Health Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Joni Holmes

Second supervisor: Dr Clare Melvin

Research project: Improving gender equality in our understanding of mental illness: exploring the intersection between autism and gender identity

Research description: Being transgender or autistic confers increased risk for mental health challenges. However, transgender individuals are often excluded from understanding of mental health development and support. Research indicates that characteristics associated with autism (autistic traits) are significantly elevated in transgender individuals compared to those whose sex assigned at birth and gender identity are congruent (cisgender), and transgender identities are more prevalent in autistic populations: an intersection that confers heightened risk for mental illness. Recent research has primarily focused on the prevalence and presentation of autistic traits in individuals based on sex assigned at birth, typically working with diagnosed autistic populations, without considering how gender identity influences the expression of autistic traits more broadly.

What is the lived mental health experience of autistic-transgender individuals? How does gender identity affect autistic trait presentation? How does the intersection of autistic traits and a transgender identity impact mental health experiences?

My PhD will adopt a transdiagnostic, mixed methods approach. The project aims to understand the intersection between autistic traits and transgender identities, with a focus on their influence on mental health. This will be explored through lived experience focus groups and self-report questionnaires.

This research has wide-reaching practical implications for enhancing inclusivity and reducing gender inequalities in the identification of needs and support for individuals within these communities. Additionally, identifying potential similarities or differences in the presentation of autistic traits in transgender versus cisgender individuals will aid autism theory development, and contribute to the multiple minority theory, which examines the effects of intersecting social minorities and compounding unique life stressors on mental health risk.

X/Twitter: ZoeBalaam

Digital Social Sciences

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Nirmal Puwar

Second supervisor: Dr Kathryn Higgins

Research project: Autistic Social Space: A spatial digital ethnography of an online community of autistic women

Research description: In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of autistic women being underdiagnosed. However, this discourse is still shrouded by a mixture of ableism and misogyny that continues to discredit the lived experiences of autistic women (Bottema-Beutal et al., 2021). This has led to researchers of autism calling for more research on marginalised autistic populations, such as autistic women (McGhee Hassrick et al., 2021; Thom-Jones et al., 2024).

This research project will seek to explore the unique spatial affordances of an online forum specifically for autistic women by exploring how autistic women use computer mediated interaction to produce social space and whether that space facilitates authentic expression - or ‘unmasking’. It will do this partially by examining the conversations forum users are having on themes of space and place, as shaped by their lived experiences as autistic women.

In the midst of this environment, over 185,000 autistic women have formed an affirmative space in the form of an online forum, on Reddit.com, called ‘AutismInWomen’. The forum hosts many member-led discussions about various aspects of being an autistic woman. These discussions are protected from bullying, bigotry, and derogatory language by moderators. Due to these proactive measures, members frequently comment on how the forum itself is a ‘safe space’ that they struggle to find elsewhere. This has enabled members to find peer-support, realise they are not alone, build community, and engage in a practice termed ‘unmasking’ which describes when autistic people stop trying to camouflage their autistic traits. Research on these fragile online spaces is needed in the context of a platformised digital culture which is owned by a handful of billionaires who are increasingly aligning with far-right political ideals resulting in actions such as Meta pulling back on fact checking.

The aim of this research is to develop a better understanding of a minority within the autistic population and their use of the Internet as a social space. In particular, I am seeking to understand the extent to which online autistic spaces are sites where a unique production of social space occurs which enables autistic self-expression, community building, and culture building but also acts as a form of ‘test space’ for the altering of social space offline.

Methodologically, the project will use a combination of qualitative, computational, and creative methods. Within the wider framework of digital ethnography, I will employ critical spatial discourse analysis, in-depth interviews, and participatory mapping. For the participatory mapping element, I will seek forum users from one geographic area, e.g., London, to make a direct comparison between how autistic women experience a physical public space and an autistic-affirming online public space.

This interdisciplinary approach will contribute to digital social sciences by connecting the study of large data sets with the human scale experience of living in a digital society. Using the creative method of participatory mapping allows participants to regain creative agency in discussing topics, such as digital platforms and urban spaces, in which they may feel disempowered. Using these methods in conjunction will allow the research to form a fully fledged image of autistic women in online spaces which is informed by big data, lived expertise, and visual representation. This comparison will build on our understanding of the spatial, sensory, and social needs of autistic women.

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Rosalind Gill

Second supervisor: Dr Feyzi Ismail

Research project: Can’t or won’t?: Understanding Refusal from Inside Fashion

Research description: Anticipated to be the first study of fashion labour conducted by a researcher embedded in the field, this research is a labour inquiry that examines refusal in the British fashion sector, exploring how desirability, survival and choice narratives circulate to influence creative fashion workers’ understandings and enactments of refusals.

Existing research on fashion labour focuses on the narratives of managerialism and entrepreneurialism that emerged in the UK under the New Labour government, and the depoliticisation and subsequent de-unionisation of the fashion workforce within this policy landscape. However the launch in 2024 of ‘Fashion UK’, the UK’s first trade union dedicated to fashion workers, disrupts existing scholarship.

This project, conducted in real-time alongside the emergence of the Fashion UK union branch, pioneers an analysis of the developing politicisation of fashion workers in a historically non-unionised sector by tracking the impact and correlation of Fashion UK’s organising strategies on workers’ experiences of refusal and perceptions of can’t vs won’t.

The research methodology focuses on interviews and group workshops with fashion workers and union organisers. The research will also analyse quantitative data from Fashion UK and employ a media tracking methodology to monitor media coverage of the union’s organising efforts.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-buckler-292aa964

Instagram: @hannah_buckler

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Lincoln)

Main supervisor: Dr Simon Durrant

Second supervisor: Dr Hong-Viet Ngo-Dehning

Research project: Rumination, Sleep, and the Brain: A Neurophysiological Investigation

Research description: Rumination is a widespread problem associated with poor sleep quality and increased pre-sleep arousal (PSA). This project will investigate the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the relationship between rumination, arousal and sleep and evaluate two interventions to improve it. Participants will undergo a series of sleep studies, including polysomnography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy to measure cortical activity during sleep. Rumination will be induced using a validated protocol and measures of state rumination and PSA will be provided. Pre-sleep rumination is expected to lead to increased prefrontal cortical activation during sleep, disrupting normal sleep patterns and impairing subsequent cognitive function. Having investigated this, the project will test pre sleep rumination and arousal interventions as well as auditory closed loop stimulation during sleep to assess their effectiveness in reducing these sleep difficulties. This research will lead to a better understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying rumination-induced sleep disturbances and inform the development of effective interventions to target individuals who ruminate and are in danger of developing insomnia.

Advanced Methods for Social and Economic Research

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Nicholas Vasilakos

Second supervisor: Dr Gaetano Grilli

Research project: Measuring the Impacts of Climate Change on Inflation Inequality in the UK: an Experimental Consumer Price Index Approach

Research description: Climate change exacerbates inequalities. There are many pathways through which this mechanism occurs, and the socioeconomic dynamics involved are complex, so more research is needed on the topic. This proposal aims to address the issue by exploring two such pathways: 1) How do climate-related extreme weather events, like floods and droughts, create inequality? 2) Can climate adaptation policies, like those promoting energy efficiency, unintentionally worsen inequalities?

The methodological approach employed to answer these questions relies on the development of a novel indicator for inflation called an experimental Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Jaravel, 2021); this will be applied to a case study of the UK between 2001 and the present day. Instead of measuring average price changes for the country as a whole, the experimental CPI will be differentiated by each income category and UK region (Dawber et al., 2022). This enables geographic and socioeconomic comparisons between groups, crucial because inflation affects welfare to different degrees depending on one’s socioeconomic status (Chen et al., 2024). This phenomenon is known as inflation inequality, and it is what motivates the use of an inflation-based index to explore the welfare impacts of climate change.

By combining economic data with real-world experiences from interviews, this research creates a new way to understand the unequal impacts of climate change and policies designed to address it. The goal is to ensure no one is left behind as we adapt to a changing climate and move towards sustainability.

Advanced Methods for Social and Economic Research

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Pascal Vrticka

Second supervisor: Dr Ayten Bilgin

Research project: Synchronised beginnings: The role of child-parent synchrony in shaping subsequent child-peer relationships and child well-being

Research description: This project will take a novel interdisciplinary approach by combining social science methods with advanced neuroimaging. The aim is to understand how the quality of child-parent relationships predicts the quality of children’s later peer relationships, with a special focus on child-parent and child-peer synchrony.

Early childhood marks a significant transition as children move from spending most of their time with parents to engaging more with peers (Feiring & Lewis, 1989). This critical window for development occurs between the ages of 4 and 6, a period of rapid growth in social and cognitive abilities that help children form relationships and adapt to new environments (Ünlüer, 2024).

A central focus will be to investigate biobehavioural synchrony (BBS), the alignment of behaviour, physiological responses and brain activity during social interaction (Feldman, 2017). Advances now make it possible to examine brain activity simultaneously in multiple individuals, capturing interpersonal neural synchrony (INS), the neural component of BBS (Koul et al., 2023). While these measures show how much people are ‘in sync’, they do not usually reveal which level of synchrony is most beneficial. Integrating such INS and BBS data with social science data is therefore essential for interpreting synchrony within its wider social context (Horowitz-Kraus & Gashri, 2023; Beebe & Steele, 2016).

