Key details
Dr Emma O'Dwyer
Senior Lecturer in Psychology
Dr Emma O’Dwyer joined the School of Human Sciences as a senior lecturer in May 2022. She received her PhD in political psychology from Queen’s University, Belfast, in 2013. After this, she joined Kingston University, London as a post-doctoral researcher and subsequently progressed to senior lecturer. Emma is a political psychologist with specific research interests including how people understand and orient towards issues like foreign policy and military intervention, and political participation, citizenship, and social change.
Emma has significant experience of teaching social psychology and research methods at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She also supervises undergraduate, Master’s and doctoral research in social and political psychology.
Recognition
- Consulting Editor, European Journal of Social Psychology
- Ad-hoc reviewer for journals including: Political Psychology, Papers on Social Representations, British Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, Journal of Social and Political Psychology, Disasters, International Journal of Conflict and Violence
- Member, British Psychological Society’s Covid-19 Community Action and Resilience Workstream (2020-21)
- Member, International Society of Political Psychology
- Member, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
Research / Scholarly interests
Emma’s research examines two related issues: (1) how people understand and orient towards issues like foreign policy and military intervention, and (2) political participation, citizenship, and social change. She has investigated these priorities with reference to a diverse range of issues, e.g., Brexit, drone warfare, and, most recently, Covid-19 mutual aid groups. She frequently draws upon social representations theory in her research, and takes a pragmatic approach to method, which has meant the adoption of diverse methods, including interviews, automatic text analysis, and multi-level modelling.
Key funded projects
- 2021, Kingston University Senior Research Advancement Fund, Examining the social and political implications of worker cooperatives: A key informant study. £3,357
- 2020, Kingston University Research Under Lockdown Fund, Assessing the psychological, social, and political impacts of UK Covid-19 mutual aid groups. £3,000
- 2018, British Psychological Society Undergraduate Research Assistantship Scheme, How do British citizens negotiate their positions towards the use of armed drones? A qualitative study. £1,600
- 2016, Kingston University First Grants Scheme, Lay thinking on armed drones in the UK, USA, and Turkey. £7,092
- International Society of Political Psychology, Best Dissertation Prize (2014) - Honourable Mention