Amena Amer

Dr Amena Amer BSc, MSc, PhD

Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Amena joined the School of Human Sciences at the university of Greenwich in April 2020. She had previously received her PhD in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics and Political Science in June 2020.

While her research is primarily set within the sub-fields of Social and Political Psychology, Amena has been invited to share her research with audiences beyond Psychology e.g., at the ‘Performance and the Body’ seminar series organised by the Cambridge Interdisciplinary Performance Network (University of Cambridge, UK) and at the ‘Cultural Diversity, Migration and Education’ lecture series at the University of Potsdam (Germany).

Amena has experience teaching social psychology, political psychology, cross-cultural psychology, applied psychology and research methods (particularly qualitative) and has taught at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Amena also has experience working in the third sector drawing connections between her academic research interests and its real-world application and impact. She has developed and facilitated workshops in schools and communities across the UK exploring issues of identity, self-expression, intersectional experiences, stereotypes, and confidence with young girls (aged 12-14), as well as designing and delivering workshops for secondary school teachers on positionality and reflexivity.

Posts previously held

  • 2019 - 2020 MSc Dissertation Projects Officer and Graduate Teaching Assistant. Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE (UK). Course: Qualitative Methods for Social Psychologists (MSc)
  • 2018 - 2019 Research Assistant. Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE (UK). Project: 'Transformation of identities in organisational settings'. PI: Dr Ilka Gleibs
  • 2017 - 2019 Project Co-ordinator for Muslim Girls Fence Project. Maslaha (UK)
  • 2016 - 2017 Graduate Teaching Assistant. Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE (UK). Course: Social Psychology (UG)
  • 2014 - 2016 Research Assistant. Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, LSE (UK). Project: 'Effects of the Trojan Horse Affair on identities in the affected communities'. PI: Dr Caroline Howarth

Psychology

Allied health professions, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy

Responsibilities within the university
  • Level 4 Year Group Lead (Psychology)

Awards

2023 - Making a Difference Award in Staff Awards at University of Greenwich

Recognition
Editorial roles/Peer reviewing:
  • Consulting Editor for the British Journal of Social Psychology
  • Peer reviewer for a number of academic journals (both psychology and inter-disciplinary). These include Political Psychology, European Journal of Social Psychology, Qualitative Methods, Journal of Social Issues and Ethnic and Migration Studies
Committee/Board Memberships:
  • Foundation Governor. Camden School for Girls
Advisory roles:
  • Steering Group Member. Transformational: Converts in British Muslim Life’. PI: Prof Sophie Gilliat-Ray (Cardiff University. Collaborator: Batool Al-Toma (Convert Muslim Foundation). Research Associate: Dr Asma Khan (Cardiff University)
General membership:
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, UK
  • International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP)
  • European Association of Social Psychology (EASP)
  • British Psychological Society (BPS)

Research / Scholarly interests

Amena's research interests broadly focus on exploring experiences of identity and belonging. More specifically, she is interested in the experiences of minority and marginalised groups, examining how members of these group manage and negotiate their identities and positions within society in relation to boundaries of inclusion and exclusion, how they are seen by others and consequences of these experiences.

Current projects:
  • ‘Navigating the academic space: Exploring identity negotiation and feelings of belonging among Muslim women in British universities.’ Funder: British Academy/Wolfson Fellowship
  • ‘One journey, three stories representations of Syrian, Afghan, and Ukrainian refugees in the media’. Funder: British Psychological Society Social Psychology Section - Pump and Prime. Collaborators: Dr Nihan Albayrak-Eydemir (Open University; PI), Dr Ilka Gleibs (LSE, UK), Dr Celestin Okoroji (LSE, UK)
  • ‘Who belongs? Exploring the interconnections between recognition, representation and belonging among ethnic minorities and majorities in the British context.’. Collaborator: Sandra Obradovic (Open University, UK)

Key funded projects

  • British Academy/Wolfson Fellowship. Year of award 2022. ‘Navigating the academic space: Exploring identity negotiation and feelings of belonging among Muslim women in British universities.’ Project duration: Oct 2022 – June 2026
  • British Psychological Society Social Psychology Section - Pump and Prime. Year of Award: 2022. ‘One journey, three stories: representations of Syrian, Afghan, and Ukrainian refugees in the media’
  • European Association for Social Psychology - Collaborative Grant. Year of Award: 2020. ‘Recognition of Belonging? Testing and expanding the Ingroup Projection Model’

Recent publications

Article

Osbourne, Lateesha , Amer, Amena, Blackwood, Leda, Barnett, Julie (2023), ‘I’m going home to breathe and I’m coming back here to just hold my head above the water.’ Black students’ strategies for navigating a predominantly white UK university. PsychOpen - Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information. In: , , , . PsychOpen - Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 11 (2) . pp. 501-515 2195-3325 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.5964/jspp.8581).

Reddy, Geetha and , Amer, Amena (2022), Precarious engagements and the politics of knowledge production: listening to calls for reorienting hegemonic social psychology. Wiley - The British Psychological Society. In: , , , . Wiley - The British Psychological Society, British Journal of Social Psychology, 62 (S1) . pp. 71-94 ISSN: 0144-6665 (Print), 2044-8309 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12609).

Amer, Amena and , Obradovic, Sandra (2022), Recognising recognition: self‐other dynamics in everyday encounters and experiences. Wiley. In: , , , . Wiley, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 52 (4) . pp. 550-562 ISSN: 0021-8308 (Print), 1468-5914 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jtsb.12356).

Amer, Amena and , (2019), Between recognition and mis/nonrecognition: strategies of negotiating and performing identities among white muslims in the United Kingdom. Wiley. In: , , , . Wiley, Political Psychology, 41 (3) . pp. 533-548 . ISBN: 14679221 0162895XISSN: 0162-895X (Print), 1467-9221 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12637).

Amer, Amena and , Howarth, Caroline (2017), Constructing and contesting threat: representations of white British muslims across British national and muslim newspapers. Wiley. In: , , , . Wiley, European Journal of Social Psychology, 48 (5) . pp. 614-628 . ISBN: 10990992 00462772ISSN: 0046-2772 (Print), 1099-0992 (Online) (doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2352).

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