Methods will include structured interviews and questionnaires to assess attachment, social functioning, and peer relationships. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) hyperscanning, a non-invasive technique that measures brain activity during interactions, will be used to derive INS, and combined with behavioural observations to derive an overall measure of BBS. This approach will offer new insights into how early relational experiences shape social development, wellbeing, and mental health, and will inform stakeholders working with children and families to improve long-term outcomes.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-curtis-coach5

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Pinar Guven Uslu

Second supervisor: Prof Beatriz De La Iglesia

Research project: Predictive Analytics and Data Integration: Enhancing Healthcare Delivery in Resource-Limited Settings

Research description: Data-driven predictive tools can facilitate allocating limited healthcare resources in resource-poor contexts to improve health outcomes. Though Health and Demographic Surveillance Systems (HDSS) yield rich longitudinal data, they are primarily used for retrospective analysis, which leaves a massive gap in predicting future needs in health care. This research works towards filling this gap by creating predictive models employing machine learning algorithms to forecast disease prevalence, maternal and child health outcomes, and healthcare demands in Ghana. Also, the study will improve resource allocation to underserved regions by merging HDSS data with health facility metrics. Furthermore, interactive visualisation tools are proposed within the project that will allow policymakers to prioritise interventions and function better in healthcare delivery. The project is grounded in SENSS's data skills and advanced quantitative methods and will provide actionable insights for tackling the public health challenges in resource-limited settings. This research notably supports global health targets by contributing to SDG Goal 3, which aims to promote healthy lives and well-being at all ages. Moreover, merging disparate health data sources also helps achieve SDG 9, promoting innovation for a more efficient healthcare infrastructure.

X/Twitter:https://x.com/wdormechel68920?s=21

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/dormechele-william/

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Prof Andrew Canessa

Second supervisor: Dr Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki

Research project: Sex and the Indigenous City: Identity and Citizenship among Sexual and Gender Nonconforming Shipibos

Research description: This study explores how gender- and sexually nonconforming Shipibo individuals navigate urban contexts in Lima and Pucallpa, Peru. The Shipibo-Konibo people, who have historically settled in Amazonian territories, are increasingly residing in cities, reshaping their social and cultural landscapes. While urbanization generates new opportunities, it also produces vulnerabilities, particularly for those whose identities and practices disrupt heteronormative binaries.

Queer indigenous people face layered forms of discrimination tied to sexuality, gender, and ethnicity. Dominant Western frameworks of sexual democracy, rooted in rigid categories of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), often erase them from representations of diversity (Picq & Tikuna, 2015) or cast indigeneity as inherently opposed to gender and sexual equality (Lynch et al., 2021; Puar, 2007). At the same time, neoliberal multiculturalism conditions indigenous recognition on static notions of tradition anchored in rurality (Hale, 1997; Povinelli, 2002). Thus, when sexual and gender diversity is framed exclusively as a Western phenomenon, and indigeneity is acknowledged only insofar as it remains ‘œtraditional’ (i.e., un-Westernized), queer indigenous people are not only excluded from both dominant regimes of recognition but also rendered epistemically unintelligible within them.

At the local level, my previous research suggests that among urban Shipibo, nonconformity to normative sexual and gender expectations is viewed as an undesirable life path because it challenges a procreative imperative (Garcia-Rabines et al., 2024). Sexual and gender nonnormativity is perceived as a barrier to being a good family provider and responsible parent central Shipibo values (Espinosa, 2012). These dynamics illuminate how global and local discourses converge in regulating intimate life, citizenship, and belonging.

This project draws on an interdisciplinary framework that combines anthropology, critical psychology, and gender and sexuality studies, using 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork between Lima and Pucallpa. Through participant observation, in-depth interviews, and life histories, I will analyze how queer Shipibo construct identities, navigate urban life, and articulate claims to recognition in unexpected places’ beauty pageants, hairdressing salons, and volleyball courts.

This project contributes to theorizing queer indigenous subjectivities beyond the constraints of existing frameworks. Moreover, it seeks to inform culturally relevant policies and grassroots initiatives that address the intersectional challenges faced by queer indigenous individuals. By collaborating with advocacy organizations, the study will promote social change, dismantle harmful norms, and foster inclusive development in Peru.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diego-garcía-rabines-5116b5175/

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Diego-Garcia-91?ev=hdr_xprf

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof John Spencer

Second supervisor: Dr Joni Holmes

Research project: Investigating the Neural Bases of Infant Visual Working Memory Deficits and Childhood Executive Dysfunction: Developmental Trajectories of ADHD Risk

Research description: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterised by elevated levels of inattention and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity. ADHD affects approximately 8% of children and adolescents worldwide. Although ADHD has a congenital basis, it is often not diagnosed until observable behavioural symptoms become apparent, typically between the ages of 6 and 18 years. The lack of early diagnostic tools for ADHD often delays treatment, contributing to psychiatric comorbidities and reduced quality of life.

ADHD is strongly associated with deficits in executive function (EF), a family of top-down cognitive processes essential for goal-directed behaviours, including working memory, cognitive flexibility, and self-control. One of the earliest measurable facets of EF to develop in infancy is visual working memory (VWM), the ability to temporarily store and recall visual information. VWM deficits in infancy are strongly associated with poor EF outcomes in childhood, which can serve as early indicators of ADHD.

This longitudinal PhD project aims to investigate how VWM performance at 18 months predicts EF outcomes at 30 and 42 months, exploring early neurocognitive markers of ADHD. It will employ functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), eye-tracking, behavioural tasks, parent-reported data, and advanced quantitative methods (AQM).

Eighty participants will be recruited, prioritising high-risk populations whilst ensuring diverse socioeconomic representation. Data will be collected at three stages: VWM at 18 months, both VWM and EF at 30 months, and EF at 42 months. Existing unprocessed neural data from the Developmental Dynamics Laboratory at UEA will also be analysed.

By identifying early biomarkers, this project aims to facilitate earlier diagnosis and inform effective interventions for high-risk children before behavioural issues prevail.

LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/kbrooke444

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(City St George’s, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Christina Malamateniou

Second supervisor: Dr Divya Srivastava

Research project: Exploring the Impact of Digital Twinning and Virtual Reality on Claustrophobic Patients, Practitioner Effectiveness, and MRI Radiology Workflows.

Research description: Background: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a key diagnostic tool extensively utilised in modern healthcare in view of its exceptional soft-tissue contrast and the absence of ionising radiation. Despite its widespread use, claustrophobia - a fear of enclosed spaces which affects 12.5% of the global population - represents a considerable barrier to the success of MRI scans, often leading to patient distress, scan cancellations or repeats, sedation / anaesthesia and substantial economic costs. The challenges intrinsic to claustrophobia do not only impact individual patients, but affect the wider healthcare ecosystem. Europe alone is estimated to face yearly losses exceeding 1 billion euros resulting from these operational inefficiencies. Current non-pharmacological strategies to tackle MRI claustrophobia, like wider-bore designs, mindfulness therapies, and music interventions, have demonstrated limited effectiveness for “high-risk” patients. Emerging technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Digital Twinning (DT) present transformative opportunities to address claustrophobia without relying on sedation or anaesthesia. By creating immersive pre-scan experiences and high-fidelity replicas of MRI environments, these tools can enhance patient preparedness, alleviate anxiety, and build familiarity with the procedure. This can not only improve the patient experience but also optimise practitioner efficiency, ultimately reducing cancellations, repeat scans, and associated costs, promoting a more inclusive and effective healthcare system.

Aim: Develop a patient-centred pipeline integrating advanced digital technologies, specifically VR/DT tools, to reduce MRI claustrophobia, improve radiographer’s clinical effectiveness and streamline radiology workflows.

Objectives: i) Investigate the acceptability and usability of DT/VR tools among a diverse group of patients and practitioners, in relation to claustrophobia management in MRI. ii) Explore the educational benefits and risks of these technologies in the context of radiographer training when managing claustrophobic patients. iii) Research the impact of DT/VR on workflow processes (scans succeeded / aborted / requiring repeat). iv) Create actionable recommendations for DT/VR-based education of radiographers managing claustrophobic patients, enhancing the MRI experience for people affected by claustrophobia, and integrating these technologies into clinical workflows.

Methods: This project employs participatory action research (PAR) methodology and experience-based co-design (EBCD), favouring collaborations between patients, radiographers, and healthcare administrators. The methods will be based on: i) Conducting a narrative review investigating DT/VR usage in medical imaging, in order to identify barriers, enablers, educational gaps. ii) Engaging key stakeholders, with dedicated focus groups, to explore perceptions of DT/VR for managing MRI claustrophobia. iii) Administering nationwide surveys aimed at further assessing challenges and opportunities related to claustrophobic patients and the potential use of these technologies. iv) Creating a patient-facing Digital Twin of an MRI scanner replicating physical, functional, and environmental characteristics, and design practitioner-facing tools featuring avatars. v) Evaluating tools' effectiveness, scalability, and usability through semi-structured interviews run among communities of selected stakeholders.

Expected Results / Outputs: This pipeline, built on the convergence of advanced DT/VR technologies, is expected to streamline MRI claustrophobia management, enhancing patient experiences, practitioner effectiveness, and operational efficiency. Evidence-based recommendations and educational resources will be generated, supporting a postgraduate training module focused on the patient experience in MRI. Outputs will also encompass peer-reviewed publications and practical guidelines for implementing VR/DT workflows in MRI practice.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julien-greggio/

Digital Social Science

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Scott Wark

Second supervisor: Prof. Nathaniel Tkacz

Research project: Extractive Infrastructures: Unearthing the Spatial Politics, Assetization and Neocolonialism of UK Data Centres

Research description: Data centres are highly securitised buildings used to store and process data. The UK has the third-highest number of data centres globally, which is expected to increase six-fold in the next decade. With the Labour government prioritising AI, data centres are rapidly expanding to support these technologies. In addition to bypassing green belt protections to enable mass construction, Labour has secured £14 billion from private investors and corporations such as Amazon Web Services, with large-scale building set to begin in 2025.

This project investigates the impact of the UK’s expanding data centre infrastructure on spatial, social and political relations, as well as its role in global capital. While expansion is promoted as boosting productivity and reducing inequalities, data centres consume vast amounts of water, energy and heat, impacting local communities and raising costs for working people who must compete for key resources. This research asks: what are the sociopolitical functions of data centres, and how do private investment firms, big tech and governments shape, and benefit from, their expansion?

A mixed-methods approach will combine theoretical research with two qualitative case studies: data centres in London’s Docklands and a major AI centre planned in Northumberland by the US investment firm Blackstone. Studying these urban and rural sites together will illuminate how data centre infrastructures transform, recycle, and function as key nodes in global finance and computation.

The project contributes to debates on the ethics of AI and digital infrastructure, offering new frameworks for understanding data centres as intersections of finance, technology, and extractivism.

