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Applied Health and Social Justice

The Applied Health and Social Justice research group carries out applied and collaborative research to improve health, social care and educational services, tackle disempowering structures and narratives, and enable more respectful, empowering and inclusive societies. We have strong expertise in qualitative and mixed methods research, including methods that prioritise community, organisational practices, co-development and the perspective of the research participants.

Our members have a wide range of interests and experience, including (but not limited to) mental health, learning disability and cancer services, education, marginalised communities, digital inclusion, conflict between groups, neurodiversity, gender and sexuality, and racial/ethnic justice.

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Mission statement

We partner with communities and organisations to generate knowledge that challenges disempowerment and advances social justice. Through collaborative research, we address inequality and work to improve health, social care and educational services. We empower people to shape more just and respectful societies and institutions where all people can thrive.

To make use of our research expertise, or find out more about what we do, please contact us at [email protected]

Our people

  • Doris Denton-West
  • Katy Joyce
  • Alina Knuppel
  • Bernadette Bethell

  • Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Foundation Trust
  • Essex Partnership University Trust
  • Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Integrated Care Board
  • ACE Advocacy
  • Milbotix
  • University of The Gambia
  • St Mary’s University Twickenham
  • UCLH
  • Edge Hill University
  • Eating Disorder and Autism Collaboration, University of Edinburgh
  • The ARU Possessions and Hoarding Collective (PoHoC)
  • Women on Boards CIC and Equitable Governance APPG
  • Towards Gender Harmony (62-country consortium)
  • Climate Action Many Labs (64-country consortium)
  • Body Image in Nature (65-country consortium)
  • European Association of Social Psychology
  • Charles Redd Center for Western Studies (USA)

  • Emotion and pain recognition in people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities
  • Digital inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities
  • Transitional justice in The Gambia
  • Positive body image and intuitive eating in neurodivergent community (i.e., AuDHD people)
  • Fear of recurrence in sarcoma
  • Eating disorder prevention in minoritised social identity groups
  • Online anti-objectification intervention
  • Barriers to accessing care for self-harm and suicide in Essex’s coastal communities
  • Understanding frequent attenders of crisis helplines
  • Social Psychology of Gender Equality in Digital Era Conference
  • Digital assessment and intervention for mental health of key populations
  • Parental penalties and premia
  • Men, masculinities and progressive talk about sex
  • Messages offered in parenting texts about raising feminist boys
  • Individual and community resilience on the Northern Cheyenne reservation (US)
  • Roma strategies towards inclusion in educational and societal settings, including higher education in the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom

Owen, C., Campbell, C. and McKendrick, E. (in press) 'The focus group in qualitative research'. In: Sullivan, C. and Riley, S. (Eds) Doing Qualitative Research in Psychology: A Practical Guide 3rd edn. London: Sage.

Handley, M., Hackmann, C., Grunwald, L., Kaminskiy, E., Wheeler, C., Zeilig, H., Dalkin, S., Green, A., Haighton, C., Rae, S. and the MINDS collaboration (under review) 'Improving discharge planning from acute inpatient mental health care settings: a realist review, BMJ Open.

Finlay, W. M. L., Kellezi, B., Ciesay, P. Y., Kantara, F., Njie, E., Sannoh, M., ... Jones, T. (2025) 'Experiences of Individual and Collective Stigma Resulting From the 2008–9 Witch‐Hunts Carried Out by the Gambian Dictatorship: Implications for Transitional Justice', Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 35(4), e70147.

Zawisza, M., Kosakowska-Berezecka, N., Glick, P., Olech, M., Besta, T., Jurek, P., Sobiecki, J., Best, D. L., Bosson, J. K., Vandello, J. A., Safdar, S., Włodarczyk, A. and Żadkowska, M. (2025) 'Worse for Women, Bad for All: A 62-Nation Study Confirms and Extends Ambivalent Sexism Principles to Reveal Greater Social Dysfunction in Sexist Nations', Social Psychological and Personality Science, 16(8). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241302882

Finlay, W. M. L., Cattier, J., Donois, K., Goodings, L., Kaminskiy, E., Owen, C., ... Swami, V. (2025) 'Norms concerning the recognition of victimhood in postconflict societies: An analysis of “whatabouteries” in online sectarian arguments', Political Psychology, 46(1), pp. 205-224.

Kaminskiy, E., Staras, C., Brown, S. and Morein-Zamir, S. (2025) '“Falling between the cracks”: Investigating the competing challenges experienced by professionals working with people who hoard', PLoS One, 20(5), e0323389.

Owen, C., Campbell, C., Jaye, C., Majumdar, A. and O’Prey, J. (2025) 'Diverse but shallow, unrealistic but influential: Women’s dilemmas when viewing plus-sized models of colour on billboards', Journal of Gender Studies.

Dvorakova, A. (2025) 'All psychologies are indigenous: Addressing historical grounding of WEIRD social psychological knowledge in colonialism and racism', Psychological Studies. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12646-025-00867-w

Kosakowska-Berezecka, N., Besta, T., Jurek, P., Olech, M., Sobiecki, J., Bosson, J., Vandello, J. A., Best, D., Zawisza, M., Safdar, S., Włodarczyk, A. and Żadkowska, M. (2024) 'Towards gender harmony dataset: gender beliefs and gender stereotypes in 62 countries', Scientific Data, 11(1). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03235-x

Longhurst, P., Aspell, J., Todd, J. and Swami, V. (2024) '"There's No Separating My View of My Body from My Autism": A qualitative study of positive body image in autistic individuals', Body Image, 48, 101655.

Longhurst, P., Woodworth, E. C., Cunha, I. and Rodgers, R. (2024) '#DisabledBodyPositivity: A content analysis of body positive Instagram posts in the disabled community', Body Image, 51, 101801.

Goodings, L, Ellis, D, Tucker, I (2024) Understanding Mental Health Apps. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Vindrola-Padros, C., Fern, L. A., Gerrand, C., Hulbert-Williams, N., Lawal, M., Storey, L., Wells, M., Windsor, R., Woodford, J. and Taylor, R. M. (2023) 'Experiences of fear of recurrence in patients with sarcoma', Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice, 5(4), pp. 113. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1097/OR9.0000000000000113

Dvorakova, A. (2022) 'Identity in heterogeneous socio-cultural contexts: Implications of the Native American master narrative', Culture & Psychology, 28(1), pp. 43-64. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1354067X19877913

Nicholson, C., Finlay, W. M. L. and Stagg, S. (2021) 'Forms of resistance in people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities', Sociology of Health & Illness, 43(3), pp. 642-659.

Kaminskiy, E., Zisman-Ilani, Y., Morant, N. and Ramon, S. (2021) 'Barriers and enablers to shared decision making in psychiatric medication management: A qualitative investigation of clinician and service users' views', Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, 678005.