a capitalist economy and platforms supporting the sharing economy are linked to precarious work. In my PhD I plan to critically explore these tensions and explore new methods to map the sharing economy.

Development Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Tessa Lewin

Second supervisor: Dr Paul Boyce

Research project: Between social constraint and resourcefulness: access to the labour market of trans women in Lima (Peru)

Research description: Access to decent work is a crucial element for human development; however, in several countries, trans women confront the most significant challenges to develop successful labour trajectories due to prejudice against their gender identity expression (Beauregard et al., 2018; Coll-Planas & Missé, 2018; McFadden, 2015; Suen et al., 2020; Waite, 2020). As such, trans women in Peru mostly dedicate to precarious and stigmatised economic activities: sex work (64%) and hairdressing (28%), while only 3% works under formal conditions (Salazar et al. 2010). This situation is generated by direct discrimination from employers who do not hire them due to their gender identity and limited access to the education system (Defensoria del Pueblo, 2016; NTM, 2016). Nevertheless, besides discrimination, other factors explain trans women´s labour trajectories: their gender performance as well as their access to social, cultural, and economic capital (Grados, 2014). In that sense, their body’s feminisation – the adoption of signs of femininity (Ekins, 1996) - makes the transgression to the heteronormative order more evident, reducing their job opportunities. The beginning of their feminisation is associated with their access to capital, which is reproduced by their family support and higher education opportunities. Therefore, this thesis will focus on comprehending how trans women´s gender performance and access to capital influence their labour trajectories in Lima (Peru)? This is a highly unresearched topic in academia, which provides an original contribution to the existing development literature about inequalities by exploring the interlinks between gender identity performance and the labour market. Moreover, this study will contribute to a greater understanding of discriminatory situations in the workplace and strategies of action grounded in the experiences of trans women. Such insight is vital to generate evidence-based policy to promote trans women´s economic inclusion by different development actors. Finally, analysing the Peruvian case is pivotal to comprehend similar dynamics in Latin America, where lately, there has been considerable backlash against LGTBI rights recognition (Corrêa et al., 2018). Hence, this project is crucial to understand this region´s context and counter the backlash.

Development Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Becky Faith

Second supervisor: Dr Helen Dancer

Research project: Justice in my pocket? The use of a mobile phone application to increase access to justice for women in Tanzania

Research description: My research is motivated by a need to address the ‘justice gap’ that is evident globally. It is estimated that 1.5 billion people worldwide (one in 5 people) have justice problems that they cannot solve . In Tanzania this problem is amplified. Tanzania is ranked 76/128 globally on measures of affordable, accessible and effective justice solutions for ordinary people (World Justice Project, 2020), with women being disproportionately affected (Dancer, 2015). Practical solutions directed at addressing this access to justice crisis are often costly and cumbersome. In Tanzania, paralegals, community justice providers and informal methods of dispute resolution play a critical role in justice service delivery and dispute resolution but there are still many citizens left without a pathway to address their justice needs.

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as mobile phones, internet and computer networks, have been utilised globally to improve social and economic development, and are emerging as tools for international development (ICT4D). In Tanzania, mobile phone penetration (households with mobile phone ownership) is estimated at 86% countrywide with 93% of Tanzanians having access to a mobile phone (Lotto,2018). Recent international development programmes in Tanzania have leveraged mobile phones for micro finance (Koloseni and Mandari, 2017), education (Joyce-Gibbons et al, 2018), health (Thobias and Kiwanuka, 2018) , and nutrition (Barnett et al, 2019). The provision of legal services using ICT, particularly mobile phones, is still unexplored but presents an opportunity to transform this sector, creating opportunities for increased citizen engagement across all levels of justice service delivery, particularly for women. As the most populous city in Tanzania, and an economic hub, Dar es Salaam (Dar) has one of the highest levels of mobile phone penetration in Tanzania and will be the focus of this study (GSMA,2019). A significant limitation of the current use of ICT4D is that many of the interventions are built by engineers thousands of miles away from the site of use, interlinked with postcolonial institutional relationships, diverting control and capital towards external actors, using tools that need ongoing maintenance and funding to achieve long-term sustainable change or benefits at scale (Kendall and Dearden, 2020). This research is a response to these opportunities and limitations. Using a participatory action research (PAR) design process to build a digital justice service tool in collaboration with Tanzanian legal service providers, this study will critically examine the co-generation of an effective and sustainable digital justice solution for women in Dar. My research will make a novel contribution to the field by developing a low-cost, scalable digital justice tool, to bridge the justice gap and support women’s legal empowerment, while generating learning relating to participatory approaches for developing ICT for sustainable development.

Economics

(University of Surrey)

Main supervisor: Dr Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner

Second supervisor: Prof Matthias Parey

Research project: How Responsive are Remittances to Shocks? Evidence from High Frequency FinTech data on remittances

Research description: Remittances are an important source of income for many people in developing countries, where they make an important contribution to reducing poverty and improving welfare. Remittances have also been found to aid in consumption smoothing and serve as an insurance mechanism for recipient households in times of economic downtowns. In 2016 alone, an estimated amount of USD429 billion had been remitted from developed countries to developing countries. This has largely been due to a surge in technological advancements which has allowed remittance service providers (RSP) to facilitate cross border payments using internet and mobile devices. Following these technological developments, my proposal seeks to examine the response of international remittances to various shocks experienced in recipient countries, using the different remittance transfer channels available. This research project will look at how formal remittance flows respond to negative shocks, by comparing senders living in the same region in high income countries but sending to different regions in the home country and will observe their remittance transfers over time. Using a large and innovative dataset from a technology-enabled financial innovation (FinTech) Remittance Service Provider based in the UK, I will examine in-depth the heterogeneity amongst remitters and their reaction to negative shocks in the recipient countries. The nature of this high-frequency dataset will allow me to shed light on the motivations behind remittances, to establish causal linkages between remittances and its role as an insurance mechanism. My proposal will aim to answer the following four questions: (1) Do remittances react to shocks in (sender and) recipient countries both in terms of the overall amounts remitted and the pattern these remittances are being delivered, (2) do remittances react differently to different types of shocks that are more or less visible, for example in reporting (comparing negative events with fast and slow onset) (3) does the type of technology matter for these responses comparing the different remittance channels (for example linked mobile money accounts) and (4) whether demographic (location, age, gender) biases exist in remittance reaction to negative economic shocks. To answer the above questions, I intend to use the difference-in-difference strategy to capture the general response of remittances to negative shocks experienced in the recipient countries; to examine the impact of the different types of shocks (weather shocks, epidemics, and the Covid-19 pandemic) on the frequency and volume of remittances sent to recipient countries; and to analyse the differences in the reaction of the various remittance sending channels (eg. bank transfers, mobile money accounts etc) to the shocks. This project will aim to advance the literature by providing a much more disaggregated insight in the nature of the responsiveness of remittances to natural disasters using high-frequency administrative data. This dataset will allow me to look at the within country response of remittances to exogenous shocks, by comparing locations within the country that are affected differently by the shocks. In addition, while the literature mainly explores the remittance response from the receiving country end, I will also attempt to estimate the effect of shocks at the sender's end using information on the location of remittance sender.

