Ellen Lavender
PhD Student

Profile

Biography

I graduated from the University of York with an integrated Masters in Psychology from the University of York in 2023. I have been awarded ESRC funding for a 3.75 PhD and PGCert in Psychology, to continue here at York. Pursuing a PhD has been an ambition of mine since conducting my research project as part of the Laidlaw Scholarship in 2021. During this programme, I conducted a piece of research under Professor Slocombe, investigating maternal communication strategies in attention directing in the United Kingdom and Uganda. Additionally, I helped to create a school twinning and fundraising project with primary schools in York, England and Nyabyeya, Uganda. The Laidlaw Scholarship allowed me to secure a job as a paid research assistant with Professor Slocombe and Dr House from July 2021. Within this role I gained experience with independently collecting data with children and adults, training summer interns, using the coding software Observer XT, running basic analysis, inputting sensitive data, and attending lab meetings.

My passion for working with children began at a young age. I volunteered in a primary school in 2017-2019, and again at  University in early 2020. From 2023-2024 I worked as a Teaching Assistant in a high school. One thing that I am particularly ardent about is encouraging a world of equality and opportunity within children. Sexism and inequality are still rife in schools today and  the harmful impact of media on adolescents is particularly worrisome. I want to ensure children are protected from harmful consequences, and thus promote a kinder world. As such I have proposed an intervention with Professor Over and Dr Zendle to tackle this problem.

Career

• ESRC funded 3.75 years PhD in Psychology, University of York (2024-present)
• MSci in Psychology, University of York (2019-2023)
• High School Teaching Assistant (2023-2024)
• Research Assistant for Professor Katie Slocmbe and Dr Bailey House (2020-2021 voluntary; 2021-2024 paid)
• Laidlaw Scholarship Programme (2021-2022)
• Voluntary work in Primary Schools (2017-2020)

Departmental roles

• Graduate Teaching Assistant (2024-present)

Research

Overview

Protecting against misogyny: Developing an intervention, to reduce the influence of the ‘manosphere’.

Projects

Extreme misogyny has a worrying presence on social media in the ‘manosphere’, a group of communities which believe women are inferior to men and categorically promote misogynistic content online. Teenagers and adolescents are regularly exposed to this content, leading to harmful concerns. My research involves developing interventions to protect children from the negative effects of the manosphere.

Grants

• Laidlaw Scholarship 2020 Cohort
• ESRC 3.75 Advanced Data Analytics (ADA) Scholarship

Collaborators

• Professor Harriet Over (supervisor)
• Dr David Zendle (supervisor)

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Graduate Teaching Assistant

Publications

External activities

Invited talks and conferences

• Speaker at the Laidlaw Scholarship Conference London School of Economics (October 2022)
• Speaker at the Durham University Anthropology Annual Postgraduate Conference (April 2024)