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chiara-haefliger

Advanced Methods for Social and Economic Research

(City St George’s, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Bansi Malde

Second supervisor: Dr Maria Cubel

Research project: The Impact of Earned Wage Access (EWA) Programme on the Ready- Made-Garment (RMG) Workforce of Bangladesh

Research description: Low-wage workers in developing countries struggle to finance basic needs and lack access to emergency funds, affecting their productivity and wellbeing. Earned Wage Access (EWA) programmes are emerging as a potential approach to mitigate short-term financial emergencies by allowing employees early access to their earned wages before traditional payday. However, evidence on the efficacy of such programmes is scarce, especially in developing economies with poor financial literacy, weak regulatory frameworks, and low-income levels.

The ready-made-garment (RMG) industry of Bangladesh, a globally prominent sector and the second-largest exporter of garments, employs over 4 million workers, predominantly women, characterised by poor financial literacy and wages as low as £85 per month. EWA services have been adopted recently by some large factories and expanding as an alternative to wage increases to support these financially distressed workers.

Collaborating with one of the largest garment manufacturing factories, the research focuses on three interrelated objectives. First, it examines how EWA affects team-level productivity considering spillover effects among non-users within production floors due to its adoption. Second, the study analyzes the interaction between EWA and financial literacy training in fostering financial stability among workers, including improved savings behaviour and reduced dependency on informal loans. Third, it investigates the broader implications of combining EWA with financial literacy training on productivity.

The study employs advanced quantitative methods, leveraging the collaborating firm’s extensive administrative data from its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This will be complemented by survey data capturing worker perceptions and financial behaviours. Using an extensive panel dataset covering pre- and post-EWA implementation periods, a Difference-in-Difference (DiD) framework will examine the influence of EWA on team performance and its spillover effects on non-users within production floors. Furthermore, a Randomised Control Trial (RCT) incorporating financial literacy training, will investigate the broader implications for financial outcomes, including savings and debt repayment.

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(Middlesex University)

Main supervisor: Prof Eleonore Kofman

Second supervisor: Dr Nico Pizzolato

Research project: An examination of the of intersecting legal frameworks and migration discourses that shape precarity among highly skilled immigrant workers in UK.

Research description: Highly skilled migrant workers are the engine of the UK’s innovation, productivity, and global reputation. They bring expertise, creativity, and fresh ideas that strengthen our economy and enrich our society. Without them, the UK risks losing its competitiveness in the world of technology, research, finance, and many other sectors.

But behind the success stories is a hidden truth. Many of these highly skilled professionals face real insecurity. They navigate complex immigration rules, workplace pressures, and social challenges that can threaten their careers, earnings, and overall wellbeing. Their legal status can be uncertain. Their access to opportunities is not always equal. And the very policies designed to welcome them can sometimes create barriers.

Scouring through academic literature, it is evident that there is a wealth of research on the precarity faced by low-skilled migrant workers. Their challenges are well-documented and widely discussed. In contrast, the specific vulnerabilities of highly skilled migrants have received far less attention, leaving important gaps in our understanding of precarity among this critical group. Any anecdotal studies available often take a narrow approach, focusing on one area at a time such as immigration law or workplace rights, without looking at how different aspects interact to shape precarity. This leaves policymakers and organisations without the full picture they need to respond effectively.

My project aims to make a contribution to addressing this gap. I will examine how laws on immigration, employment, corporate governance, and welfare intersect, and how gaps in these frameworks, alongside social policies, shape the precarity among highly skilled migrant workers in the UK. By exploring these connections, I hope to shed light on the real causes of job insecurity, stalled career progression, and unfair treatment in this important part of the workforce.

My approach is practical and centred on people’s lived experiences. I will speak directly to those affected, including highly skilled migrants, HR professionals, business leaders, trade union representatives, and policymakers. I will combine these insights with a close review of legal texts, social policy documents, and public debate analysis. This combination of perspectives will help produce evidence that can inform better policy and workplace practice.

The findings will be shared with academics, policymakers, employers, advocacy groups, and the public. While this project alone cannot solve all the challenges faced by highly skilled migrants, it contribute valuable evidence to ongoing conversations about fairness, equality, and the UK’s competitiveness in the global talent market.

This research has been partially funded by a studentship from the South and East Network for Social Sciences (SENSS), whose commitment to supporting projects that address real-world challenges makes work like mine possible. SENSS support will allow me to dedicate more time and focus to this project. This means I can engage more closely with participants, carry out deeper analysis, and produce research of higher quality. Better research will not only help highlight the real challenges faced by highly skilled migrants but also provide evidence that can guide fairer policies and workplace practices. In this way, SENSS support will translate into findings that matter for individuals whose careers and wellbeing are at stake, while also contributing to the UK’s wider competitiveness in attracting and retaining global talent.

Twitter/X: @davidkalanzi

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidkalanzi

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/K07894435745

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Alex Wilkie

Second supervisor: Prof Mathilda Tham

Research project: Slow Fashion: Crafting Futures Through Material Practices

Research description: Responding to devastating environmental effects of the global fashion industry, this research investigates how a more-than-human (MTH) approach can inform the co-design of fashion futures beyond growth logic regimes. This interdisciplinary research is grounded in the inventive and performative turns in social science and STS, notably feminist technoscience, and aims to develop a novel inventive research method to engage local fashion efforts to achieve sustainable futures. Situating my research within emergent UK flax fibre communities, it addresses the barriers specific to these initiatives. Furthermore, the research aims to support designers used to opaque global supply chains, who lack the skills of working with native fibres, in these local networks, and in practices that offer alternatives to the perpetuation of sustainability via consumption.

The research asks:

1. How do slow fashion communities negotiate relationships between material agency, sustainability and sociotechnical futures?

2. In what ways do material practices (e.g. flax growing and processing) shape and reconfigure MTH relations in (slow) fashion ecosystems?

3. How can participatory speculative methodologies be employed to facilitate co-designing futures for slow fashion in ways that include MTH interests and futures?

The theoretical perspective, informed by STS and feminist technoscience, guides the methodology informing design ethnography and participatory speculative practices as methods for understanding and intervening in the sociotechnical dynamics of slow fashion. I first engage three flax communities using design ethnography whilst growing my own flax; this dual role of ethnographer and active participant enables a material engagement exploring how flax, as a MTH material actor can be granted agency. The research proceeds by way of a participatory speculation workshop designed to foster interdisciplinary dialogue between actors implicated in sustainable fashion futures.

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(Cranfield University)

Main supervisor: Dr Alice Johnston

Second supervisor: Dr Abdou Khouakhi

Research project: Optimising urban green-blue spaces for resilient and sustainable cities: cleaner air, cooler cities and healthier communities

Research description: The overarching aim of this proposal is to identify how UGBS can be better configured for cleaner air, cooler cities and healthier and more equitable communities. This research will seek answers to the following questions: (1) How do UGBS characteristics (e.g. type, distribution and connectivity) mitigate air pollution and urban heat while enhancing public health outcomes across diverse socio-economic groups? and (2) How does UGBS configuration act as an enabler or barrier to equitable public health outcomes, and how do socio-economic factors shape these relationships?

This research examines environmental risk and public health disparities across 48 cities in the UK, focusing on UGBS composition and accessibility, air pollution, extreme heat, and associated health risks such as respiratory diseases. By integrating spatial and socio-economic analyses, the research will assess how inequalities in UGBS access contribute to environmental and health vulnerabilities, and importantly, how these disparities can be addressed by targeted urban planning. The research will apply advanced statistical and machine learning techniques to model potential UGBS interventions and evaluate their effectiveness in reducing health disparities. UGBS intervention scenarios will investigate how the extent, composition and distribution of UGBS can be optimised to achieve more equitable environmental and public health benefits. The findings will provide actionable insights for policymakers and urban planners, supporting evidence-based strategies to create healthier, more equitable, and climate-resilient cities.

By addressing critical gaps in socio-ecological system dynamics, this research provides a novel approach for integrating social science perspectives into quantitative analyses of urban environmental health and climate resilience. The findings will offer policymakers and urban planners actionable strategies to create more inclusive and sustainable cities and towns.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jiyoungkim

Resolving Uncertainty and Addressing Crises

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Prof Melissa Tyler

Second supervisor: Dr Sophie Hales

Research project: Pain, precarity and ‘passionate attachmen’: the working lives of UK-based freelance dancers in crisis

Research description: The UK performing arts sector is in crisis after austerity, Brexit, Covid, and the increased cost of living. This is especially true for the sector's large freelance workforce. The situation in the dance sector, particularly contemporary dance, is especially critical.

Reliant on precarious, diminishing public funding, contemporary dancers normally work on short term, project-based contracts, with high job insecurity and low pay. Contemporary dancers are also exposed to high levels of injury. Without sick pay and with their bodies as ‘working tools’, dancers often ‘work through’ pain and injury. This combination means that contemporary dance is arguably a form of ‘hyper-precarious’ work, with dancers both socio-economically and physically vulnerable.

The research will ask: How are dancers’ experiences of pain and injury shaped by chronic precarity, and crisis? What can be done to address this, now and in future?

It will draw from Judith Butler’s theory of ‘passionate attachment’ to explore how passion can legitimise and thus perpetuate precarity, particularly via the rhetoric of resilience, and the ways in which it shapes dancers’ experiences.

A thorough literature review will be followed by a dance sector survey, providing ‘top line’ insights into the broad, sector-wide issues. Findings of this survey will inform semi-structured narrative interviews and observations to provide detailed ethnographic insights into dancers’ lived experiences, to inform and shape a more equitable arts landscape.

Findings will make an original, substantial academic contribution to research on crisis and precarity in creative work in organisation studies and will be relevant to understanding and addressing the crisis in the arts sector as a whole. The research will make evidenced, action-oriented policy recommendations for change to be shared with key stakeholders, across the UK’s performing arts industry. Critically, the research will also have implications for other work that is shaped by passionate attachment and resilience (e.g. health care.)