Economics

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Juan Pablo Rud

Second supervisor: Dr Ralph De Haas

Research project: Financing the green transition in developing countries

Research description: The aim of the project is to advance our understanding of how finance can facilitate the adoption of low-carbon and other green technologies by firms in the developing world. The project will investigate the drivers of commercial banks’ green lending strategies and firms’ decisions to invest in green technologies or not. Special attention will be paid to how access to credit can facilitate the green transition. Additionally, the project will analyze how local environmental conditions in terms of pollution and extreme weather, as well as the regulatory environment, shape the decisions of lenders and borrowers to finance and adopt green technologies, respectively.

Economics

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Alexander Clymo

Second supervisor: Professor Melvyn Coles

Research project: The Role of Public Employment in Macroeconomics: Theory and Evidence

Research description: During the second half of the 20th century extensive government spending programs have been established by many countries in the Western world. It is an underappreciated fact in business cycle research that governments now employ large fractions of the workforce in many developed economies: 16% the US, and over 25% in the EU (OECD, 2019). The behaviour of the government during a recession is therefore crucial in directly determining what happens to unemployment: Is the government also firing workers, and therefore adding to the rise in unemployment, or are they hiring workers, and potentially picking up some of the slack?

Despite this “direct” effect of government employment on the labour market, most research on the cyclical role of the government abstracts from government employment. Instead, a voluminous literature tackles the age-old question of how large the “government spending multiplier” is. Empirically, this measures the effect on the economy of a typically abstract increase in government spending. Theoretically, this asks how the economy responds if the government increases spending by purchasing more goods from the private sector, and therefore any effects on the labour market are instead “indirect”. In this dissertation, I aim to fill this gap in the literature, by investigating both empirically and theoretically 1) how changes in government employment “directly” contribute to unemployment over the business cycle, and 2) whether it is a good idea for the government to temporarily increase employment during recessions to fight unemployment, and how this policy compares to the more-explored tools of traditional fiscal stimulus, or transfer payments such as unemployment benefits. To answer these questions I propose to write a three-chapter dissertation, which will build on recent advances in several fields of macroeconomics.

My first chapter will study the role of public employment over the business cycle. Doing so requires a realistic labour market, and for this I use recent advances in the search and matching literature by Coles and Kelishomi (2018). They argue that private sector firms tend to be sluggish at creating new jobs for unemployed workers, unlike standard search and matching models with free entry, and estimate that job creation is very inelastic in the data. My key insight in this chapter is that if private sector job creation is inelastic in this way, changing public employment during recessions has powerful effects on unemployment. I will build a quantitative model to estimate the effect of public employment on the economy, including a public employment “multiplier”, and estimate the historical contribution of changes in government employment to unemployment in the UK.

In my second chapter, I will extend the model in order to study heterogeneity and how public employment affects risk and inequality. I will first extend a Two-Agent New Keynesian (TANK) model (Cantore and Freund 2020; Ravn and Sterk, 2020) to include public employment and the labour market model from chapter 1. This builds heavily on the work from my MRes thesis. I will then extend this model into a full-blown Heterogeneous-Agent New Keynesian (HANK) model (Auclert et al. 2018; 2020; Kaplan et al. 2014; 2018; Hagedorn et al. 2019). To the best of my knowledge, this will be first model studying public employment using either TANK or HANK models, so I will be able to study the interaction between government employment, inequality, and aggregate demand using the most innovative business cycle models.

In my third chapter, motivated by the COVID pandemic, I will study the effect of pandemics on employment and how public employment can mitigate a lockdown’s effects. To do so I will combine an epidemiological SIR model (Eichenbaum et al. 2020; Faria e Castro 2020; Kaplan et al. 2020) with the model in chapter 1 to examine the joint role of the public employment in supporting health and unemployment during the pandemic.

Education

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Anna Robinson-Pant

Second supervisor: Dr Esther Priyadharshini

Research project: Social transformation and refugee learning in two UK communities.

Research description: The aim of this project is to explore refugees’ experiences of learning in two UK nongovernmental organisations and how these relate to social transformation. Anti-migration has become a central theme of populist politics in the UK, accompanied by increasing hostility towards those who speak languages other than English. Much political rhetoric asserts that migrants should learn English if they want to stay in the UK and has a top-down focus towards integration. Despite this rhetoric, funding for English classes has been continually cut and refugees in the UK are often unable to access them. There have also been enormous impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on vulnerable refugees living in the UK. Despite these ongoing social challenges, there are numerous organisations who offer a welcoming environment for refugees, including free access to safe community learning such as free English classes. Sometimes participatory pedagogies are used with the goal of social transformation, but there has been little study of what form this change takes. This study will consider what refugees’ experiences of learning are, how far they are active agents in the process and how this relates to social transformation. Scotland and England have different approaches to adult education and integration for refugees. For this reason, the cases chosen for study will be community organisations offering free English classes and support for refugees in Norwich and Glasgow, two contrasting communities in the UK. Scotland has a published strategy for refugee integration, and attempts to welcome them to communities, in contrast to Westminster’s ‘Hostile Environment’ approach. The data will be collected in two stages in each organisation. First an ethnographic approach will observe and explore refugee learning. Next, Participatory Action Research will be used to develop a resource for organisations with refugee participants, guided by their experiences. This will be important for both organisations and policy makers, pointing to future directions that are informed and shaped by the life-wide learning experiences of refugees themselves.

Human Geography

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr Richard Nunes

Second supervisor: Prof Mike Goodman

Research project: Placing women’s food work in a global pandemic: a critical comparative case study of Bristol and Stockholm

Research description: This proposed PhD studentship analyses the impacts of Covid-19 on women’s material and imagined future foodscapes in the cities of Bristol, UK and Stockholm, Sweden. Preliminary research suggests that, in the UK specifically, urban foodscapes—i.e. the places and spaces we access, make and discuss food in the urban landscape—have been and continue to be significantly impacted by the pandemic. Women, as unpaid, domestic food carers and volunteer, ‘community food carers’ at foodbanks—as well as paid food workers in the formal economy—have been disproportionally affected by the pandemic given the increasing complexities of accessing food at home, the expanding burden of food preparation during lockdown and the loss of income from the loss of food service employment that relies heavily on female labour. Yet, women of more marginal standing—e.g. women of colour, low-income, single parents, migrant status, asylum seekers—have been most detrimentally impacted by the pandemic through an exacerbation of pre-existing, intersectional social inequalities that women faced pre-Covid. Drawing on feminist geography, feminist political economy and critical food geography, this proposed research will examine how the Covid-19 pandemic impacted and reshaped the foodscapes for paid and non-paid women food workers in Bristol and Stockholm through a critical comparative analysis of the two cities.

