Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Associate Professor
- IOE - Social Research Institute
- UCL Institute of Education


Karen’s research interests span gender, politics, and public policy. Her research training in political science has been strengthened by her experience of undertaking policy-relevant research in a range of disciplines.
Karen is passionate about undertaking useful and policy-relevant research, completing projects for different government departments and policy audiences (ranging from UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to Department for International Development).
Most recently, Karen's research has focused on domestic violence and abuse. Projects include systematic reviews on domestic violence and abuse, and collaborative projects to examine the barriers and facilitators to evidence use in the sector. This work builds on Karen's involvement in the research programme that underpinned the What Work’s Centre for Crime Reduction. As part of this, Karen led reviews on domestic violence and diversion of people with mental health issues, informed by her expertise in evidence mapping (describing a research field) and qualitative and quantitative synthesis (drawing together the findings from multiple studies).
Karen is the founder of the Women’s Writing Collective (an informal and friendly network that promotes and supports women’s writing) and seeks to respond to gender inequalities in higher education through research and action.
Undergraduate
Karen is module leader of ‘Politics: from Power to Participation’, contributes a guest lecture for ‘Sociology of Gender’ and was seminar leader for ‘Understanding Social Policy’.
Karen is personal tutor and dissertation supervisor for undergraduate students.
Postgraduate
Karen also contributes to the MSc Social Policy and Social Research, and provides supervision for student dissertations.
Karen supervises PhD students on a range of social policy and political issues.
2005 | Research Officer | Social Science Research Unit | UCL Institute of Education, United Kingdom |
2005 – 2005 | Research Assistant | British Election Study | The University of Essex, United Kingdom |
2004 – 2004 | Research Assistant | Government and International Relations | The University of Sydney, Australia |
2002 – 2004 | Graduate Teaching Assistant | Government | University of Essex, United Kingdom |
2018 | ATQ03 - Recognised by the HEA as a Fellow | University College London | |
2005 | Doctor of Philosophy | University of Essex | |
2000 | Bachelor of Arts | University of York |