Personal statement

Sarah is a Lecturer within the Department of Psychology here at Bath Spa University. She is the module leader for the first-year Individual Differences core module, which includes delivering lectures and leading some seminar groups. Sarah also supervises psychology students on both dissertation modules.

Before joining Bath Spa University, Sarah completed her PhD at the University of Bath, exploring how we can encourage bystanders to intervene when witnessing a sexual assault, and how we can use filmed virtual reality (VR) as a methodological tool in this area of research.

Sarah's research comes from a social psychological perspective to explore applied forensic topics, and her research interests include gender-based violence prevention, victim blaming, bystander intervention, VR, and prosocial behaviour. Sarah's research fits under the UN Sustainable Development Goals of gender equality and peace, justice and strong institutions.

During her PhD, Sarah also took part in the Three Minute Thesis competition in 2023, going on to win the University of Bath competition (Judges' choice and public vote) and then winning the national Vitae competition (Judge's choice) and being awarded £3,000 to spend on public engagement activities.

In 2022, Sarah co-founded the Researcher Wellbeing Group, an inter-disciplinary, inter-university support group aimed at early career researchers (from Master's through to Post-Doctoral Researchers) conducting emotionally-challenging research. This peer-support group offers a safe place to discuss the toll researching such topics can have on us, share experiences, and brainstorm coping mechanisms and solutions, as well as having sessions led by guest speakers. ECRs can sign up to join the Researcher Wellbeing group.

Since then, Sarah has also become part of the inter-university Researcher Wellbeing Strategic Change Group leadership team, which aims to create long-term change within and beyond institutions on this issue.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD in Psychology, University of Bath
  • MSc in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, University of Kent
  • BSc (Hons) Psychology, University of Southampton

Other external roles

  • Member of the leadership team for the Researcher Wellbeing Strategic Change Group (RWSCG)

Areas of expertise

  • Bystander Intervention
  • Sexual Violence Prevention
  • Social Psychology
  • Virtual Reality
  • Quantitative Research Methods
  • Researcher Wellbeing

Media coverage