Human Geography

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Veronica Della Dora

Second supervisor: Prof David Gilbert

Research project: Mapping death, migration, and material culture: A case study of Igbo Nigerians

Research description: This project focuses on the material cultures of memorialising among Igbo Nigerians, exploring the emergence of the 'fetish object' within death practices. My research will consider how, through border crossing, objects come to memorialise not only people (the deceased) but also place (the homeland). These objects act as souvenirs, often mass-produced and cheaply made, and they remain in the home for decades. This project will attempt to understand their movement across borders, as well as how they enter homes within diaspora communities as ‘material supports’ (Della Dora, 2009) to create interconnected, transnational deathscapes which extend beyond the deceased’s burial ground in Nigeria. My PhD contributes to an emerging field of cultural geography which has thus far rarely looked beyond Global North contexts, identifying how emotional and spiritual meanings are embodied, imbued in, and interpreted through objects within cultural systems that have largely been excluded. I am particularly interested in taking a more inclusive research methodology with this PhD, by centering accessibility in both the research process and its outcomes.

Linguistics

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Prof Christos Pliatsikas

Second supervisor: Prof Douglas Saddy

Research project: Examining bilingualism as a dynamic linguistic experience: insights from brain function

Research description: Whilst we know how the brain changes physically due to linguistic experience, we know little about how these changes impact brain function. Models such as the Dynamic Restructuring Model (DRM) provide predictions for regions and connections changing with experience. Some bilingual studies have used MRI to measure brain blood flow whilst at rest, showing how different regions are connected. These studies report that regions involved in language and attentional control are strengthened and more interactive in bilinguals, using a larger share of the brain than monolinguals. Other studies, measuring resting brain waves – another connectivity indicator – found stronger waves related to language and cognitive control in bilinguals. These effects vary in strength based on aspects of linguistic experience. Irregular results had been found using a simple ‘bilingual or monolingual’ grouping – language experience as a spectrum revealed more consistent effects on both brain structure and function. Variables such as language use, immersion, and proficiency modulate both physical and functional changes. A review of structural and functional evidence remarked that functional connections have been found where no direct physical connections can be observed. This disparity raises some intriguing questions: how does language experience impact physical changes in brain structure, and do these changes lead to subsequent changes in the functional connectivity of the brain? Do any functional changes measured lead to changes in brain efficiency, and if so, are the effects limited to language-based contexts? How does linguistic experience impact all of these changes? This project will examine these issues in three studies. Firstly, a structural vs. functional connection analysis using pre-existing MRI and language history data will establish whether physical changes predicted by the DRM lead to changes in functional connectivity. The second study will involve a comparative functional analysis of resting brain waves between bilinguals and monolinguals, with reference to linguistic experience. The third study will measure brain signals elicited by cognition. We expect an attentional control task to elicit specific waves, known as components. The strength of these can be used to determine the level of cognitive effort required to complete the task, and so indicate efficiency. Participants will also read sentences containing semantic errors, which will elicit different components. These tasks will allow us to ascertain whether changes in brain efficiency are language-specific, and how linguistic experience impacts this. To quantify linguistic experience, the Language and Social Background questionnaire will be used, and a ratio of language use will be provided by a technique known as language entropy. The goal of this project is to develop a model of functional brain changes related to linguistic experience. This would provide a theoretical framework which research areas such as the bilingual advantage, the cognitive reserve, and developmental neuroscience could utilise to inform predictions of cognitive outcomes for bilingual participants. The neuroimaging techniques utilising EEG equipment, such as measuring resting brain waves, used in the studies are also less reliant on context and interpretation, and so are more reproducible, as well as more accessible to those without access to costly MRI facilities.

Linguistics

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Alberto Hijazo-Gascón

Second supervisor: Prof Luna Filipović

Research project: Language contrasts and their effect on memory in the context of witness narratives: A cross-linguistic study of English, German and Czech motion events

Research description: The aim of this research is to uncover how language contrasts affect information content of witness narratives and what the cross-linguistic differences are between English, German and Czech. The focus is on three aspects of motion events – complexity, placement and intentionality. We want to determine what information speakers habitually provide and if their descriptions influence their memory when recalling certain aspects of the witnessed events. In witness narratives, information on movement of people and objects, their position as well as the intention is crucial for assignment of blame. The knowledge of these previously unexplored language contrasts will aid in the efficient elicitation of information from witnesses and allow for effective prompting for information. Raising awareness of these differences and their impact within the legal context will improve access to justice for speakers of minority languages within majority language systems (such as Czech speakers within the EU). I will conduct three experiments with three groups of 50 monolingual native speakers (English, German and Czech). These experiments will examine the lexicalisation of complex motion events, final object position (vertical or horizontal) and the expression of intentionality. The experiments will also include a test of the participants’ memory when recalling the relevant aspects of the events. The participants will be played several short videos and asked to provide a brief verbal description. They will be asked to recall details of the events by answering neutral questions and ticking statements. This will be transcribed and analysed to gain understanding of the used lexicalisation patterns, the contrast between the three languages as well as the potential effect on memory. This research could potentially lead to positive changes in professional practice of police officers and legal interpreters. Their knowledge of the contrasts and the strategies to overcome them would aid efficient elicitation and mediation of information in police and court settings. It would ensure greater fairness in the interview process and treatment of witnesses and victims in monolingual and multilingual legal communicative situations.

Politics and International Relations

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Peter Newell

Second supervisor: Dr Lucy Baker

Research project: Following the fuel: energy assemblages in Lebanon

Research description: My doctoral research examines the role of fuel in the Lebanese economy using a combination of historical, political economy and ethnographic approaches.

Politics and International Relations

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Prof Royce Carroll

Research project: Investigating Individual-Level Conflict Between Ideology and Issue Positions in the UK

Research description: When individuals describe their own ideology, how well does this accurately reflect policy preferences? Are individuals that see inconsistencies in their own ideology inclined to shift their ideological identity or policy preferences to reconcile these contradictions? Evidence from studies of the US suggests that much of the population holds ideological identities that do not align with their policy preferences (Ellis and Stimson, 2012; Claasen, Tucker and Smith, 2015). Additionally, the choice of ideology measurement has been shown to affect the conclusions which are drawn (Carroll and Kubo, 2018), and if seemingly similar and widely used measures of ideology are representing different concepts, the differences have implications for a range of questions from political psychology to policy representation. In this project, I aim to assess the causes and consequences of conflict between self-assessed ideology and issue positions. I will first assess the individual characteristics and issue areas driving the observed conflicts between ideological identities and policy preferences. I then expand on existing research on the causes of ideological inconsistency by examining the role of elite influences. Finally, I will investigate how individuals reconcile conflicting ideological identities and policy preferences. These questions will be answered through quantitative analyses of the British Election Study as well as a survey experiment using original data. The study will focus on data from the UK, where contradictions between party, policy, and ideological identities are growing in importance, yet has implications for a broad set of political contexts. It engages with the longstanding US-based literature on ideological coherence (Campbell, Converse, Miller and Stokes, 1960; Converse, 1964; Page and Shapiro, 1992) and expands upon the comparative literature on ideological self-placement (Inglehart and Klingemann, 1976; Knutsen, 1991; de Vries, Hakhverdian and Lancee, 2013; Caughey, O’Grady and Warshaw, 2019).

