Core members

Julie Barnett

Julie has established areas of research in the areas of: risk (e.g., public appreciation of risk, risk communication and risk management); new areas of health policy such as loneliness, and models for delivering health and well-being (e.g., social prescribing); and the integration of digital technology in everyday lives.

Sharon Bateman

Sharon is a PhD student whose research is exploring adolescent chronic pain and mental health and the impact that these co-occurring symptoms may have on their functioning. Alongside this research Sharon will also explore the perspectives of clinicians who treat such adolescents. Mixed methods will be used throughout the PhD to analyse and interpret the findings.

Leda Blackwood, Research Lead

Leda’s research examines the processes through which societal authorities contribute to (or undermine) social cohesion and community well-being. She is also interested in the diverse forms of organisation through which people pursue social change and how inter and intra-group processes shape their identities and strategies.

Catherine Butler

Catherine’s research interests are in systemic therapy, inclusion, whiteness, gender and sexual minorities, intersectionality, and assessing student competence.

Jeff Gavin

Jeff has an established programme of research examining how identities are constructed and negotiated through online communication. He is particularly interested in internet dating, social media, and online support, stalking and revenge porn. His work involves both textual and visual analyses of online interactions.

Christine Griffin

Chris has a long-standing research interest in the relationship between identities and consumption for young people. Her most recent work has focussed on the role of social media marketing of drinks in relation to young adults’ everyday drinking practices. Chris retired from the University in 2017.

Richard Hamshaw, Convener

Richard’s research interest is in the use of social media, specifically in relation to health. I am interested in how we engage with newer forms of data such as social media, and novel approaches to researching these domains.

Abbie Jones

Abbie is a PhD student whose research explores the social development of adolescents who have chronic pain. Abbie uses qualitative methods such as story completion to examine the lived experiences and narratives that adolescents and their families have regarding their development.

Tim Kurz

Tim’s primary research interest in is understanding morality as a central process for bringing about the fundamental societal and institutional changes necessary to avert the consequences of anthropogenic climate change. He examines moral processes across three levels: societal, institutional and individual.

Kath Lee

Kath is a PhD student whose research focuses on the ways in which children and adolescents make sense of climate change. She has previously conducted research around new mothers’ experiences of loneliness.

Marike O'Donnell

Marike's PhD research explores the social psychology of epigenetics as understood in stress, inflammation and disease models of health. She is supervised by Tim Kurz and Julie Barnett within the Department of Psychology.

Lateesha Osbourne

Lateesha’s research focuses on how social identities are constructed, negotiated and threatened in different social contexts. She is also interested in how those deemed ‘out of place’ form strategies for authenticity and belonging. Lateesha’s PhD research focuses on Black students’ sense of identity and belonging in higher education.

Annayah Prosser

Annayah is a PhD student in social, moral and environmental psychology. Her research examines whether moralised environmental identities (such as vegan or zero-waster) work to encourage or inhibit both individual behaviour change, and wider collective social action. Annayah is also interested in innovation within qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.

Konstantina Vasileiou

Konstantina has conducted research in health-related matters such as the use of medical technology by lay and professional users, loneliness, communication of food allergy risk, end-of-life care and diffusion of healthcare service innovation. More recently she has developed an interest in methodological aspects of qualitative research.

Lucy Yeomans

Lucy’s research focuses on equity in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) participation, from compulsory education through to industry and academia. She is particularly interested in how social structures such as social class, gender and ethnicity can interact to constrain people’s aspirations, sense of identity and agency.

Past members and collaborators

• Craig Owen, Anglia Ruskin University
• Emily Rempel, British Columbia Centre for Disease Control
• Samantha Wratten, Adelphi Values
• Hope Christie, University of Aberdeen
• Hannah Heath, University of Birmingham
• Karen Rodham, Staffordshire University
  
• Sarah Riley, Aberystwyth University
  
• Yvette Morey University of the West of England
  
• Helen Johnson (née Gregory), University of Brighton