Sofia Stathi

Dr Sofia Stathi BSc, PGCHE, PhD, FHEA

Professor in Social Psychology

Dr Sofia Stathi is a Professor in Social Psychology in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Greenwich. Sofia obtained a BSc in Psychology from the University of Crete, Greece and then a PhD from the University of Birmingham, UK. She joined the University of Greenwich as Senior Lecturer in 2011. Prior to this, Sofia was a post-doctoral researcher and then a Lecturer at the University of Kent. Sofia teaches social psychology, social cognition, and cross-cultural psychology.

Posts held previously:

  • 2008 - 2011  Lectureship at University of Kent
  • 2007 - 2008  Postdoctoral Research Associate at University of Kent

Psychology

Allied health professions, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy

Responsibilities within the university
  • Lead of the Centre for Inequalities, Faculty of Education, Health, and Human Sciences
  • Chair of University Research Ethics Board
  • PhD supervisor

Awards
  • 2012 University of Greenwich Early Career Research Excellence Award

Recognition
  • 2021-ongoing: External examiner for MSc Applied Social Psychology, Royal Holloway, University of London
  • 2020-ongoing: Committee member for the British Psychological Society Social Psychology Section
  • 2020-ongoing: Associate Editor for Group Processes and Intergroup Relations
  • 2017-ongoing: Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Social Psychology
  • 2016-2020: External examiner for the BSc Psychological Science, MBS, Staffordshire University

Research / Scholarly interests

Sofia is a social psychologist, exploring primarily processes that relate to intergroup relations. Sofia's research focuses on prejudice and prejudice-reduction among majority and minority groups via direct and indirect intergroup contact. Furthermore, Sofia's research examines social/political ideology; multiculturalism and acculturation processes; collective action; social exclusion.

Key funded projects

  • 2022 Research Grant: Center for Entertainment & Civic Health ($34,855.78) – Title: How Do Media Portrayals of Cross-Party Interactions Affect Viewers? Investigating the Effects of Norms for and Content of Cross-Party Engagement (allocated to Prof. Linda Tropp, Dr Rita Guerra, Dr Sofia Stathi and Prof. Loris Vezzali)
  • 2021 Small Research Grant: British Academy/Leverhulme (£9,964.76) – Title: Understanding participation in ‘non-normative’ collective action: A case study of the destruction of a public statue associated with historical racism (allocated to Professor John Dixon, and Drs. Shelley McKeown, and Sofia Stathi)
  • 2014 Seminar Series Grant: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), (£29,992) - Title: Youth mental health and well-being (allocated to Drs Maria Michail, Sofia Stathi, Eilis Hennessy, Barbara Dooley, Caroline Heary, Paul Patterson, Andrew Grundy, Sarah Amani)
  • 2010 Small Research Grant: British Academy (£7,407) - Title: Raising awareness and reducing the social stigma of the homeless
  • 2010 Small Research Grant: Cátedra Real Madrid – UEM (Euros 6,000) - Title: Attitudes of future teachers of physical education on the inclusion of the students with incapacity in the classes of physical education: A comparative study between Spain and the United Kingdom (allocated to Drs. Athanasios Pappous, Francisco Cruz Quintana, Sofia Stathi, Carlos Javier Lopez Gutierrez)
  • 2009 Research study grant: European Association for Social Psychology (Euros 1,000) - Title: Enhancing bicultural identity integration: The role of intercultural contact. Collaborator: Veronica Benet-Martinez, University of California at Riverside
  • 2009 Small Research Grant: British Academy (£7,026) - Title: ‘Imaginary contact’: Developing and evaluating a new prejudice-reduction intervention for schools (allocated to Drs. Lindsey Cameron and Sofia Stathi)

Recent publications