Politics and International Relations

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Lee Jarvis

Second supervisor: Prof Laura Camfield

Research project: Title: Understanding counter-terrorism policies in global south: a case study of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Research description: Although primarily developed in the West, grounded upon Western principles and adjusted to Western contexts, counter-terrorism (CT) and anti-radicalisation policies are increasingly translated and applied in the Global South, with little consideration of the social, economic, legal, and political implications upon their targeted communities. This project explores this transfer and its implications for the lives of vulnerable individuals and communities through a descriptively rich case study of counter-terrorism measures in the Rohnigya refugee camps in Bangladesh: Kutupalong camp (world’s largest refugee camp) and the camps in Teknaf. Rohingya camps in Bangladesh are frequently termed a “breeding ground for terrorism” or a “threat to national security” by policymakers, security officials, and Bangladesh mainstream media (Rashid, 2019). Yet, such narratives are often deployed without justification and in the absence of scientific research on terrorism, radicalisation or violent extremism (VE) in the camps. My research will centre the lives and experiences of Rohingya people within the Bangladesh camps, many of whom lack refugee status and associated protections, to understand the social and political implications of their securitisation through counter-terrorism and counter violent extremism (CVE) measures. It asks two questions: (i) How are CT and CVE measures implemented in the Rohingya refugee camps? (ii) How do individuals and communities living in the camps perceive and experience these measures and their implementation? My research will employ a ‘vernacular’ approach, deploying discourse analysis, ethnographic observation and interviews to explore the everyday understandings and experiences of refugees, staff and others living in the camp. Access to these is made possible via three years of professional experience: one year working in the camps within the Protection monitoring staff, and two years as a preventing violent extremism (PVE) researcher at the UK diplomatic mission in Bangladesh. The research will contribute to contemporary work within critical security and critical terrorism studies (CTS) (i) empirically – through primary research into an underexplored case study; (ii) analytically –through centering the experiences of non-Western subjects of counter-terrorism policy; and (iii) theoretically – through retheorising counter-terrorism policy and its implications following completion of my empirical research.

Politics and International Relations

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Professor Han Dorussen

Second supervisor: Dr Florian Kern

Research project: Understanding violence in the aftermath of a popular revolution: Evidence from Burkina Faso

Research description: Popular uprisings and revolutions are explosive, violent events in the wake of which governments fall and societies restructure. While uprisings are often portrayed as the main violent event (Huntington, 1968), afterwards, politics are restructured, and we often observe new types of violence and opposing factions. Burkina Faso witnessed a popular revolution in 2014, which led to its former president’s ousting and renewed hope for a more democratic state (Frere and Englebert, 2015). However, the revolution has led to greater instability and an increase in violent actors and events. Social scientists have yet to understand the motivations and explanations for why new violence emerges and changes even if popular movements succeed. My project aims to address this gap, leveraging evidence from the recent revolution in Burkina Faso to understand how and why violence develops after popular uprisings. My aim is to provide actionable evidence that helps policymakers and stakeholders predict where violence emerges when uprisings occur. By using both advanced quantitative methods (population survey data), qualitative interviews and extensive fieldwork in Burkina Faso, I ask: How does violence develop and restructure after a popular revolution? My findings promise to inform policy debates about how the forces of a popular revolution structure post-revolutionary politics and violence, and how domestic and international organisations can manage such increases in violence.

Psychology

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Gerulf Rieger

Second supervisor: Dr Helge Gillmeister

Research project: Sexual Arousal Patterns of Women: A Test of Alternative Hypotheses

Research description: Unlike men's, women's sexuality is understudied in science and society (Chivers, 2016). It was only recently acknowledged that women's sexuality is profoundly different (Bailey, 2009). Most women, including heterosexual women, are sexually aroused to both genders, whereas most men are aroused to one preferred gender. This has been demonstrated with genital vasocongestion and pupil dilation to sexual videos showing males or females (Rieger et al., 2015). A prominent proposal for women's unique sexual arousal patterns is that forced copulation happened throughout human evolution, and the pressure for women to protect against genital injury was so strong that they have evolved to respond to any sexual stimulus with arousal and lubrication, even if subjectively un-arousing (Suschinsky & Lalumière, 2011). This evolutionary hypothesis has been challenged in one study assessing lubrication - a methodology that is rarely used but could revolutionise our understanding of women’s sexual arousal. In that study, women only lubricated to their subjectively preferred sexual videos but to no other kind of sexual videos, which questions the validity of the hypothesis (Sawatsky, Dawson, & Lalumière, 2018). Furthermore, the evolutionary hypothesis ignores other potential reasons for women's bisexual arousal patterns. Sex differences in sexual arousal could be attributed to sex differences in empathy. As women have a greater empathy compared to men (Stuijfzand et al., 2016), they may be more likely to share the emotional state of females shown in sexual videos and experience arousal with them. Moreover, women, more than men, depend on their physical appeal when competing for mates, and are therefore more distressed by physically attractive rivals (Buunk & Fisher, 2009). Thus, women may be aroused from stress by viewing attractive rivals, and this coincidentally triggers physiological sexual arousal. In Study 1, I will examine the evolutionary hypothesis in 270 men and women with different sexual orientations by measuring their genital vasocongestion to sexual videos showing males or females. I will also assess subjective arousal and, importantly, women's lubrication (via litmus strips) to each video. Sexual videos will include narratives that describe the actor either as a caring lover or as seeking non-consensual sex (no such acts will be shown), to test whether women respond sexually, including lubrication, to all sexual videos, even if subjectively unpleasant. In study 2, participants' self-reported empathy and intrasexual competition (in general and towards the actors in the videos) will be assessed alongside measures of sexual arousal, to examine whether women's bisexual arousal is due to sex differences in empathy and intrasexual competition. Such sex differences could be found even if the evolutionary hypothesis is not supported, and therefore offer powerful alternative explanations. Study 3 will also test sex differences in empathy, competition, and sexual arousal, but outside the lab via an online experiment that includes manipulations of participants' empathy and competition in order to examine causality and the generalizability of findings. The proposed research will have an impact on the study of female arousal by scrutinizing a prominent but hardly tested evolutionary hypothesis, and by potentially providing evidence for alternative explanations.