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-mackerron-ab1754a2

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Alex Dymock

Second supervisor: Dr Fay Dennis

Research project: Breaking the Grindr Silence: Examining online-offline Chemsex Interactions Among Men in London

Research description: This research examines the role of Grindr in facilitating chemsex interactions among men in London, addressing a gap in understanding the platform's influence on these behaviours. While previous studies have explored community formation and motivations for chemsex (Hakim, 2019; Stuart, 2019; Florencio, 2023), little attention has been given to Grindr's design, operational systems, policy and it governance implications. Using Actor-Network Theory (Latour, 2005), this study frames Grindr as an agent shaping chemsex interactions and their lasting effects on users and society.

The research employs qualitative methods, including participant observation on Grindr, semi-structured interviews with 30 users (ongoing and ceased), and interviews with Grindr's Corporate Social Responsibility representatives. Participant observation will document interaction dynamics and platform design, while interviews will explore users' embodied practices and the digital-physical interplay of Grindr-facilitated chemsex. If interviews with Grindr representatives prove unfeasible, secondary data will supplement the study. Data will be analysed inductively using Nvivo software, uncovering themes related to user behaviour, platform influence, and digital traces.

Key questions include: How do online and offline interactions intersect in chemsex practices? How does Grindr's design influence behaviours? What lasting effects do Grindr interactions leave on users? This research is timely, given the rise of chemsex among men who have sex with men (MSM) in London and its public health implications.

Following the proposal, the study will provide actionable insights into chemsex practices and Grindr's role in interventions. A briefing document will disseminate findings to enhance public health strategies.

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(Middlesex University)

Main supervisor: Dr Noha Saleeb

Second supervisor: Dr Amy Burnett

Research project: Enhancing Evaluation and performance of Logistical Buildings: Integrating Social and Environmental Standards in Sustainable Asset Management Using Artificial Intelligence

Research description: In an era where sustainability and climate resilience are paramount global concerns, logistical buildings stand at a crucial crossroads. This sector encompasses facilities such as warehouses, distribution centres, and storage units, which are critical for supply chain operations and economic development. Sustainable and eco-friendly buildings are essential to the functioning of this sector, offering opportunities to enhance both operational efficiency and societal benefits.

Traditionally, decision-making in logistical buildings has relied on financial metrics such as cost-benefit analysis, net present value (NPV), and return on investment (ROI), often prioritising short-term gains over long-term sustainability. However, growing environmental challenges and the need for alignment with broader sustainability goals demand the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles.

A key aspect of this strategic shift is alignment with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly focusing on the three scopes of carbon emissions. This research investigates how sustainability standards can be applied to logistical buildings, addressing critical gaps in lifecycle emissions (Scope 3) and social dimensions such as worker safety, equitable resource distribution, and community well-being.

The current response to these challenges involves established sustainability assessment schemes like BREEAM, LEED, and GRESB. While these schemes address energy consumption, water usage, and waste management, they often fall short of integrating social parameters and comprehensively addressing lifecycle carbon emissions. This research aims to bridge these gaps by incorporating sustainability principles and investigating social factors, including workforce equity, job satisfaction, worker safety, and the environmental and social impacts of warehouses on surrounding communities.

Logistical buildings, as defined in this study, refer to facilities dedicated to warehousing, storage, and distribution operations. Key stakeholders include warehouse managers, sustainability professionals, warehouse employees, and supply chain operators, whose perspectives will inform the research approach to improving worker satisfaction, reducing community health risks, and fostering equitable growth.

The integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers powerful tools to address these issues by enabling real-time optimisation of energy consumption, tracking emissions, and enhancing social metrics like workforce safety and inclusivity. AI technologies will also be explored for their potential to create optimisation solutions for worker health and well-being by identifying hazards, enhancing safety protocols, and promoting better indoor environmental quality. Furthermore, AI can streamline operations, improve accessibility, and support decision-making while aligning with SDGs related to health, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities, responsible consumption, and achieving net-zero carbon emissions.

To achieve these objectives, this research adopts a four-phase methodology: distributing comprehensive questionnaires to key stakeholders, conducting case studies of selected warehouses, performing controlled experiments to evaluate the implementation of sustainability standards, and validating findings through expert interviews. This mixed-methods approach ensures a robust analysis of existing frameworks and the development of a comprehensive, integrative sustainability framework for logistical buildings.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/niayesh-nia-nejatali-170745130

Instagram: @Niayesh_Nejatali

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Susan Schuppli

Second supervisor: Dr Kodwo Eshun

Research project: Sensing Under Fire: Towards a Critical Practice of Wildfire Remote Sensing

Research description: This research examines the political ecology of fire management in Europe's south-eastern periphery through a critical reconfiguration of Remote Sensing methodologies. In contemporary Greece, increasingly violent 'wild' fires are either stripped of their political character “as simply a problem for territorial management“ or blamed on any convenient Other: migrants, 'foreign agents', irresponsible farmers, etc. In either case, technological fixes centred on satellite, airborne, or ground-based sensors are presented as key elements of a command and control architecture that claims to deliver on environmental and security concerns. These proliferating sensing capacities, however, do not currently feed into the development of a complex cognitive mapping, necessary to make sense of wildfire as a structural issue, allowing the space for conspiracy theories to spread.

Not too long ago, ecological knowledge began to recognise the mutually productive relationship within which fire and human environments are inextricably bound. Drawing on concepts from Fire Ecology, the research aims to consider a mode of Remote Sensing that repositions fire as a historical agent rather than an instantaneous effect. To shift the focus from the prediction, detection, and measurement of a single fire event to the complex mapping of agencies that co-produce a fire regime, the research proposes an expanded spatial, spectral, and temporal frame of sensing. This involves critically interrogating existing technologies and datasets, developing new methods, and introducing situated insights. Such a modified remote sensing is aimed at detecting the traces of political ecologies and technics involved in the long history of transformations of the East Mediterranean pyrogeography from late Ottoman upheavals to modern state formation, and Cold War counterinsurgency to neoliberal reforms.

Digital Social Science

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Emily Rosamond

Second supervisor: Dr Scott Wark

Research project: Toxic Queer Masculinities - Tools for navigating AI-integrated subjectivity

Research description: What are the impacts of AI on queer masculine subjectivities?

AI tools like Wingman ”an AI assistant for dating apps that learns from user behaviours” reshape self-perception and amplify harmful dynamics in digital systems. By commodifying attraction, these platforms reduce intimacy to data-driven transactions, prioritising profit while enforcing behavioural and appearance metrics. For marginalised people, who often rely on online spaces for belonging, such systems exploit vulnerabilities and amplify mental health issues.

This PhD examines AI’s cultural impact by creating visual tools, including speculative architectural body design, to uncover hidden automation and data extraction mechanisms. Through workshops and SENSS-funded symposium, it engages queer communities in dialogue on AI’s role in automating decisions and shaping interactions. The research provides tools for users to navigate ecosystems transparently by exposing these mechanisms and their influence on subjectivity.

Instagram: @adam__peacock

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Rebecca Charlton

Second supervisor: Dr Hilary Norman

Research project: Exploring cognitive symptoms of menopause, societal awareness, stigmatisation and help seeking among neurodivergent and non-neurodivergent people.

Research description: Awareness about menopause is growing, with vasomotor symptoms such as hot flushes attracting attention. However, menopause also involves cognitive symptoms such as difficulties with memory, attention and executive functioning, sometimes known as ‘brain fog’. Although approximately two thirds of people experience cognitive symptoms during menopause, awareness of these symptoms is low which may prevent those affected from seeking menopause specific support. The lack of knowledge and reporting of cognitive symptoms during menopause may feed into existing stigmas about cognitive impairment, ageing and female specific issues which act as further barriers to seeking support.

Evidence suggests that autistic people may be especially prone to cognitive symptoms during menopause because of pre-existing cognitive differences. For example, a recent study found that changes in memory and concentration were the most common menopause symptoms among autistic people, affecting 80% of those surveyed. However, despite its prevalence, participants had low awareness about this symptom, with memory and concentration changes being reported as the most unexpected symptom during menopause.

The low awareness and stigma of cognitive symptoms during menopause create barriers to medical support for menopause, impacting the quality of life of those experiencing them. The exclusion of cognitive symptoms in menopause questionnaires limits research into these symptoms, perpetuating the low awareness among menopausal people and healthcare professionals. This project will use mixed methods to investigate the awareness, prevalence and experiences of cognitive symptoms during menopause and related factors in people from diverse groups. A key output will be a validated menopause symptom scale which includes the full range of menopausal symptoms.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/martha-piper-3193a1196

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Kirsten Campbell

Second supervisor: Dr Yesim Yaprak Yildiz

Research project: From Resistance to Peace: Women’s Organisations’ Creation of Transformative Gender Justice in Aceh and Timor-Leste

Research description: In the period of 1976-1999, the Indonesian army occupied the recently independent country of Timor-Leste while also fighting against Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, a separatist group in the Indonesian province of Aceh. In a context of grave violations of human rights and crimes against humanity, multiple women's organisations were created; they came into contact with one another and built national networks and transnational alliances. After 1999 in Timor-Leste and 2005 in Aceh, these networks transitioned into the post-peace-signing period and are still active today.

This study aims to map how women’s organisations have engaged with the transitional justice process and what challenges and opportunities they have encountered. It is grounded in a qualitative feminist methodology, working closely with identified women's organisations in-country and employs transformative gender justice as a theoretical framework. It follows a decolonial feminist approach to human rights while centring the experiences of women’s organisations to provide localised insight into what a more gender-focused, transformative perspective could bring to current practices of transitional justice.

While transitional justice is the international standard for post-conflict interventions, it has historically failed to reflect women’s experiences of conflict, and it often reproduces gendered power imbalances when seeking to return to the ‘normality’ prior to the conflict. Transformative justice, on the other hand, holds that violences are commonly enabled by pre-existing structures of inequality, and that the end of a conflict offers an opportunity to transform them. Seeing conflict as a disruption in the way that gender has been organised thus far, transformative gender justice scholars agree that the ‘post-conflict’ period is an opportunity to reconfigure gender norms, thereby not only preventing further gender-based violence but also eliminating the root causes of conflict-related gender-based violence.

