Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Associate Professor in Psychology
- IOE - Social Research Institute
- UCL Institute of Education
I am an Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology based at the UCL Social Research Institute and have lived and worked both in the UK and abroad. Following the completion of my MPhil and PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge (supervised by Professor Susan Golombok), I joined UCL. Prior to this I was based in the Lahore University of Management Science in Pakistan. As well as research and public engagement work, I am involved in teaching and supervising master's and doctoral students. I am a member of the British Psychological Society and the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology.


As a Social and Cultural Psychologist, I study children, young people and families. My 2 broad areas of research interest are:
1) Migration and Minority Groups: I am interested in the identity and migration experiences of families and young people and in how they engage with institutions in new settings. I am also interested in citizenship rights and activism in minority groups. In particular, in how these groups forge a sense of community under adverse circumstances (including political instability and climate change).
2) Cultural Heritage and Wellbeing: I am interested in how the arts and creative practices can help foster wellbeing in people. This includes with teenagers and children with mental health difficulties, individuals living with trauma but also people experiencing loneliness.
Methodological Approach:
I work across disciplines (including psychology, sociology and history) and use traditional mixed research methods as well as arts, visual and film-based methods (including documentary research). I work with museum practitioners, artists, and policy groups.
Summary of Current Research Projects:
I am currently working on 2 research projects.
- The first is my new AHRC-GCRF funded project (with Dr Anushay Malik) titled: 'Partition of Identity: An exploration of Belonging in Bengalis in Pakistan, 1971- 2021'. This 2 year project will explore the lived experiences of Bengali migrants in Pakistan (arriving after 1971). It draws from social psychology, history and arts based methods.
- The second is a British Academy funded study (with Drs Katherine Twamley and Charlotte Faircloth) titled Families and Community in the Time of Covid 19 (FACT-Covid). This 10 country study explores how families globally are coping with Covid 19.
Summary of Past and Ongoing Projects
- 'Parenting and Child Development in Multi-Ethnic Britain'- Doctoral research, which was a mixed method study that explored parenting and family life in second generation British South Asian
- 'Children’s and Adults’ Friendships across Social Class and Ethnic Difference'. An ESRC project about living in a socially diverse place (with Professors Carol Vincent & Sarah Neal)
- Child Language Brokering - I continue to work with Professor Sarah Crafter (The Open University) around Child Language Brokers i.e. recently arrived children and young people who interpret and translate for their families in a range of spaces and contexts. We completed an AHRC study in 2018 on this topic.
- Cultural Heritage and Wellbeing - I completed a series of UCL Grand Challenge Projects around this topic (Between Spaces: Museums and Mental Wellbeing in Young People & FLOCK: The Art of Ceramics in fostering Wellbeing in Displaced Groups) with the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust (SLaM).
- SOCS0023- Foundations of Psychology I
- SOCS0027 Families in Society
- migration and identity
- minority groups and belonging
- urban diversity, space and wellbeing
- children, young people and families
- parenting
- psychosocial studies
- qualitative and mixed methods (including arts and film based methods)
2019 | ATQ03 - Recognised by the HEA as a Fellow | University College London |