Biography
I had my Bachelor and Master degrees in Psychology at the University of Padua (Italy) under the supervision of Professor Luciano Arcuri and Professor Mara Cadinu. My dissertation focused on the relation between the self and the ingroup (if unidirectional or reciprocal). I had my PhD in Psychology at the University of Sussex, under the supervision of Professor Rupert Brown and Professor Robin Banerjee. My PhD thesis was about children's emotions involved in behavioural responses to peers in interracial contexts.
I worked as researcher on various national (Welcome Trust) and international (e.g. Erasmus Plus) projects at different Universities (most recently at GCU, UWS and University of Edinburgh) on topics as prejudice based bullying, children's and parents' perceptions of child chronic pain and perceptions of health services in people with disabilities and their families/carers.
I also worked and volunteered for many non-profit organisations for children and people with disabilities, in different countries (Italy, UK, Bosnia, Nepal and Costa Rica).
I have been a Temporary Lecturer and Associate Tutor at several Universities in the UK (e.g. University of Sussex, CCC, Kingston University), teaching in many areas of Psychology, although my main expertise is in Social and Developmental Psychology.
I am an Associate Tutor at the University of Glasgow since 2018, supervising MSc students with their dissertations, leading seminars on different areas of Psychology in the MSc Psychological Studies (Conv) course and seminars on research methods in the MSc Educational Studies. From last year I have covered to role of course leader of Cognitive Psychology both in the MSc Psychological Studies (Conv) course and the MSc Psychology (Conv) online course.
Research interests
My research interests are on exploring how implicit and explicit stereotypes, emotional prejudices and discrimination affect people from majority and minority groups. More specifically, I am interested in developing and evaluating strategies for improving intergroup relations among people from different status groups, within both children and adults.
Another area of interest consists of exploring and encouraging children’s and adults’ bystander intervention in bullying, considering different stategies to intervene and stop bullying/harassment/violence, safely.
A third research area on which I have recently started to work is the positive role that social media can have when it is used to facilitate online communities, for improving students’ and academics’ wellbeing and academic performance in higher education.
Finally, I am interested in exploring how information about climate change can be shared within families, empowering their child and adult members and leading to pro-environmental behaviour change and social action.
For my research I use qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches and I also run systematic reviews.
Grants
Grants
- Internal grant - UWS and Oxfam partnership to organise the Symposium on Challenging and Changing the News: Media Reporting in the Age of Migration at UWS, Dec 2018.
- ESRC Social Science Festival 2018 to organise the “Act against Bullying: Discover the hero inside you!”
- Internal grant to organise the event “Sharing resilience in Black History with the newly ‘othered’- the EU migrants post Brexit” at GCU on Black History Month- 2017
- KE and Impact grant 2016 at the University of Edinburgh: “Barnardo’s Scotland in ACT”
- Internal Equality Fund 2009-2010 at the TCD: where I organised three workshops (“Laugh clever to laugh together”) on the topic “Psychology of humour and discrimination”
- Small grant at TCD (2009-2010) to host Dr Helga Dittmar (University of Sussex, UK) giving a public lecture on 13th April 2010 on the effects of airbrushing in ads on children and adolescents and led group discussions with TCD students and faculties.
Supervision
Minority/majority group relations and bullying
- How to safely defend: examining and implementing effective strategies (distraction/peace making and victim support) to prevent and/or stop bullying/harassment
- Minority group students’ social identities: risk and/or protective factors against discrimination? (e.g. veiled Muslim and/or LGBTQ and/or ethnic minority students)
- Exploring and reducing implicit and explicit stereotypes, prejudicial emotions and discrimination against “newly” stigmatised groups (e.g. childless women, vegans)
- Evaluating policies in support of disadvantaged groups in low- and high- status groups: pros and cons from different perspectives
- Use of social media to implicitly and/or explicitly promote minority status groups’ image and rights
Climate change
- Exploring parent-child conversations about climate change: intergenerational learning on saving the planet
- Peer learning regarding climate change: what makes a difference to change a peer’s mind and behaviour?
- Children’s animism, imagination and love for animals: is there a link?
- Positive interspecies attitudes and universalism: how are they linked and can we increase them?
- Examination of empowering discourses about climate change and human rights
Emotions:
- A cross-cultural and cross-gender approach to humility: who feels and displays it, when, why and how?
- Curiosity, interest and creativity and their relation to academic achievement
Education:
- Decolonializing education: what does this mean and how can it be done? Students' and academics’ views on the topic
- Cognitive broadness and specificity and its relation with academic achievement
2018-2019
- Public reactions to children and adults living in poverty in the UK and UK policies
- Warm, competent, to choose? Evaluations of different- race Psychology counsellors in UK White people
- A retrospective examination of Bullying occurred in Child and Adolescent Friendships
- Ethnic identification, perceived discrimination and physical and mental well-being in Postgraduate Chinese International students in the UK: the moderating role of identity needs and psychological flexibility
- Public reactions to news about crimes and support from religious groups in the community
- Chinese parents’ knowledge and attitudes towards general and prejudice- based bullying
- A qualitative comparison of newly qualified and experienced teachers¿ views about challenges and opportunities provided by the inclusion of children with additional needs in mainstream primary schools in Scotland.
2019-2020
- Perceptions and experiences of burn out and resilience within front line Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector employees.
- An exploration of adolescents and their parents’ perceptions regarding climate change issues and their learning from one another.
- Domestic Abuse Professionals' Views about Grooming, Psychological Vulnerability and their role in Reporting Psychologically Abusive Intimate Partner Relationships.
- How can knowledge about female scientists affect gender equality support, confidence and interest in science in both women and men?
- Home-schooling and parental views and self-efficacy during Covid-19
- Is using the "Reviewer 2 must be stopped" Facebook group useful to work in the academic environment?
- Masculinity Threat, Prejudice, And Harmful Behaviour: A Review of Current Research
- Perceptions of helping behaviour in multicultural societies during Coronavirus and lockdown times.
Teaching
MSc Psychological Studies (Conversion)
- Developmental Psychology
- Individual Differences
- Educational Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology (Convenor)
MSc Psychology (Conversion)
- Human Development
- Educational Psychology
- Cognitive Psychology (Convenor)
MSc Educational Studies
- Introduction to Educational and Social Research
- Seminar in Contemporary Issues in Education
Additional information
Other roles
- Ethics reviewer for the SoE Ethics Committee
- Internal PhD examiner
- Peer reviewer for the British Journal of Developmental Psychology
- Peer reviewer for the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies
Memberships:
- BPS (British Psychological Society)
- EADP (European Association of Developmental Psychology)
- EARA (European Association for Research on Adolescence)
- SPSSI (Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues)
- ACBS (Association for Contextual Behavioural Science)
