Dr Nikhil Sengupta, Director

Dr Nikhil Sengupta is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology. He received his PhD from the University of Auckland, working on a ten-year national survey project, the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study. In 2017, Nikhil was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship at the University of Oxford and has since turned his attention to studying social attitudes in the UK. Nikhil won a ERC Starting Grant in 2021 to take this research further by setting up PSYPOL.

Dr Nina Waddell, Research Associate

Dr Nina Waddell received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research investigates how sexism affects outcomes in the context of close relationships (particularly personal and relational wellbeing), and how relationship and parenting experiences can function to maintain sexist attitudes. She also studies how people manage investment in close relationships with investment in career ambitions and personal goals (including work-family balance), as well as the effects of the division of paid and unpaid labour within couple and family contexts.

Tamino Konur, PhD Student

Before coming to Kent, Tamino Konur received his MSc in Psychology from Philipps-University Marburg in Germany. For his current MSc Political Psychology, Tamino received a scholarship from the DAAD. Most recently, Tamino was awarded a Research Scholarship from the Division of Human and Social Sciences, to conduct his PhD with PSYPOL starting in September 2023. Tamino´s research focuses on the individual and societal outcomes resulting from people holding complex and conflicting social identities.

Alessia Bacigalupo, PhD Student

Alessia Bacigalupo completed her MSc in Experimental Psychology at the University of Bristol and worked as a Research Assistant at the James Hutton Institute. Alessia was then awarded a full studentship to join PSYPOL. Her research interests are in the area in the influence of media influence on political attitudes and behaviour, such as political engagement, policy support and extremism. Her PhD work also focuses on ethnic and gender-based prejudice. Alessia's expertise lies in studying behaviour through experiments and surveys conducted in multiple languages and cultural contexts.

Dr Joseph Phillips, Research Associate

Dr Joseph Phillips is a Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Cardiff. He received his PhD in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University. Joe's research takes a psychological approach to democratic functioning across several countries, focussing on the development of partisan animosity and the consequences of misinformation. Joe is an expert in survey methods, having worked with several largescale surveys including the American National Election Studies and the Mood of the Nation Poll.

Dr Jocelyn Chalmers, Research Associate

Jocelyn is a postdoctoral researcher at the University Portsmouth having completed her PhD at the University of Kent. Her main interests are in the areas of gender and sexism.

Dr Robin Wollast, Research Associate

Dr Robin Wollast earned his PhD from Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. He has collaborated on largescale survey projects with highly regarded experts from America, Europe, and Asia. Most recently, Robin won the prestigious Belgian American Educational Foundation Award to conduct research at Stanford University. His research focuses on emotion and mental health, as well as collective action, group polarization, and dehumanization.

Dr Chloe Bracegirdle, Research Associate

Dr Chloe Bracegirdle is a Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Researcher at Nuffield College, University of Oxford. Chloe received her PhD in Psychology from the University of Oxford in 2020, investigating the socialization of intergroup attitudes among adolescents and adults. Chloe is an expert in longitudinal methods, having developed novel ways to model social networks over time.