Psychology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Rebecca Chamberlain

Second supervisor: Prof Michael Banissy

Research project: Learning to trust out senses

Research description: We rely on our perceptual systems to generate an internal model of the external world. However, to effectively interact with the environment we must also estimate the reliability or precision of our percepts. For example, if we are looking for our dog in the park on a dark night, we may have low confidence in the precision of visual signals and therefore rely on other sensory signals (e.g., the sound of its bark) or deploy other strategies to seek more information (e.g., ask a passer-by if they have seen it). This online assessment of confidence in our senses depends on metacognitive monitoring mechanisms (Norman et al., 2019; Pereira et al., 2020) that allow us to represent the reliability of our own mental states. The idea of precision-weighting is a central concept in computational models of perception in the brain (Alais & Burr, 2004; Ernst & Banks, 2002), but we know little about how our brain metacognitively estimates which sensory signals are reliable and which ones are not. Recently, Bayesian theories of the brain have suggested that agents actively generate beliefs about precision – internal representations of which sensory signals can be trusted and which cannot in different contexts (Deroy, Spence, & Noppeney, 2016; Pereira et al., 2020). For example, our brain could estimate that vision tends to be more reliable when the lights are on, or when we wear our glasses, and use this contextual information to guide decisions about which signals to rely on. While this concept of ‘beliefs about precision’ has been influential, it remains unclear whether our perceptual decision systems do in fact form beliefs about precision and how these are encoded in the brain. We also know that older adults show poorer decision-making as they age (Fatima, Khan, Rosselli, & Ardila, 2020; Rosi, Bruine de Bruin, Del Missier, Cavallini, & Russo, 2017). Studies provide preliminary evidence that perceptual metacognition also declines with age (Palmer, David, & Fleming, 2014). This raises the possibility that poor decision-making could be explained by our inaccurate beliefs about the precision of our senses. Establishing the basic cognitive and neural mechanisms of perceptual metacognition holds promise for understanding suboptimal beliefs and behaviour, especially those seen in older adults. Considering that a vast proportion of the population are living to a much older age, understanding the differences and deficits in how the elderly process and trust their senses is important. This PhD project will use a multi-method approach to characterise the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underpin meta-level beliefs about the reliability of our senses and will investigate how these mechanisms change as we age.

Psychology

(University of Reading)

Main supervisor: Dr Catherine Manning

Second supervisor: Prof Philip Beaman

Research project: Sensory processing and attention in autism

Research description: Autism affects ~1 in 100 people, ~90% of whom face sensory processing differences, making the environment overwhelming and negatively impacting daily life. It is thus key to better understand sensory processing, a top research priority for the autism community. My research will investigate how sensory symptoms relate to attention in autism, uniquely combining two theoretical accounts: increased distractor processing and reduced adaptation. Overarousal in autism may be due to difficulties in filtering out distracting information. Indeed, this ability appears to be impaired in autistic compared to neurotypical individuals which is an issue since paying attention is crucial for daily life. A separate account of autism uses a Bayesian framework, proposing that autistic individuals’ perception is less affected by past information, meaning they are less likely to adapt or get used to incoming sensory stimulation. This aligns with evidence of reduced adaptation in autism. Combining these two approaches, I propose increased distractibility in autism results from difficulties adapting to distracting information. I will develop a new paradigm to test the effects of reduced adaptation on distractor interference. Changes in distractor interference over time have not previously been explored but would be predicted by a Bayesian account: as someone adapts to distractors, they should find them easier to ignore. I propose autistic individuals have greater difficulty adapting to distracting stimuli over time, leading to sensory overload. I will investigate this proposal across three studies using an adapted distractor interference task based on one I designed for my undergraduate project. In all studies, I will use questionnaires to investigate links between task performance and everyday distractibility and sensory difficulties.

Psychology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Kathryn Greenwood

Second supervisor: Dr Mark Hayward

Research project: Using attachment and personality theory to identify critical personal characteristics of a therapist: engendering trust in clinicians working with patients with a diagnosis of psychosis

Research description: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of psychosis (CBTp). However, only 26% of psychosis patients currently receive this treatment due to its resource-intensive nature. Therefore, current research such as the GiVE-2 trial aims to address this by offering a brief version of CBTp for distressing voices which can be delivered by briefly trained therapists (i.e. assistant psychologists). The next step is now to ensure that both patients and clinicians are willing to engage in and refer to this treatment. Therefore, this project aims to identify the personal characteristics of the briefly trained therapists that engender trust in clinicians to refer a patient. Based on previous research on patient-client relationships, possible attributes include attachment style, empathy, warmth and genuineness. The project hypothesises that similar constructs will be relevant for engendering trust in clinicians. Firstly, the project aims to conduct qualitative data analysis with clinicians to identify the relevant attributes of assistant psychologists. Subsequently, a screening tool will be developed to assess these attributes which will then be tested with assistant psychologists. Overall, this project will address the lack of research in factors influencing a clinician’s likelihood to refer to a briefly trained therapist which is crucial for the implementation of brief psychological therapies.

Psychology

(Royal Holloway, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Jennifer Murphy

Second supervisor: Prof Dawn Watling

Research project: Is interoception the p factor? Investigating a common basis of psychiatric conditions.

Research description: It has recently been claimed that one general psychopathology factor (the ‘p factor’) underlies most common mental health disorders, representing lesser-to-greater severity of psychopathology. If vulnerability to psychopathology can be explained by one factor, then identification of this factor is crucial for diagnosis, intervention, and treatment of mental ill health. Recent proposals suggest that interoception, the perception of one’s internal states (e.g., feeling one’s heartbeat), may be the p factor. This assertion is based on the observation that interoception is atypical across multiple disorders and is associated with symptoms across disorders. Despite this, existing research is limited. Whilst interoception has been linked to several psychiatric symptoms, to date these associations have been examined in isolation. Difficulties measuring interoception, combined with a lack of causal inference methods, means it is unclear whether atypical interoception can explain cross-disorder symptomology. This project tests the hypothesis that interoception can explain disruption in several domains of functioning and as such can be considered the p factor. Given the inadequacy of a categorical approach, this will be achieved using a dimensional approach. Studies 1 and 2 will examine whether interoception can explain relationships between self-reported and behaviourally measured symptoms and how these change over time. Study 3 will test a remote digital intervention to improve interoceptive ability and mental health (developed with the industrial partner Biobeats). Study 4 will employ a pre- and post-intervention design to examine the impact of interoceptive training on symptoms across domains and mental health. As such, Studies 3 and 4 will enable us to confirm whether interoception plays a causal role in mental health symptoms and will test the efficacy of a novel digital therapeutic tool.