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

Digital Social Sciences

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Prof Mirca Madianou

Second supervisor: Dr Jason Cabanes

Research project: Power Asymmetries of Digital Labour and Humanitarianism: Artificial Intelligence, Refugee Data Workers, and Colonial Dependencies in Lebanon

Research description: As artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT have become mainstream, attention is increasingly turning to the extractive infrastructures that make AI possible. Projects like Fairwork have exposed the unfair conditions for the workforce labelling and annotating data, which is used to train AI. Scholars have noted the geographic asymmetries of data work performed in the Global South which was largely demanded by companies in the global North (Graham et al, 2017); and that digital platforms leverage marginalised identities (gender, class, and race) to extract unpaid or underpaid online labor (Casilli 2019). What has received less scholarly attention is the data work undertaken by refugees who are increasingly contracted by digital labour platforms.

Refugees differ from other exploited workers in the Global South as they have limited opportunities to refuse work. People displaced by and fleeing conflict are encouraged to undertake exploitative data work by the same humanitarian organisations that are supposed to protect them, and on whom they are dependent for food and other aid. Humanitarian organisations like the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) are training refugees and connecting them to digital labour platforms, framing data work as an ‘opportunity’ and ‘solution’ to legal barriers to employment in the host countries. Refugees’ dependence on the very humanitarian organisations promoting digital labour accentuates the exploitative nature of refugee data work, and makes humanitarian organisations complicit in this process.

While there is growing scholarship on digital labour and the use of digital practices in humanitarianism, the intersection of these topics has been overlooked. Yet refugee digital labour is significant and deserving of study, as refugees are the most marginalised of data workers, and with their dependency on humanitarian organisations have limited ability to refuse work. Through a mixed methods study including fieldwork in Lebanon, participant observation, interviews, and digital ethnography, this research will explore the experiences and lifeworlds (Feldman, 2012) of refugee data workers, and the practices, categories, and procedures of humanitarian organisations and digital labour platforms facilitating data work. In doing so, this interdisciplinary research aims to understand how the power relationships and colonial dependencies in both digital labour and digital humanitarianism are reinvigorated and reworked by refugee data work.

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

Website: https://sacharobehmed.net/

Resolving Uncertainty and Addressing Crises

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Prof Carla Ferstman

Second supervisor: Dr Patricia Palacios Zuloaga

Research project: Reproductive violence and the engendering of mass atrocities: centring reproductive rights discourses in transitional justice

Research description: My PhD research titled ‘Reproductive violence and the engendering of mass atrocities: centring reproductive rights discourses in transitional justice’, addresses the invisibility of reproductive violence in transitional justice theory and practice. While transitional justice has advanced in acknowledging sexual violence in post-conflict settings, it has consistently conflated or overlooked reproductive violence - forms of gender-based harm that target reproductive autonomy, such as forced contraception, forced abortion, forced pregnancy, and denial of reproductive healthcare.

This project aims to critically examine why reproductive violence remains largely absent from transitional justice frameworks and to propose ways to centre reproductive rights within the pillars of truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence. Specifically, it seeks to: (i) explain the historical and legal reasons for this invisibility; (ii) name and challenge gender stereotypes that conflate sexual and reproductive autonomy into one category of harm; (iii) analyse the harms that remain unaddressed when reproductive rights violations are excluded; and (iv) explore how integrating reproductive justice discourses can disrupt the continuum of reproductive violence across war and peacetime.

The research applies feminist legal theory to interrogate silences in law and practice, while using sociolegal methodologies. Desk-based research will review legal frameworks, jurisprudence, truth commission reports, and NGO documentation. Empirical fieldwork in Colombia “a pioneering case where reproductive violence has been centred by the works of the Special Jurisdiction for Peace and the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-repetition” will involve interviews with practitioners, experts, victims, and NGOs.

Through this interdisciplinary approach, the project will generate original scholarship at the intersection of international law, gender studies, and transitional justice, contributing to both academic knowledge and practical advocacy on reproductive justice.

Twitter/X: @NatalySant

LinkedIn: Nataly Santana Sánchez

Instagram: @natalysant

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Wijnand Van Tilburg

Second supervisor: Dr Reinhard H Pekrun

Research project: Sick of being Bored

Research description: Boredom has been called out for being a pervasive yet overlooked problem within the context of health. Experts have warned that boredom may affect especially those who face health challenges and may experience limited mobility, reduced perceived agency, or frequent and prolonged hospital stays. In addition to worsening subjective well-being, boredom in health context has been suggested to undermine treatment adherence, reduce trust in the healthcare system, and fuel hostility towards staff, while at the same time eroding beneficial behaviours such as exercise and healthy eating. Despite this, no research has empirically investigated the role of boredom among those facing health challenges.

My research will focus on the lived experiences of hospitalized patients at the dialysis unit of Ipswich Hospital who have been flagged up as particularly vulnerable to boredom and its putative negative impacts by my partner. Through a combination of quantitative surveys and qualitative data collection, the study will investigate the prevalence and impact of boredom within the specific context of dialysis treatment. Key areas of investigation include the relationship between boredom and treatment adherence, patient satisfaction, and staff interactions. The study will also explore the potential for interventions to alleviate boredom and improve patient outcomes, such as incorporating engaging activities, enhancing patient autonomy and fostering social connections.

This research provides not only the first systematic investigation of boredom in health context but does so by combining the identification of longitudinal trends with a lived-experience approach. In so doing, the research has the potential to significantly impact healthcare practice and policy by highlighting the importance of addressing boredom as a crucial factor in patient well-being and recovery. By understanding the detrimental effects of boredom and developing effective interventions, we can improve the quality of care for patients and contribute to a more patient-centred approach to healthcare.

LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/psyshank

Instagram: @Shaggrmeister

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Birgit Larsson

Second supervisor: Dr Sarah Hanson

Research project: More than food: The role of social supermarkets in reducing inequalities and improving wellbeing for women involved in the criminal justice system

Research description: Women in the UK Criminal Justice System (CJS) are a significantly underserved and vulnerable group, with their experiences and needs often overlooked or neglected within the CJS and wider system. The Corston report, highlighted the need for radical reform in the way in which women are treated throughout the CJS and called for holistic women-centred approach through women’s community centres providing one-stop shop approaches. While little progress has been made in the implementation of one-stop shops, the emergence of interventions responding to food insecurity have organically stepped into some of this space. This study offers the first academic exploration of women involved in the CJS who receive support through a food pantry programme. Through a multiple-case study approach of three St Giles Trust food pantries in the UK (‘The Pantry’), this research aims to provide in-depth understanding of whether The Pantry model can reduce inequalities experienced by women in the CJS. This research utilises a range of methods across three sequential methodological strands. Methodological strand one will involve a narrative scoping review to understand the inequalities faced by women in the criminal justice system. The second will be a qualitative study of interviews with 20 stakeholders including St Giles Trust staff, policy makers, commissioners and partners. The third will use a case study design method of three St Giles Pantries which will involve collecting a range of sources of evidence through observation and interviews with 15 women involved in the CJS who are at different stages of their programme. This study will assess the suitability of a food pantry as a support model for this group, addressing whether they can be used as one stop shops and/or help reduce inequalities. It will also seek to raise the voices of women involved in CJS, who are often overlooked, providing them with an opportunity to influence the services they and others will receive in the future.

LinkedIn: Anna Sweeting

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Martin Webb

Second supervisor: Dr Julia Sauma

Research project: How Many Global Hectares Do You Occupy? An Ethnography of One Planet Development in Wales.

Research description: In the heart of rural Wales, One Planet Development (OPD) stands out as a groundbreaking policy that seeks to redefine sustainable living and rural development. Introduced in 2011 by the Welsh Government, OPD permits the creation of largely self-sufficient ecological smallholdings and off-grid homes in the open countryside, establishing a new category of land use and a significant exception to the UK's otherwise restrictive planning regulations for rural areas.

This research project will contribute to debates on sustainable development, rural transformation, and human-environment relationships in the context of a worsening environmental crisis. It offers a critical perspective on how OPD policy and its applicants navigate the intersections of global sustainability discourse, local practices, and rural politics, ultimately reshaping the Welsh countryside as a space of environmental and social change. It will examine OPD as a radical initiative rooted in grassroots movement, exploring its potential to foster alternative models of living that emphasise ecological responsibility, low-impact food production, and nature restoration. By engaging with the embodied experiences of smallholders, the study aims to capture the nuanced ways in which the new ecological responsibility is lived and practiced. The project seeks to examine how global sustainability concepts manifest in local practices, interrogating the space between policy intentions and lived realities, innovative practices, unforeseen challenges, and the redefinition of sustainability at the local level.

The project employs multi-sited and multispecies ethnography, as well as sensory, visual methods, and autoethnographic methods. The multispecies approach, highlighting the interconnectedness and interdependence of humans and nonhumans, will expand the ethnographic focus to other-than-humans beings such as plants, soils, sources of renewable energy and carbon.

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Gethin Hughes

Second supervisor: Dr Sara Garib-Penna

Research project: Examining the Nature of Communication Between Autistic and Allistic Individuals

Research description: In this project, we aim to use Minecraft as a neuroinclusive research method to examine miscommunications between autistic and non-autistic individuals. Unfortunately, the literature surrounding Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; hereafter ‘autism’) is crowded by research using the disease model, which aims to ‘treat’ autism, making autists appear neurotypical. This project, on the other hand, will focus on adding to the growing field of neurodiversity research, which views autism as a natural form of biodiversity. We plan to conduct research for autistic people, by autistic people using participatory research methods and input from autistic university students.

