I’m originally from Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllsantysiliogogogoch, a small village in Wales with the longest name in the UK. Fy iaith gyntaf yw’r Gymraeg, felly croeso i bawb!
I am a social psychologist with a particular interest in gender equality, particularly violence against women. I am interested in what motivates prejudice or discrimination surrounding gender, and its effects. I find the possible links between sexual objectification (men viewing women’s bodies as objects), sexual harassment and gender violence especially intriguing.
Since 2017 I have been a full-time PhD student in the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Worcester. My PhD research (The Family Courts and victims of Intimate Partner Abuse: experiences and perceived impact of special measures) looks at the wellbeing of victims of domestic abuse as they go through Family Court proceedings. My supervisors are Prof Erica Bowen and Dr Holly Taylor-Dunn.
I am Chair of the newly-established Postgraduate Network at Worcester, and Vice-chair of the Committee preparing for our next Postgraduate Conference in June 2019. I am also mentoring undergraduate Year 3s with their dissertations, and presenting 10-minute guest slots on my research in some of the Psychology modules.
I am a graduate member of the British Psychological Society. In 2019 I will be a BPS/POST Postgraduate Fellow, which means I will be seconded for three months to the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, with the task of preparing an overview briefing for parliamentarians on an aspect of social psychology.
Surrey
Before my PhD, I spent a year as a Research Assistant at the University of Surrey with Prof Peter Hegarty on two projects: public understanding about people with intersex characteristics (now submitted for publication), and asymmetric comparisons about people of different nationalities – in this case, Welsh and English (currently in the data analysis stage). I also worked with Dr Katherine Hubbard and (from the Open University) Prof Rose Capdevila on personal accounts of the Psychology of Women and Equalities Section of the BPS (now accepted for publication).
Kent
I completed an MSc in Group Processes and Intergroup Relations in 2016 (winning the Brian Mullen Prize), and a First-Class BSc (Hons) Psychology in 2015 (winning the Janet Miele Prize and the Faculty Prize), both at the University of Kent. My dissertation supervisor in both was Dr Rachel Calogero. My BSc dissertation has been published, and I am currently working up a scale from my MSc dissertation for publication.
In Summer 2014 I was an intern with Government Social Research (Department for Education), based in Manchester for three months, where I carried out statistical analysis for the annual Newly-Qualified Teacher survey, and wrote the first draft of the published summary report.
Publications
Donnelly, L.C., & Calogero, R.M. (2018). The role of sexually objectifying experiences in college women’s perceived possibility of gender crimes happening to them. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 48, 165-173. DOI: 10.1111/jasp.12497. pdf
Calogero, R.M., Tylka, T.L., Donnelly, L.C., McGetrick, A., & Medrano Leger, A. (2017). Trappings of femininity: A test of the “beauty as currency” hypothesis in shaping college women’s gender activism. Body Image, 21 (66-70). DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2017.02.008. pdf
Donnelly, L.C. (2015, 23 November) Analyse, collaborate and share research with open source tools. Opensource.com.
Donnelly, L.C. (2015, 3 November) A breakdown of FOSS for students and researchers in academia. Opensource.com.
Donnelly, L.C., & Da’ Cunha, X. (2015). Mentoring teenagers with the National Citizen Service. PsychTalk, 82. pdf
Adewoye, M., Porter, S., & Donnelly, L.C. (2014). Newly Qualified Teachers: Annual Survey 2014. National College for Teaching and Leadership.
Donnelly, L.C. (2014). Persistence of sexism in situations of anonymity. Kent Psychologist 8(4).
Conferences
Donnelly, L.C. (2018). Family Courts and Intimate Partner Abuse. Paper presented at the Centre for Violence Prevention Conference, Worcester.
Capdevila, R., Hubbard, K., & Donnelly, L.C. (2017, July). Standing still whilst ‘looking back and moving forwards’: the personal account of POWS members in the here and now. Paper presented at the Psychology of Women Section Conference, Windsor, 12-14 July.
Donnelly, L.C., & Calogero, R.M.(2016, July). Action Women: Increasing collective action by harnessing system justification motive and body functionality focus. Poster presented at International Society for Justice Research 2016, Canterbury, 20-23 July.
Donnelly, L.C., & Calogero, R.M. (2016, June). “I am a woman, not a traffic-jam”: The effect of street harassment, self-objectification and safety anxiety on perceived risk of rape. Poster presented at Appearance Matters 7, London, 28-30 June.