Social Anthropology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Karis Jade Petty

Second supervisor: Professor Jon P Mitchell

Research project: Being-neurodivergent-in-the-world: an embodied x sensory ethnography

Research description: Beth (she/her) is a multiply neurodivergent researcher, working professionally with the National Health Service, specifically the Neurodevelopmental Service. Beth's Anthropology PhD investigates the embodied nature of what becoming and being-neurodivergent-in-the-word means for newly diagnosed adults in the UK. Her embodied x sensory ethnography has a distinctive participatory flavour, with inclusion being a prerequisite. Beth’s research interests also include neurodivergence, phenomenology, autistic expertise, creative methods and the body.

Social Anthropology

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Ben Jones

Second supervisor: Dr Sophie Bremner

Research project: Exorcism Untangled: investigating Deliverance ceremonies among middle-class Pentecostal Congregation in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Research description: The overarching goal of this ethnographic study is the investigation of the contemporary practice of deliverance in Pentecostal churches in South Africa, in relation to the broader socio-political climate of the country. The aim of this project is to contribute to the comparative concern of the growing subfield of the Anthropology of Christianity and more specifically, the Anthropology of Pentecostalism, while also addressing the lack of in-depth studies surrounding deliverance ceremonies in South Africa. This research will be built upon influential studies that identify within Pentecostalism a dichotomy between the concepts of “modernity” and “tradition”, investigating the different socio-cultural and socio-economic patterns that exists within the Pentecostal parishioners, examining the shift that has occurred within the practice and significance of the rituals, given the socio-cultural changes the post-apartheid period has brough to the surface. Through this ethnographic research, I aim to study the lived experience of middle-class, multi-racial South African Pentecostals, creating links between the long and intricate colonial history of the country and the religious identity of Pentecostal believers. These goals will be achieved by investigating and conducting extensive fieldwork in two Pentecostal churches in the Roodepoort province in Johannesburg, South Africa. “Liberty Church” and the “Pentecostal Holiness Church Davidsonville” are a mega-church and a community church, accordingly, with a multi-generational and multi-racial profile that belong in an environment consisting of a middle-class of people coming from different backgrounds, including parishioners of European, African and Asian heritage and many interracial families. My research objectives will be met by engaging in a phenomenological methodology that will allow me to create an analytical model, free of pre-existing literature biases, approaching deliverance through the individual perspective that is influenced by the local “cosmological repertoire”. This methodological perspective will be accompanied by multiple in-depth interviews with key informants that will provide my work with a detailed understanding of the believers’ lives. With this project, I hope to diminish any pre-assumptions and misconceptions surrounding deliverance, both in the academic corpus, as well as in the minds of non-Pentecostals, by showcasing the ways through which these ceremonies provide believers with the necessary tools needed to position themselves within the turbulent past, their present and unpredictable future.

Social Anthropology

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Professor Sophie Day

Second supervisor: Dr Alice Elliot

Research project: Combatting coercive control in Covid-19: Perspectives from British-Pakistani NGO workers

Research description: This proposed research will be an ethnographic study of legal protections around coercive control, the most prevalent form of domestic violence in the UK and a criminal offence under the Serious Crime Act 2015. By focusing on the experiences of women working at domestic abuse NGOs in East London, this research will generate perspectives on how coercion and control unfold in multiply contested domestic settings.

This project builds on scholarship on the politics of narration and storytelling as well as biographical disruptions and reintegration to investigate the lived realities of coercion and control in the context of a) Covid-19 related forced enclosure and b) the criminalisation of coercive control under the Serious Crimes Act 2015. Access to justice for non-English speaking migrant women is obstructed by structural inequalities such as lack of economic means, knowledge about support services, and language skills, both English and bureaucratic language required by state authorities. Through close attention to their words, actions, and silences, this research examines the intimate lives of NGO workers who act as brokers between the state and community, navigate access to rights alongside notions of ‘honour’ and shame, traverse boundaries between public and private, and contest normative demands on integrated biographies.

It asks: how does this law affect the day-to-day lives of women in situations of coercion and control? What are the ways in which experiences of domestic abuse are communicated through words and silences? How do NGO workers then navigate the ethics of intervening in situations of domestic abuse?

This research takes inspiration from abolitionist approaches in grassroots activism and critical race theory that emphasise the need for a) restorative justice and b) resource re-allocation away from the prison industrial complex to welfare for women and children affected by domestic violence. This project aims to build on this literature by generating perspectives from women providing Urdu language support at NGOs in the East London boroughs of Newham and Redbridge. Through participant observation, life history interviews, and discourse analysis, this research will explore how in their simultaneous roles as NGO workers, relatives, neighbours, and activists, these women relate to legal processes, resist or reproduce hierarchies, and envisage solutions. Arguing against western feminist analyses of women's agency that accord it a normative status by simplistically centring desires to be free from subordination, this project builds on anthropological scholarship on Muslim women’s worlds that demonstrate the multiple ways in which women create and steer their destinies in home, public and political settings.

Social Anthropology

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Professor Zoe Davies

Second supervisor: Professor Robert Fish

Research project: How and where should we expand UK woodlands to benefit people and biodiversity?

Research description: We live in a time of profound environmental change due to climate collapse, land-use change, biotic homogenisation and species declines. The UK government has pledged to increase woodland cover from 13% to 19% to help achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This could also have important implications for conservation, as 10% of UK woodland species are threatened with extinction and 53% are declining. How and where we expand tree cover therefore represents an unprecedented opportunity to transform our nation into a better place for people and biodiversity. This PhD will work across disciplines (conservation, ecology, human geography, environmental psychology, environmental economics) to explore how to maximise social and ecological benefits.

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Laia Becares

Second supervisor: Prof Charles Watters

Research project: How have inequities in health care access and care quality during the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated ethnic inequalities in health?

Research description: This PhD project seeks to provide novel evidence on the role of the coronavirus pandemic in directly and indirectly exacerbating ethnic inequalities in health and health care. Health services research conducted prior to the coronavirus pandemic has shown ethnic inequalities in access to and satisfaction with primary and secondary services, particularly in relation to GP practices. (Burt et al., 2016; Burt et al., 2017; Bécares and Das-Munshi, 2013), and treatment for cardiovascular disease (Sekhri et al, 2008), maternity care (Lewis, 2007), and mental health (McKenzie et al., 2001). Given that the coronavirus pandemic has magnified already existing social inequalities, it is expected that the ethnic inequalities in health, and healthcare access and quality observed before February 2020 will have been exacerbated, and may be contributing to increasing ethnic inequalities in health and health care over the short and long-term. The aim of this PhD project is to analyze electronic health records in order to describe and quantify these inequalities, with a view of informing localized action and national health and social policies to mitigate ethnic inequalities in health and healthcare.

