SENSS Collaborative Awards at Essex
In addition to the student-led studentship competition, we are also involved in three of the current SENSS collaborative studentship. Collaborative award students join an expert team of supervisors at Essex and an external partner (from industry, government, or a non-government organisation, in the UK or abroad) to work on a research project which has been developed by an academic team.
SENSS Collaborative Project 2: The Changing Landscape of Workplace Rights for Workers with Caring Responsibilities
Primary supervisor: Dr Ian Roper (University of Essex)
Second supervisor: Dr Beatrice Piccoli (University of Essex)
Department: Essex Business School
SENSS Theme: Justice, Institutions, and Social Change
Collaborative partner: Working Families
Collaborative partner supervisor: Dr Rebecca Jones
Project background
With introduction of the Employment Rights Bill, there is much attention on how it “…will ensure more people stay in work, make work more family-friendly and improve living standards…” (p3). This adds to the history of measures associated with the ‘work-life interface’ and in particular the organisational practices used to make working lives more equitable between men and women and/or as working parents.
However, the variety of ‘flexible working practices’ available are wide and less is known about how the variety of practices available compare to what is needed and there is longstanding recognition that there can be gaps between organisational policy and actual practice, where line managers can vary in their willingness to grant such requests from staff. There are also wider forms of inequity among workers seeking such measures and the need to accommodate ‘caring responsibility’ is now widely accepted as extending beyond childcare. In the post Covid workplace, a notable shift has occurred in the increased demand for hybrid work. Yet this has also been countered by resistance among some policy makers, commentators and businesses to match-up to this increased demand.
This PhD project will examine the variety of flexible working practices offered to workers with caring responsibilities against the backdrop of these changes in expectations and regulatory context.
For further information about this project and the Collaborative Studentship Award, please refer to the full specification on the SENSS DTP webpage.
SENSS Collaborative Project 4: Understanding the impact of place-based interventions to mitigate climate change on the mental health and wellbeing of young people in two deprived coastal communities in the UK and Brazil
Primary supervisor: Professor Victoria Bird (University of Essex)
Second supervisor: Dr Emily Murray (University of Essex)
Department: School of Health and Social Care
SENSS Theme: Sustainability and Climate Emergency
Collaborative partner: People's Palace Projects
Collaborative partner supervisor: Luna Arouca
Project background
Join a ground-breaking project exploring how community-led climate action can boost young people’s mental health in coastal communities in the UK and Brazil. It builds on a growing body of evidence that climate anxiety—a form of psychological distress linked to concerns about climate change—has become a significant mental health challenge for young people worldwide.
Young people living in coastal communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental stressors such as heat, flooding, and pollution, which heighten risks of anxiety, depression, and trauma-related symptoms. At the same time, adolescence and early adulthood represent a critical developmental period, making it an essential period to develop initiatives with the potential to not only mitigate harm but also build resilience and psychological wellbeing.
We are seeking applications from motivated and creative students with a passion for socially engaged research. This project will suit those with an interest in mental health, climate change, youth participation, and arts for social change.
For further information about this project and the Collaborative Studentship Award, please refer to the full specification on the SENSS DTP webpage.
SENSS Collaborative Project 7: More than sleeps the eye – The role of REM-sleep and eye movements on the trajectory of distressing memories
Primary supervisor: Dr Hong-Viet V Ngo-Dehning (University of Essex)
Second supervisor: Dr Anna Gui (University of Essex)
Department: Department of Psychology
SENSS Theme: Health, Wellbeing, and Social Care
Collaborative partner: SOMNOmedics
Collaborative partner supervisor: Dr Christian Ziegler
Project background
Approximately 1 in 2 people will experience a distressing event at some point in their life. In most cases, these memories naturally fade over time. However, for about 10% of the population, traumatic experiences develop into post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) causing symptoms such as intrusive thoughts, panic attacks and sleep problems, greatly reducing their quality of life. These severe consequences raise the questions of what determines the fade of distressing experience and how can we prevent or treat their maladaptive manifestation.
Intriguingly, our eyes have been identified as a central factor within this mystery. On the one hand, paradoxical sleep or also known as rapid eye movement sleep (REM) named after is hallmarking eye characteristics has been linked to a depotentiation of emotional reactivity of distressing memory. On the other hand, performing slow horizontal eye movements while recalling a distressing experience – a therapeutic approach known as eye movement desensitisation reprocessing (EMDR) – has proven to be a highly effective for the treatment of PTSD and anxiety. Considering this obvious link of eye movements between REM sleep and EMDR, remarkably little to no research has been conducted to shed light into this relation to this day. This studentship is part of an ongoing collaborative initiative to tackle this question with a novel line of research which perfectly combines expertise from cognition, neuroscience and medical technology.
For further information about this project and the Collaborative Studentship Award, please refer to the full specification on the SENSS DTP webpage.