The Double Empathy Hypothesis (DEH) reframes the communication differences listed as a central diagnostic feature of autism, taking a more neurodiversity affirming perspective of these miscommunications. The hypothesis claims that two people of vastly different life experiences will struggle to empathise with one another, leading to miscommunications. Milton applies this effect to mixed-neurotype interaction, suggesting that autistic and allistic individuals have such vastly different experiences that they struggle to communicate effectively. This hypothesis moves away from the disease model, suggesting that communication difficulties are the outcome of mixed-neurotype interaction and mutual misunderstandings, as opposed to an autistic trait. The purpose of the current PhD research is to provide new evidence to test this theory by assessing whether there is a difference in the efficiency of autistic to autistic and allistic to allistic communication This will be achieved by using a newly developed escape-room style task, created in the game Minecraft that requires high levels of communication and low levels of gaming skill. This task, developed during my MSD was designed to extend from previous research methods, using realistic problem solving and collaboration to examine how participants communicate to reach a shared goal. The task is completed in pairs by sharing information, the time taken to complete the Minecraft map is recorded to examine which pair type communicated the most efficiently. Our initial pilot study showed encouraging results, with good feedback from participants about the task, as well as some avenues for improvement. We also observed that autistic pairs were significantly faster than allistic pairs, in line with the idea that different communication styles thrive in different situations.

For the PhD research, we will build on this Minecraft task, taking into account feedback from participants, and other observations made from the data. The aim will be to make completion of the task even more dependent on communication, and to collect a larger sample of participants.

After first using our novel task to investigate whether autistic-to-autistic communication is as effective as allistic-to-allistic communication, as suggested in our pilot, we will seek to further understand what aspects of cross neurotype interaction lead to miscommunication and reduced rapport. Finally, we will investigate how we could seek to mitigate these aspects of communication, for example by providing participants with information on the nature of communication differences, and possible strategies for overcoming them. At each stage of the project, we will work together with autistic people to understand the barriers that they face, and to identify potential solutions. Ultimately, the aim of the project is to build towards providing tools for organisations that will allow them to ensure that autistic people can thrive in their environment. As such, this project has the potential for significant impact, by helping schools and workplaces to be more neurodivergent-friendly, and enabling people of different neurotypes to more learn and work together more efficiently and enjoyably.

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(City St George’s, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Matt Barnes

Second supervisor: Dr Eric Harrison

Research project: Rethinking Housing Deprivation: A Multidimensional Analysis of the UK and Europe

Research description: Despite improvements during the 20th century, many Europeans still experience housing deprivation: where living conditions fail to meet basic standards such as affordability, safety, and quality. Yet, there is little consensus on how best to measure and compare various dimensions of housing deprivation across nations.

The project will explore the most reliable ways to measure housing problems across Europe, considering the diverse factors that define deprivation, from unaffordability and poor-quality homes to neighbourhood issues. The research will then compare housing systems across countries to identify patterns in deprivation. For example, the UK has a high rate of homeownership and less regulation of private rented accommodation, while countries like Germany have more regulated rental markets and greater support for housing quality. These factors, it is thought, influence patterns of deprivation across countries, and how vulnerable people within different nations experience housing issues.

The project will use European and UK survey data to examine trends over time and across regions. By applying advanced quantitative methods (including factor analysis and measurement invariance testing, multi-level regression analysis, and structural equation modelling), the project aims to answer several key questions, including: How do housing problems vary between the UK and other countries? What are the best ways to measure and understand different types of housing deprivation? Which groups are most impacted by different issues? And how can policies address disparities?

Ultimately, the project seeks to improve our understanding of housing inequality and offer better evidence for policymakers to design more equitable housing policies in Europe. Beyond academic publications, the project aims to bridge the gap between research and impact by sharing findings through short-format reports, presentations, and through internship placements.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/james-wright-78823215b

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Sultan Doughan

Second supervisor: Dr Justin Woodman

Research project: Restless Ruins: Turkey’s Armenian Heritage and the Limits of Universalism

Research description: This research examines Ani Ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2016, located at Turkey's closed Northeastern border with Armenia. Renowned for their medieval architecture blending Byzantine and Gothic influences, the ruins serve as a poignant symbol of contested heritage. While UNESCO’s designation as an “outstanding universal value” celebrates Ani’s architectural significance. This research interrogates how such universalist heritage frameworks can obscure historical atrocities, ongoing political tensions between Turkey and Armenia and gloss over the social relations of present indigenous groups, such as Kurds and Azeris, have to this site beyond the nation-state framework.

The theoretical framework draws on the concepts of "remnants" (Navaro et al. 2021) and the “implicated subject” (Rothberg 2019) to examine how Ani’s heritage reflects residual violence and different subjectivities' connection to site. This approach seeks to move beyond binary categories of victim and perpetrator, offering a nuanced understanding of Ani’s layered histories and collective memory. It also critiques the silences embedded in "authorized heritage discourse,” (L. Smith 2006) uncovering how the denial of violent past persists in the physical landscape as well as in the stories, imaginaries, and memories surrounding the Ani Ruins.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esma-g%C3%BCzin-y-3857b81b2/

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Lee Douglas

Second supervisor: Dr Wood Roberdeau

Research project: Growing pulp in a Pyrocene: firescapes and ferality in plantation Portugal

Research description: Wildfire risk is accelerating worldwide. Portugal faces one of Europe’s most severe crises, with central districts seeing recurrent, high-intensity fires. This project asks how such flammability is produced and how people might (re)learn how to live with fire otherwise.

I treat fire as a more-than-human process that both shapes and is shaped by landscapes, species, and institutions. In central Portugal, flammability emerges from the entanglement of fascist land reform, plantation capitalism (especially eucalyptus), rural abandonment, and climate change, together with plants, soils, fungi, microbes, winds, drought, topography, infrastructures, and the traces they leave. Conceptually, I use the Pyrocene as a unifying arc for fragmented fire studies and reframe it as a cumulative, flammable condition with uneven, situated effects. I situate wildfire within firescapes: dynamic, more-than-human assemblages and archives that can be read through residues, routines, and absences. A political geology lens attends to not-so-natural disaster by asking how ‘climate’ is enacted locally through fuels, atmospheres, governance, and economies; new materialism foregrounds the agencies of nonhuman and non-living forces and processes.

Methodologically, the project combines archival research in Lisbon with eight months of immersive ethnography in rural central Portugal, pairing participant observation and interviews with visual and participatory methods: repeat photography, walking transects, participatory mapping, drawing, and photo-elicitation. The aims are to map the historical-ecological production of flammability, document local fire knowledge and care, read material and discursive traces to show how fire organises futures, and identify leverage points for repair.

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Roehampton)

Main supervisor: Dr Laura M Vowels

Second supervisor: Prof Cecilia Essau

Research project: Hybrid AI-Powered Chatbot for Adolescent Mental Health: A Data-Driven Approach in Digital Health

Research description: TBC

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Lincoln)

Main supervisor: Dr Sue Bond-Taylor

Second supervisor: Dr Kyla Pennington

Research project: Learning from children and young people with complex needs about their experiences of trauma informed care: What works and why?

Research description: Children and young people with complex needs are a highly vulnerable group, often affected by both trauma and neurodevelopmental differences. Trauma-informed care aims to reduce the negative effects of trauma by supporting these children and young people in ways that prevent retraumatisation and promote wellbeing. This approach is increasingly implemented within integrated care systems that bring together professionals from health, youth justice, housing, and social care. However, there is still a significant lack of robust evidence on its implementation and effectiveness, particularly within youth justice settings. A key consideration in this context is the cognitive capacity of children and young people, specifically their abilities in decision-making, planning, goal setting, and self-control, which research suggests are sensitive to the effects of trauma. Yet, evidence on this relationship remains limited.

This project seeks to address these gaps by:

- Capturing the experiences of justice-experienced children and young people with complex needs within a trauma-informed integrated care system, so as to learn what ‘trauma-informed care’ and the journey to recovery looks like to them.

- Exploring the relationship between trauma experience and neurodevelopmental processes including cognitive capacity in relation to decision making, goal setting, planning and links to self-control.

- Providing methodological insights into mechanisms and processes for engaging with this cohort of young people, both within social and health care research, and as an embedded participatory approach to service delivery, evaluation and continuous improvement.

The research is supported by the Lincolnshire Children and Young People’s Complex Needs Service integrated care system. Service data analysis will be used alongside co-production methods with children and young people with complex needs, to better understand their lived experiences of trauma-informed practice, and shape future support services.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dung-nguyen-36b824129/

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Silvia Avram

Second supervisor: Dr Laura Fumagalli

Research project: Understanding the links between intrahousehold dynamics and individual and household debt

Research description: The project is a collaboration between the University of Essex and the Money and Pensions Service that aims at examining the evolution of debt holdings, savings and spendings in British couples, where one of the partners has significantly higher pre-existing credit commitments, paying particular attention to how gender differences in these commitments impact on the outcomes of interest.

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Hilary Norman

Second supervisor: Prof Rebecca Charlton

Research project: An exploration of cultural narratives about a location of concern and their impact on suicidal ideation and behaviour

Research description: Coroner data suggests that roughly a third of suicides in England occur in public places, most of those places being relatively local to the person who has chosen to end their life there. There are however some locations where the association with suicides goes beyond individuals or the local community; where people will travel from the far side of the country and beyond with the intention of taking their own life.

This research will be an exploration of the social and cultural narratives surrounding one such location. It will draw on ethnographic sensibilities to understand the site’s reputation as a suicide ‘hot-spot’ in its social and historical context, before employing psychological models to explore the effect this might have on an individual’s suicidal ideation.

Public Health England’s guidance on ‘Preventing suicides in public places’ proposes that in order to prevent deaths in a given location we should: '“Change the public image of the site; dispel its reputation as a ‘suicide site’”. It is ultimately hoped that by better understanding the image and reputation of this particular site, and the effect this has on individual decision making, this research might help prevent future suicides there.

LinkedIn:linkedin.com/in/alex-dark-ethnographer

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Faith Orchard

Second supervisor: Prof Joni Holmes

Research project: Improving identification and access to support for low mood in boys

Research description: Depression and low mood are common in young people with evidence demonstrating that more girls and young women receive a formal diagnosis. However, it is believed that depression is going undetected in boys and young men, resulting in ‘hidden distress’ with higher rates of suicidality, substance misuse, and risk-taking behaviour. Two main reasons may explain why young males experiencing symptoms of low mood are not being identified or accessing help: 1) symptoms of low mood or depression present differently for young males, and 2) the pathway to access for mental health support is inadequate for this group.