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Jeanette Cossar

Second supervisor: Prof Jonathan Dickens

Research project: Understanding The Experiences of Nonbinary People Accessing Mental Health Services

Research description: Current research indicates that transgender individuals experience significantly higher rates of mental health stress than that of the general population. Within the transgender community, nonbinary individuals have been found to have even higher rates of mental health distress than that of other transgender individuals. Although current research regarding transgender people’s experiences within the mental health system sometimes includes small percentages of nonbinary participants, there is currently a lack of research focused specifically on the mental health experiences of nonbinary people. This research project will include in depth interviews of at least 20 nonbinary individuals who have experience within the mental health system. Participants will be given the opportunity to share the type of mental health services they have received, whether they feel their gender identity has influenced their mental health and subsequent mental health treatment, what their overall experience within the mental health system has been, and how they feel the system can be improved. This study aims to provide a platform for nonbinary voices within mental health research. By allowing nonbinary people to share their experiences within the mental health system, this study will not only aid in improving the overall visibility of nonbinary individuals, but it may also help to inform mental health professionals on how to improve services provided to nonbinary individuals seeking mental health treatment.

Social Work and Social Policy

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Alison Body

Second supervisor: Dr Dawn Lyon

Research project: An ethnographic exploration of voluntary action in small rural primary schools in South East England

Research description: In recent years, governments in England have sought to emphasise the role volunteers can play in schools whilst simultaneously reducing the amount of funding per pupil. As a result, primary schools have become increasingly reliant on voluntary action (the giving of time and money) to deliver education, with smaller (rural) schools, being most heavily impacted (Body et al, 2017). However, in England’s highly differentiated countryside (Murdoch et al, 2003) schools in deprived areas have access to different levels and types of voluntary action than those in more advantaged area and thus increased dependence is potentially exacerbating inequalities between schools (Body and Hogg, 2018). This is a complex social policy issue which is yet to be investigated in-depth on a micro-level. It both draws on and contributes to a range of conceptual and empirical literature. From the perspective of the sociology of work, voluntary action involves unpaid labour alongside paid employment (Glucksmann, 1995; Taylor, 2004). This means that the same work may be undertaken in different socio-economic modes and raises questions about the relationships ‘on the ground’ and over time. In a school context, Brandsen and Honingh’s (2016) work on coproduction may be particularly applicable in understanding how voluntary action, particularly that of parents, is employed alongside paid labour to deliver education and raising important social policy questions regarding the relationship between the state, community and households in delivering educational outcomes. Research highlights that the majority of volunteering work in schools is undertaken by parents and carers (Body et al, 2016). Moreover, within both education and voluntary action (and indeed, coproduction), labour is often highly gendered, with women being more heavily involved than men (McGarvey et al, 2020). Gender also interacts with social, cultural and economic ‘capital’ (Bourdieu, 1986; Reay, 2004) both at the school and individual level. This raises the question of how ‘capital’ may come into play in the organisation of voluntary action in schools. Finally, it is important to consider the understandings and meanings attached to the experience of voluntary action for both those undertaking it, and those benefitting (or not) from it. The perspectives of the children themselves are particularly important here, and have often been neglected in the literature. This research will explore the complex interaction of these issues through an ethnography-based comparative analysis of the voluntary action occurring within two small rural primary schools with differing levels of deprivation. Multiple qualitative methods will be used over an extended time period. The aim of this research is to contribute to the knowledge of how voluntary action occurs in practice in these schools; how this voluntary action is experienced by those involved; what the relationship between deprivation and voluntary action in education might be; and how ‘capital’ might be strategically mobilised in education. This research also has the potential to highlight real and tangible policy recommendations within the field of education. This would not only benefit practitioners such as the schools, teachers and volunteers themselves, but also the children whose education is central to this voluntary action.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Ian Edwards

Second supervisor: Dr Joe Purshouse

Research project: Punishing Illness? A Socio-legal Analysis of the Imposition of Custodial Sentences on Mentally Disordered Offenders in English Law and Practice.

Research description: Judges and magistrates need clear guidance on how to take account of mental disorders in their custodial decision-making. Some guidance is provided in s. 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020 (formerly s. 157(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003). Section 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020 obliges sentencers to consider the following when deciding whether to impose a custodial sentence on a mentally disordered offender: the offender’s mental disorder; and, the impact of a custodial sentence on that disorder and on any possible treatment for it. However, there is no comprehensive data on how mental disorders affect sentencing practice (Sentencing Council, 2020). Therefore, we do not know if (or how) the courts are fulfilling their obligation under s. 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020. The high rate of mentally disordered offenders in prison suggests that s. 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020 has been overlooked by sentencers – as does the limited reference to s. 157(3) of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 in appellate court judgments. But, following the publication of Sentencing offenders with mental disorders, developmental disorders, neurological impairments (Sentencing Council, 2020) – the new guideline for sentencing mentally disordered offenders – it is possible that sentencers will now always fulfil their obligation under s. 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020. This socio-legal research project will employ qualitative methods (i.e. doctrinal analysis and empirical study) to explore the extent to which: sentencing law provides an appropriate framework for sentencing mentally disordered offenders to prison; and, judges and magistrates take account of mental disorders when considering the imposition of a custodial sentence. As a part of this exploration, this project will test the following hypotheses: ‘Judges and magistrates pay little attention to the obligation in s. 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020.’ ‘The new guideline helps to ensure that judges and magistrates fulfil their obligation under s. 232(3) of the Sentencing Act 2020.’

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Mark Walters

Second supervisor: Dr Hannah Mason-Bish

Research project: Carers as primary and secondary victims of disablism: what role for hate crime legislation?

Research description: My thesis investigates whether targeted abuse and violence experienced by carers, of disabled people in the United Kingdom (UK) should be protected under hate crime legislation. In the context of this thesis, carers will mean family members. Paid carers will not be included in this analysis and investigation. Carers of disabled people play a vital role in the lives of disabled people and are frequently targeted because of their associations with disabled people. Hate crimes necessitate serious attention because they are significantly more harmful to victims and the community to which the victims belong than other comparable crimes. Hate crime laws recognise the distinct harms caused by such prejudice and aim to protect against offences aggravated by disablist hostility under the Sentencing Code, section 66. But, carers of disabled people are not protected by this legislation. I will use Critical Disability Studies (CDS) to investigate and conceptualise the nature and dynamics of carers’ experiences of disability hatred. I will examine the similarities of the societal exclusionary effects between disabled people and carers. I will build on the social model of disability’s understanding of disability as a form of societal discrimination and exclusion of disabled people from full participation in society and reconceptualise it in the context of carers as directly and indirectly “disabled” under the social model of disability. It is hoped that this research will fill the lacuna in the academic literature concerning indirect and direct hate crime victimisation of carers of disabled people. Secondly, it aims to assist in understanding whether such incidents ought to be included under hate crime legislation. Thirdly, it aims to build on the social model of disability’s understanding of the exclusion of disabled people from society as a socio-political construct and reconceptualise carers as indirectly and directly “disabled” under the social model of disability.

