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I graduated from Lincoln this year with a BA in Classical Studies. During my undergraduate studies, I was the Invisible Disabilities lead for Lincoln SU and spent a lot of time helping to support other disabled students at the University. I have a passion for supporting other disabled students during their time at university and hope my research will aid in future situations. 

My research focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on disabled students in both an academic and social environment. The disabled community was one of the hardest hit groups during the pandemic. During my research I hope to change the view of disabled people being statistics into the true stories of those impacted. In addition, I aim to create guidance on the ways in which universities should be supporting disabled students after what we have learnt from the pandemic. 

Pronouns: they/them

Sophie has recently graduated from the University of Lincoln with a BA (Hons) in Sociology. During her time at university, she recognised a true passion for promoting and encouraging equal, diverse and inclusive spaces for all individuals throughout all aspects of life. Her research interests lie predominantly within gender inequalities — gender inequalities in education, gendered divisions of labour in the home, gender roles within social settings, how gender is presented in the media, and how ideologies of masculinities impact societal perceptions of gender equality. Her undergraduate research dissertation explored how contemporary Hollywood cinema and the film industry shapes, and is shaped by, ideologies of hegemonic masculinity.  These research findings contributed to the development of Sophie's current research on gender inequalities and ideologies of masculinities within higher education.

"After completion of my MA research" Sophie says, "I hope to continue learning, encouraging and practising equality, diversity and inclusion through additional research in this progressively demanding discipline".

I am an educator and an academic at heart with a passion for EDI. My lived experience in establishing my career in teaching and the reality of minimal representation of ethnic minorities in the education sector (as with many other higher-level private sector jobs) have become a significant focus for me. I often wonder what changes need to occur in the current order of societal thinking regarding EDI. I question how authentic, impactful, and sustainable change will come about so that there’ll be more inclusivity and balance for future generations as they reach adulthood. More critically, I am intrigued by how much EDI strategies within the public and Higher Education sectors translate for BAME students and job candidates. I’m particularly drawn to the concepts of bias and how this affects organisational culture, and how the system engenders unfairness.

I aspire to explore these matters academically and utilise my transferable skills from teaching to establish a career in EDI and complete my MA.

Rebecca was awarded a MA in Organisational Behaviour from the University of Leeds. She wrote her thesis on the influence inclusive leadership has on organisational culture, analysing the impact it has on women and LGBTQ+ employees from a cross-cultural UK-US perspective. Prior to that, she graduated from Michigan State University with a BSc in Neuroscience and a BSc in Psychology. She was published in Neuropharmacology in 2017 for her behavioral science research on identifying the neurobiological timeline of symptoms for addiction and depression in response to trauma. She has collaborated on projects related to health physiology, workplace behaviour, social connectivity, stress and emotional regulation, and most recently has been involved in the preservation of oral histories from LGBTQ+ people across West Yorkshire. She was a TEDx speaker in 2015, and has organised multiple conferences, taught workshops and facilitated conversations on the impact of diversity and inclusion.