This PhD project will deliver a range of studies to improve understanding of how low mood and depression presents for young males, and how this influences help-seeking behaviours. The project will use a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative research methods. This will include, but not be limited to, a review of literature, secondary analysis of existing data to explore gender-specific symptom patterns of depression, and interviews with young males about their experiences of accessing formal mental health support. The project will work closely with young males and other relevant stakeholders, including an NHS collaborative partner, to ensure that the research is relevant and accessible.

The overarching goal is to better understand how depression presents in boys, what prevents them from getting help, and how access to formal support may be improved. The findings will help shape future mental health services so that they work better for boys and young men and ultimately reduce unnecessary distress and poor outcomes associated with undetected mental health conditions.

LinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/in/erin-funnell-3200a6153

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Erin-Funnell-2/research

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Lincoln)

Main supervisor: Dr Kamila Irvine

Second supervisor: Prof David Dawson

Research project: Body Happy Schools Programme (BHSP): Whole School Culture Change

Research description: In 2021 the Women and Equalities Committee’s inquiry into body image found that 66% of children in the UK feel negative about their body most of the time (Women and Equalities Committee, 2021). The NHS has revealed that the number of children seeking treatment for eating disorders has more than doubled in the past six years, while waiting times have increased (Newlove-Delgado et al., 2023; NHS England, 2022). Research shows negative body image in children as young as five; many studies have found children report negative body image symptoms including body dissatisfaction, thin-ideal internalisation, weight bias, food restriction, and disliking the way they look (Damiano et al., 2015; Davison et al., 2003; Murnen et al., 2003). Body image is a multi-dimensional construct that embraces the conscious perception of the physical self, including body-related attitudes, thoughts, feelings, and behaviours (Cash, 2002; Cash et al., 2002). Negative body image can manifest itself as body dissatisfaction, body shame, low self-esteem, and low self-worth. It is associated with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, low mood, and increased risk of disordered eating and eating disorders (Mitchison et al., 2016; Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2007; Prnjak et al., 2021). Additionally, research shows that 1 in 5 girls do not raise their hand in class for fear of being judged over how they look, and 36% of girls and 24% of boys regularly avoid exercise and PE due to worries about appearance, indicating that negative body image not only affects the mental health of young people but also their academic attainment and engagement in health-promoting behaviours (Girlguiding, 2017; Halliwell et al., 2014).

Moreover, research conducted by the World Health Organisation has found that children in higher weight bodies are 63% more likely to be bullied in school which is directly at odds with school PSHE curriculum, body inclusion policies, and antibullying policies, contributes to negative mental health, and makes it a safeguarding issue (World Health Organisation, 2017). In the UK, there currently is no statutory education in schools on body image. It is important to note that longitudinal research demonstrates that body dissatisfaction does not serve as a motivator for engaging in healthy behaviours but rather predicts behaviours that put children and young people at risk for weight gain, poor mental health, and poorer overall health (Andrew et al., 2016; Lowe et al., 2019). For example, body dissatisfaction has been found to predict lower levels of physical activity, lower levels of fruit and vegetable intake, and unhealthy weight control behaviours, i.e. purging, vomiting, excessive exercise (Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2006). As such, negative body image such as body dissatisfaction is a public health concern. Early intervention may help prevent its onset and be protective in the long-term. Positive body image has been shown to be uniquely associated with well-being, self-care, intuitive eating, and health-promoting behaviours (Andrew et al., 2014; Linardon et al., 2021a; Linardon et al., 2021b). Positive body image is also multi-faceted, encompassing body acceptance, appreciation, gratitude, and respect towards one’s body, its features and functionality, regardless of what it looks like (Tylka & Wood-Barcalow, 2015; Wood-Barcalow et al., 2010). When children learn to respect their bodies, regardless of their appearance, and how it measures up to others, they are more likely to engage in body-positive and health-promoting behaviours such as intuitive eating and physical activity (Frisen & Homqvist, 2010). They are also less likely to be susceptible to develop disordered eating as body appreciation and intuitive eating are positively associated with psychological well-being and lowered risk of disordered eating (Denny et al., 2013; Hazzard et al., 2020; Tiggemann & Clark, 2016). As such, interventions should focus on encouraging positive change to enhance the desire to care for one’s body regardless of how it looks.

Existing interventions to enhance body image in children tend to focus on media literacy classes, resilience building, and self-esteem, via workshops, games, or classes. These tend to be delivered as a one-off occurrence, where no additional changes in the school environment take place. These studies typically demonstrate initial/immediate impact, however, effects drop off at follow-up particularly for boys, and often no effects are observed for certain key variables (Bird et al., 2013; Forbes et al., 2023; Guest et al., 2021; Matheson et al., 2020).

It stands to reason that one-off/sporadic interventions are insufficient if there are no additional changes in the environment or continuation of body-respect messaging, as some authors have suggested (Forbes et al., 2023; Guest et al., 2021). The reason is that children and young people are continuously surrounded by negative body messaging, e.g., via media, family, as well as weight stigma and diet culture prevalent in society (Jones et al., 2004; Neumark-Sztainer et al., 2010; Rogers et al., 2019; Stice et al., 2003). Indeed, the key theories that explain how body image is developed and maintained such as the Socio-Cultural Tripartite Influence Model and Cognitive-Behavioural perspective specify the influential impacts of cultural socialisation and interpersonal experiences via peers, media, and family. Seeking to alter social factors which are known to increase general population risks is in line with extant recommendations (Cash, 2012; Shroff & Thompson, 2006). As such, culture change to foster positive body image may be the answer, i.e. the mechanisms of change could involve boosting the body esteem and respect, and challenging societal norms, which then lead to improved body satisfaction. School culture is not static, it is continuously being constructed and shaped through interactions of staff members, students, and personnel of the school at large (Hinde, 2004). In order to influence change, we need to influence the values, beliefs, behaviours, rules, and ethos that serve as the foundations of the school culture (Hinde, 2004). The Body Happy Org (BHO) are dedicated to creating culture change regarding bodies, food, exercise/movement, body diversity, and self-acceptance. They recognize that body image issues are not solely individual problems but rather systemic challenges that require collective action centred around culture change to secure well-being in the future. This project is therefore interested in systemic school culture change to promote positive body image via the teachers, staff, pupils, and ethos of the school. The proposed intervention has been designed to train teachers in the area of body image. Currently there is no statutory training or coverage of the topic on the curriculum, but it is fundamental to the wellbeing, safeguarding, and academic attainment of all students (Initial teacher training, 2023; Personal, social, health and economic education, 2021). All staff in a school setting are fundamental to creating the culture and environment within it, which is why any culture change and body-positive environment building must start with reaching the adults who work with the children, rather than just the children themselves. The BHO programme also includes resources for teachers to deliver lessons to the pupils in their care, and this study will also measure the impact of these teaching resources on the students. Furthermore, the programme includes direct work with students via Schemes of Work, interactive workshops, and assemblies. Importantly, this programme focuses on prevention and social change, with the aim of reducing the number of children requiring intervention in the longer term.

To conclude, at present a number of school-based body image interventions have been developed, demonstrating limited success. Given that negative body image can develop at a young age it is important to develop approaches that are preventative, i.e., addressing potentially existing negative body image as well as creating an environment that can support the fostering of positive body image.

In this study, we aim to evaluate the effectiveness of the Body Happy Schools Programme (BHSP), a whole-school culture change approach. We will employ a case-series design, with three individual schools serving as separate cases. This design will enable us to determine whether the BHS approach has an observable effect in any single school and, more compellingly, across multiple schools, thereby demonstrating a significant replication of effect in accordance with case-series standards (Smith, 2013).

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Dr Maria Isabel Santana

Second supervisor: Dr Teodora Gliga

Research project: Breaking the cycle: understanding how mothers moderate the impact of Intimate partner violence (IPV) on children’s cognitive development in the Dominican Republic

Research description: Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) affects millions of women and children globally, and can pose significant consequences for child development. Studies have linked exposure to IPV during childhood to long-term developmental outcomes, including difficulties with mental health, self-regulation, and revictimization (Bogat et al., 2023). Despite clear links between poor maternal functioning and IPV, as well as between IPV and child developmental consequences, there is limited research on the role of maternal characteristics in these relationships. Thus, my PhD project will explore how mothers’ emotional and cognitive control capacities moderate the effects of IPV on household decision-making, parenting, and child development in the Dominican Republic.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, my PhD project aims to: 1) Investigate how IPV priming affects household bargaining power and decision-making, especially on education spending. 2) Examine how maternal characteristics (e.g., cognitive control, emotion regulation, mental health) influence maternal-child interactions under stress. 3) Explore how mothers' ability to regulate emotions during conflicts affects their responsiveness to their child's needs, particularly during play-based activities. 4) Inform policy recommendations that integrate mental health, parent-child interaction support, and gender-based violence interventions in the Dominican Republic.

In collaboration with the Psychosocial Care Centre (CAPS) in the Dominican Republic and supervisors, I will incorporate various methodologies, including lab-in-the-field experiments, eye-tracking data from mothers and infants, and surveys. Using project findings, I will develop policy briefs and workshops with local stakeholders, including government and international organizations such as UNICEF. With much of the existing literature focusing on high-income countries in North America and Europe, researching these constructs in the Dominican Republic is crucial to inform context-specific policies that combat gender-based violence.

By deepening our understanding of the dynamics between IPV, parenting, and child development, the findings of this project can ultimately lead to the development of culturally-sensitive interventions that promote the healthy development of children in the Dominican Republic.

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Maria Laura Filippetti

Second supervisor: Dr John Day

Research project: Understanding Factors Contributing to Emotional Overeating in Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Children

Research description: This research will investigate the factors contributing to emotional overeating among toddlers in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with the primary aim to identify ways to prevent or reduce it. The goal is to develop practical, evidence-based resources to support families and address health inequalities, which refers to differences in health outcomes between groups, often linked to factors like income or education.

Project aims and objectives: This PhD project aims to explore the factors that lead to emotional overeating in toddlers from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas. By focusing on early prevention and intervention, the project seeks to reduce rising obesity rates and encourage healthier eating habits in vulnerable children.

