Research Overview

My PhD work focused on contextual influences on young children's understanding of picture book stories. Specifically, I explored children's responses to anthropomorphised characters, in comparison with more realistically depicted human protagonists, and moral stories in relation to those with a prudential self-interest theme.

I recently managed a pilot project that explores mental stories in the context of a 'Library of Lived Experience'. People who have faced mental health challenges were trained as Living Books. Interested Readers could 'loan' a Living Book for a short one-to-one conversation at Living Library events and learn more about the person's experiences and strategies around managing wellbeing. My research explored the experiences of being a Living Book for a Library of Lived Experience in a University setting.

I am currently teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students in the Psychology Department at Lancaster University.