About

My role as an academic involves leading the BSc Forensic Psychology programme, teaching our students, and supporting research by supervising projects and conducting original research. My expertise is in the use of qualitative approaches such as Critical Discursive Psychology and Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis to understand the social construction of identity, ideology, and belonging. My PhD looked at the discursive construction of Romanian identity and migration in the UK.

Teaching responsibilities

My teaching involves qualitative approaches, critical psychology, and social psychology across BSc and MSc programmes. I also lead the research project module for the BSc Forensic Psychology programme.

I supervise undergraduate and postgraduate projects using qualitative approaches. I am also a personal academic tutor for a cross-section of our students, supporting their academic development over the course.

Research interests

Topics in my research include Social Identity, Citizenship, Migration, Social Construction, Reflexivity, Morality, Deviance and Brexit.

My research interests broadly fit into applied social and community psychology domains including citizenship, social identity and prejudice. Epistemologically speaking, my concern is the way that knowledge is constructed, reproduced and transformed in society and the implications this process has for conceptualising the way we see ourselves and others around us.

I have experience with a variety of qualitative research approaches, most of them being in the realm of discursive analysis (particularly critical discursive psychology and multimodal critical discourse analysis). I have experience with a range of data collection methods, both researcher-stimulated and naturalistic; in recent times my focus has been on the latter, such as particular political cartoons and public health adverts.

Membership of professional bodies

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
• Graduate Basis for Chartered Membership (GBC) (BPS)

Qualifications

• Sheffield Hallam University (2018) - PhD
• Sheffield Hallam University (2015) - PGDip (1st class)
• University of Lincoln (2013) - BSc (Hons) (1st class)

Recent conferences

Oral Presentations

• ‘Better than a long speech? Explorations of textual and visual discourse using Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis’ (October 2023). Presented to the Social Processes Research Group at Lancaster University.
• ‘A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of ‘Brexit’: Flagging the Nation in Political Cartoons' (October 2023). Invited as an invited speaker to the Discourse and Text Research Group at Lancaster University. 
• ‘“You scratch my PAT, and I'll scratch yours”: Mapping Personal Academic Tuition onto our Programmes’ (July 2023). Presented to the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference at University of Derby.
• ‘Constructing Crime: Moral and Psychological urgency in Judicial Proceedings Coverage’ (January 2023). Presented at the School of Psychology's Weekly Research Seminar, University of Derby.
• ‘Conformity Through Fear: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of COVID-19 Information Adverts’ (November 2022). Presented at the School of Psychology's Weekly Research Seminar, University of Derby.
• ‘Civic Struggles: Critical Psychology reflections on pre-referendum Romanian mover discourse in post-referendum context’ (January 2019). Presented as an invited speaker at the University of Lincoln.
• ‘Accusation and Justification: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Romanian Identity and Belonging in UK television media and Romanian Interview Accounts’ (June 2017). Presented at the Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference at Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘Challenging the ‘Great Big Romanian Invasion’ Narrative: A discourse analysis focusing on resistance and contestation’ (December 2015). Presented at the Annual Research and Scholarship Conference, Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘Desert Island Data: An Investigation into Researcher Positionality and Interpretivism’ (December 2015). Co-presented at the Annual Research and Scholarship Conference, Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘“Would you be concerned”? Deploying and contesting an ‘imperative repertoire’ of Romanian identity and migration in British public discourse’ (September 2015). Presented at Development & Society’s Faculty Research Conference at Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘“Too much immigration, I’m moving to Spain”: Dilemmatic Frames and Metaphoric Features in Contemporary Migration Discourse in BBC’s Question Time’. (July 2015). Presented at Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher Conference at Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘The ‘Living Document’: Situating Reflective Commentary in the PhD Student-Supervisor Relationship’(June 2014). Presented at Learning and Teaching Conference at Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘Undergraduate Research at the University of Lincoln: A Student’s Perspective’(April 2013). Presented at ‘External Examiner’s event’, at the University of Lincoln.

Poster Presentations

• ‘Accusation and Justification: A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Romanian Identity and Belonging in UK television media and Romanian Interview Accounts’ (April 2017). Poster presented at the PhD Student Poster Event, at Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘Renegotiating Britishness’: Discourses of Identity, (Not) Belonging, and Contestation In EU (Im)migrants and Regional Media in the UK’ (December 2013). Poster presented at the Annual Research and Scholarship Conference, at Sheffield Hallam University.
• ‘Actively Seeking Maturity: An Empirical Exploration of “Maturity” Conception and Contestability Criteria’ (May 2013). Poster presented at the Conference for Undergraduate Dissertations, at the University of Lincoln.
• ‘Undergraduate Perceptions of University Life: A Qualitative Study’ (May 2012). Poster presented at the Conference for Undergraduate Research, at the University of Lincoln.
• ‘The Benefits of Peer Support in an Undergraduate Research Methods and Statistics Module: A Critical Phenomenological Analysis’ (November 2012). Poster presented at the ‘Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scheme’ Conference, at the University of Lincoln.
• ‘Development of Attentional Landscapes in Bimanual Movement Preparation’ (November 2012). Poster presented at ‘Undergraduate Research Opportunities Scheme’ Conference, at the University of Lincoln.

Recent publications

Courses

• Forensic Psychology MSc
• Forensic Psychology BSc (Hons)
• Forensic Psychology MSc (online)