Simona Manni
Research Associate (Public Health and Society) & Research Fellow (Institute of Mental Health Research)

Profile

Biography

Simona is a Research Associate at the Public Health and Society Research Group working on SPIRE, an NIHR funded project led by the Family Wellbeing Team. In this role, Simona supports a mixed-methods evaluation of the acceptability, feasibility and impacts of prompts to explore the parent-infant relationship. Simona contributes to qualitative data collection, community engagement, and dissemination activities. Simona is also a member of the YH ARC Best Start steering group.

As a Research Fellow at the Institute of Mental Health Research, Simona investigates and applies participatory traditional and non-linear storytelling approaches to explore the needs of people with experiences of mental health problems and to support mental health interventions.

Simona’s background is in interactive media, co-design, and participatory filmmaking.  She completed an EPSRC-funded PhD at the Digital Creativity Labs, University of York, where she explored the role interactive media can play in supporting the production of polyvocal participatory accounts of mental health. Following her PhD, she worked as a research associate designing an interactive film to support cancer-diagnosed young patients needing to make fertility preservation decisions for the research project Personalising Cancer, Fertility, and Me by the Digital Creativity Labs and the Centre of Reviews and Dissemination. She also worked as a research assistant at Queen Mary University of London to develop resources on the adaptation of digital platforms for autistic users as part of the research project Autistic Adults Online.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of York, School of Arts and Creative Technology, 2021
• MA Documentary Production, York St John, 2012
• MA Film Theory, Università di Roma Tre, 2011
• BA Film, TV, and Media, Università degli Studi di Perugia, 2009