Objectives: Investigate how family dynamics and the surrounding environment influence emotional overeating in toddlers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Study whether parental feeding styles affects how toddlers respond to emotional situations, especially under stressful familiar circumstances.

Use the findings to create practical strategies to help families reduce obesity and address health inequalities among disadvantaged children.

Instagram: @humbly_nourished

Sustainability and Climate Emergency

(University of East Anglia)

Main supervisor: Prof Maren Duvendack

Second supervisor: Prof Arjan Verschoor

Research project: Sharing Knowledge for Building Climate resilience among Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

Research description: The research study will be investigating the impact of a knowledge-sharing platform developed by a collaborative partner (M-Omulimisa Innovative Agricultural Services) in building climate resilience among farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Literature indicates that the effects of climate change are severe in low developed countries such as those in sub-Saharan Africa because of the lack of capacity to mitigate or adapt to changes. Digital platforms have the potential to increase access to timely and reliable information that aid farmers’ decision-making process in response to climate risks. Nonetheless, the digital platforms that share information and ease access to agricultural inputs, training, markets and finance options are a relatively new approach in sub-Saharan Africa and there is limited empirical evidence on the impact these platforms have created over time especially in line with building climate resilience among farmers hence the necessity of conducting this PhD research. The research will take on a mixed methods approach (Qualitative and quantitative), drawing on an overall contribution analysis framework to unpack the multiple causal drivers that may explain the success or otherwise of the platform. The quantitative part draws on a survey across villages in northern Uganda, sampling villages that benefit from the knowledge-sharing platform and a control group. The quantitative survey will be complemented by performance stories, which are a participatory approach used to teasing out the experiences of farmers and other stakeholders regarding the perceived success of the innovation. The findings of this study will give key insights to digital platform developers, industry actors such last mile solution providers, policy-makers and activists, researchers and farmers. The findings will be disseminated in articles, conferences and through participating collaborative partners’ channels.

Twitter/X: @SsentongoDaudi1

LinkedIn: Daudi Ssentongo

Health, Wellbeing and Social Care

(University of Essex)

Main supervisor: Dr Gethin Hughes

Second supervisor: Dr Anna Gui

Research project: Gaming the morning routine: Assessing the use of gamified digital technology (Jam Up!) for helping Autistic children with their morning routine.

Research description: The aim of this project is to support the development of the mobile app Jam Up! through purposeful research that focuses on improving the agency and wellbeing of autistic children, as well as that of their parents/carers.

Jam Up! is a digital toolbox implemented as a mobile app, designed to empower autistic children to gain autonomy with daily tasks, like getting dressed, using gamification. The underpinning rationale behind Jam Up! is the understanding that breaking down aspects of everyday tasks into their component parts and using audio-visual modelling can support autistic children. Everyday tasks can cause overwhelm and/or hold no meaning for some autistic children. Many children find them pointless and boring. Rewards and praise to provide intrinsic and extrinsic feedback have been incorporated into Jam Up to support behavioural change for both autistic children and their parents / carers. Research within the field of occupational science recognises empowering autistic children to be more independent in everyday tasks and the use of embodied routines increases wellbeing and can benefit physical health.

To achieve the goals of this project, we will gain input from stakeholders in the development/refinement of additional modules for digital healthcare supporting morning routines for autistic children (Jam up!). Additionally, we will assess parents and carers’ experiences of using Jam Up! and how these feed into measures of subjective wellbeing and, crucially, we will investigate whether consistent use of Jam Up! leads to improvements in validated measures of functioning and mental health. A methodology employing various research techniques, such as qualitative interviews and robust statistical analyses, will be utilised to build a comprehensive body of research that empowers autistic children through the development of Jam Up!

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-vermaut-1ab7642b0/

Instagram: @connor__andre

Justice, Institutions and Social Change

(Goldsmiths, University of London)

Main supervisor: Dr Sarah Pearce

Second supervisor: Dr Chris Millora

Research project: Race Talk: Students' Explorations of Race and Racism in Formal and Informal Spaces in School

Research description: In the shadow of an increased polarisation of views, rising racism, anti-immigrant stances and the resurgence of the far-right (Runnymede Trust, 2024) , there is an increased need to talk about race in schools. Considering the marketisation of education, contentious topics such as race and racism are evaded through colour-blind approaches as schools avoid controversy, this is a perennial problem which needs addressing (Lewis and Pearce, 2022). Racial literacy, defined in this proposal as the knowledge and ability to recognise the permeating role of race and racism in society, must be heightened nationally (Joseph-Sailsbury, 2020), so that students can learn to discuss race from a range of perspectives. A lack of racial literacy means that many young people tread with uncertainty, if at all, around concepts and topics that need addressing critically. Racial literacy is a skill needed to navigate everyday life. School is an ideal space to learn the skills needed to discuss race critically, yet we are seeing avoidance and hostility when race is brought up in the classroom (James-Gallaway, 2023; Diangelo, 2018; Sue, 2015).

Aligned with the Justice, Institutions and Social Change thematic pathway, my project explores race discourse, the ways that young people communicate ideas and experiences of race, within English secondary schools. Bringing together ethnographic style research through participatory methods, this study’s uniqueness lies in its focus on student experiences. This is in contrast to much of the literature on race discourse within schools that focuses on teachers, and has taken place in North America (Call-Cummings and Martinez, 2017; Welton, Harris, La Londe and Moyer, 2015). From my personal perspective as a secondary school librarian, I have observed students discussing race more openly in the library compared to in-class discussions. I therefore became interested in the barriers that students may face during race talk in informal and formal spaces, and how they seek to address and overcome them. I will investigate the marked difference between how race is discussed within formal (classrooms) and informal (break and lunch areas) areas and what education frameworks exist that affect how, where and why students discuss race. This study will make an original contribution to social justice in education through emphasising students’ classroom narrative, exploring where and how race is seen as a legitimate subject for discussion, informing better practice within policy making.

I will address two questions through exploring how students discuss race, in what areas of the school, examining how lesson content and structure impacts the discussion of race. Exploring the differences between the occurrence and contents of race talk within both formal and informal spaces of the school will allow for an analysis of the impact of teaching approaches on students’ confidence and ability to engage in race talk.

RQ 1. How do secondary school students discuss issues surrounding race within formal and informal spaces of the school?

RQ 2. What do students perceive as barriers and opportunities to talking about issues surrounding race at school?

I set out to explore the differing ways that students discuss race in formal and informal settings. Formal spaces are influenced by both the presence of educators who may police the appropriateness of a subject, as well as tight curriculum regulations around lesson content; whereas within informal spaces such as the library, students can engage in open dialogue without any repercussions from teachers.

Considering the evident need for children to explore ideas and experiences of race and racism, I foreground the importance of youth perspectives through youth-led participatory research methods. Explorations into race discourse in schools have most often been based in the North America (e.g. Pollock, 2005) or focused on the experiences of teachers (Boakye, 2022; Joseph-Sailsbury, 2020). Missing within recent literature is a focus on student perspectives when discussing issues of race, this study therefore illustrates the necessity of prioritising the voices of young people and their experiences discussing race.

Methodology: In challenging dominant racial ideologies, this study is informed by Critical Race Theory, an academic theory developed by Crenshaw, Delgado and Bell (1970) which views race as a socially constructed category, and issues pertaining to race and racism as pervasive and structural. Whilst acknowledging axis of oppression including gender, class and other aspects of identity, this framework specifically acts to interrogate the ways in which racial ideologies and policies work to perpetuate inequality. Underpinned by youth-led participatory research, fused with ethnographic style research (Ozer, 2016), this study will explore how students engage in race discourse within the school, centring local knowledge and experiences.

It is here that I ground my unique position as a librarian within a secondary school, engaging daily with students in the informal space of the library where they are free to discuss whatever they wish without the constraining presence of a teacher and exam oriented curriculum. Here, talk often turns to race and racism. Gaining complete, unrestricted access to schools as sites of research is a difficult task. The time and access needed to create meaningful relationships with participants can threaten the feasibility of the study (Cabello, 2018; Oates and Riaz, 2016). Considering senior leadership who have a duty to protect the reputation of the institution when discussing such a sensitive topic, many studies involving students are impractical. This study therefore benefits from my unique position as a researcher already working within a secondary school with the full support of leadership, holding existing bonds with students, as well as being involved in projects related to race and diversity.

In response to RQ1, over the course of one term I will carry out weekly observations of student interaction in the classroom as well as informal spaces throughout the school to understand how students discuss race. Observing specific subjects such as English and History, where the discussion of race is more likely to arise will be prioritised. In order to ensure the study is fully informed by student priorities, I will set up an advisory group drawn from FIGHT club (Faith in Growth, Hope, Tolerance), an already existing anti-racist club within the school, meeting monthly to discuss issues related to race and racism. I will disseminate findings from the observations with the youth advisory group to inform the direction of a series of six youth-led workshops with a small sample of students aged thirteen to sixteen. In addressing RQ2, student led workshops focusing on experiences of discussing race will allow for a co-construction of knowledge, giving participants more agency whilst heightening their engagement (Khawaja, Bagley and Taylor, 2024). As the study prioritises a youth-led approach, specific methods are currently undetermined and are open to student ideas; these could however include the production of artwork and zines representing students’ relationship with race, as well as a resource pack including an instructional video aimed at teachers to help them understand the needs of students when discussing race.

Impact: As a catalyst to institutional change, my proposed research centring race in England is timely in highlighting the ways that students discuss race within school spaces; further allowing an analysis as to how these conversations can be navigated in a way that ensures students can discuss race confidently and freely. Capturing the voices of the youth that will benefit from the implementation of education policy prioritising race and racism, this research addresses the gap in student perspective, generating new insights as to how students discuss race. Outputs of youth led workshops, such as zines and guidance videos, will be used as a learning tool for PGCE students at Goldsmiths and further, the whole SENSS consortium. Not only does this benefit educators, but gives participants the opportunity to present their outcomes to others, increasing their agency in generating social change. Through presenting findings to think tanks and NGOs, this study will also contribute to developing policies about race discourse through illuminating the experiences of students, emphasising their immediate needs when engaging in race discourse, which if enacted would support heightened racial literacy across the UK.

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/indiagracestoby