Socio-Legal Studies

(University of Kent)

Main supervisor: Dr Edward Kirton-Darling

Second supervisor: Prof Helen Carr

Research project: The Veteran in the welfare state: ambiguous, invisible, marginal? A case study of housing homeless veterans.

Research description: This project investigates the contested relationship between veterans and welfare in the UK, with a particular focus on housing need and homelessness amongst former members of the armed services. It argues that the unstable, transient and ambivalent status of veterans, who are simultaneously hero and threat, saviour and liability, vulnerable and competent, has permeated welfare provision from its Elizabethan origins and continues to cause complexities today. It further argues that using the lens of the veteran allows for the interrogation of masculinity in welfare provision, and disturbs apparently stable notions of welfare claimant. To explore these themes in detail, the research will focus on a case study of veteran housing and homelessness. It will explore whether the current housing crisis reveals a welfare fault-line, and analyse what broader insights into contemporary approaches to welfare, housing and politics are exposed through analysis of the figure of the homeless veteran in this context. This case study will frame the history of the development between the welfare state and the veteran while examining many of the difficulties which the veteran faces in interacting with welfare in contemporary society. There is limited research into welfare and veterans, although academic interest in veteran housing and homelessness has grown since the mid-1990s when the disproportionate number of veterans among London’s homeless was reported. There is, however, a gap in the empirical research regarding how local authorities discharge their housing duties to veterans, and the role played by conceptions of vulnerability in those decisions (as vulnerability is a key criterion in establishing housing duties). In addition, little research – empirical or otherwise – has been undertaken examining how difficulties with the transition to veteran status have been intensified by the housing crisis, how rationing of provision has intensified contestation over the definition of veteran, or how these themes fit into the broader context of welfare and housing provision. This project will fill these gaps through a historical, theoretical and empirical project, including a case study investigating the provision of housing to veterans within London. This project will be undertaken in partnership with the Veterans and Pensions Committee, London region (VAPC). Through the VAPC, this project will be able to investigate a wide range of very difficult to access research subjects, data and sites which relate to homeless veterans. The VAPC will coordinate support from other supportive organisations, including LB Hounslow and the Royal British Legion, assisting with the project’s empirical research by establishing contact with interview subjects and enabling access for observations of decision making. In addition, the VAPC have arranged for Tesco to make a direct contribution to the project to cover travel costs. The project has considerable potential for impact and public engagement, including through the VAPC, who will draw on their extensive experience and contacts to provide assistance with the dissemination and publicity of findings. This assistance will include organising events, supporting with media releases, and dissemination through networks to all levels of government as well as 3rd sector organisations.

Sociology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Prof Susie Scott

Second supervisor: Dr Ben Fincham

Research project: An exploration of social and workplace bereavement support: comparing interactional processes of emotion work in cases of traumatic bereavement

Research description: In cases of traumatic bereavement, it is argued that grievers are subject to differing social rules around grief compared to those bereaved by anticipated deaths, as circumstances relating to traumatic deaths can be perceived as ‘death taboos’. The extent to which grievers adhere to such rules can determine their deservingness of grief, ultimately influencing the social acceptance of their grief, and therefore their ability to authentically grieve. However, literature in this area has mostly focused on suicide and murder, indicating the need for exploration into other forms of traumatic bereavement. In the workplace, the bereaved face further challenges in relation to social interaction and formal processes. Often bereavement policies are non-existent or inconsistent in their delivery, resulting in unsupportive treatment of bereaved individuals, including requirements of the bereaved to continue with usual expectations of productivity and ‘professional’ demeanours. In response, this project seeks to investigate the social and workplace experiences of the traumatically bereaved, drawing on symbolic interactionism and the sociology of emotions to examine social dynamics between grieving individuals, members of their nominated social network and Human Resource professionals and line managers, focusing on three forms of traumatic bereavement: bereavement through traffic collisions, suicide and Covid-19.

Sociology

(City, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Sylvia Walby

Second supervisor: Dr Estela Capelas Barbosa

Research project: Dr Elizabeth Cook

Research description: The project is a collaboration between the Violence and Society Centre at City University and Women’s Aid Federation of England. Domestic violence support services represent a critical element of the strategic response to reducing and preventing domestic violence. The research seeks to understand the patterns of utilisation of these services for women experiencing domestic violence and the most effective configuration of domestic violence support services. The research project will draw on data from Women’s Aid’s On Track project and will use data modelling and inferential statistics to address the research questions.

Sociology

(University of Sussex)

Main supervisor: Dr Aleksandra Lewicki

Second supervisor: Dr Suraj Lakhani

Research project: Exploring the Complex and Contradictory Role(s) of Women within the UK Far Right Movement

Research description: The far right can be considered a social movement of nativist collective actors who position certain 'Others' (particularly racialised, migrant 'Others') outside their conception of the nation state (Castelli Gattinara and Pirro, 2018). However, this claim is still contested and top-down, right-wing movements continue to be under-theorised. Not only this, but while women are becoming increasingly visible in the movement, they remain understudied. This project will therefore use insights gained from social movement theory, as well as a combination of social media discourse analysis and semi-structured interviews with key far right actors, to expand the scope of both fields and explore the complex and seemingly contradictory role(s) played by women in the movement. In turn, this will not only fill the gap in our knowledge but enable us to inform much-needed gendered interventions and policies against far right recruitment efforts in the future.

Sociology

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Katerina Hadjimatheou

Second supervisor: Dr Katrin Hohl

Research project: Reducing domestic abuse harms: a multi-agency approach to working with perpetrators

Research description: Domestic abuse causes serious harm to individuals and families and remains a persistent challenge for public services. In the UK, 6.5 million adults are estimated to have directly experienced domestic abuse (8.4% of women and 4.2% of men in 2018-19). Most services still place the onus on victims and families, to try to keep themselves safe, often by taking measures with a high personal cost, such as leaving their home. Few engage with perpetrators to stop the abuse in the first place. A failure to deal effectively with perpetrators leaves violent and abusive behaviours and attitudes unchallenged. And it risks displacing rather than reducing domestic abuse. Islington Council Violence against Women and Girls Service has recently received £2million to transform its domestic abuse provision. Developing new and innovative measures to engage and deal with perpetrators is a key priority. This 3-year fully funded studentship will give a PhD researcher the opportunity to work with Islington and a team of expert academics at the University of Essex’s centre for criminology, to produce new findings and recommendations on how to reduce the harm caused by perpetrators.