Loughborough University London’s prestigious PhD community are rapidly becoming trailblazers in their respective sectors. Despite the challenges faced in 2020, our students have continued to provide thought provoking-ideas and creative pieces of work. In this blog, we are sharing are some of our students recent publishing success, findings and awards gained in 2020.

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Anna Ferello

Institute for Sport Business

Anna received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Portland, Oregon, in Psychology and Spanish. She then went on to study Sport and Exercise Psychology at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. At Ball State Anna assisted Dr Lindsey Blom with research projects in Positive Youth Development and Sport for Development and Peace, which ultimately inspired her to continue doing research in these domains.

Anna is currently a PhD researcher studying Sport for Development and Peace in the Institute for Sport Business. Anna has recently been published, with the following articles:

• The soft power of Arab Women’s football: Changing perceptions and building legitimacy through social media. This article explores and expands the understanding of sport as a means of exercising soft power by presenting social media as an instrument for sport diplomacy in the Arab world. Second, it analyses the specific use of women’s success in sport to shape public perception and achieve international recognition.

• Peace and development indicators in Liberia youth through Sport for Development: Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.  This article recognises the extreme challenges confronting Liberian youth from a civil war and Ebola crisis. Exploring limitations, including the lack of a control group and challenges in working with marginalized youth, as well as implications of these findings for promoting peace, purpose, and positive development among other majority world youth are addressed.

• Sport for social change: An action-oriented peace education curriculum. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology.

Auri Evokari

Institute for Design Innovation

Auri is a Doctoral Researcher with the Institute for Design Innovation. After working in Entrepreneurship Support in both her home country of Finland and in Southern Africa, she is driven to enable early-stage technology start-up entrepreneurship through her research.

Auri is the recipient of a grant for full-time studies from the Finnish Foundation for Economic Education and has also recently received and additional travel grant from Finland.

Britta Boyer

Institute for Design Innovation

Britta holds an MA in Sustainable Design from University of Brighton. Britta’s MA produced a body of work which explored the intersections of design and geographical sciences through qualitative ethnographic research and visual methods. This challenged design into new ways and looked into both western and non-western-centric viewpoints.

Britta recently co authored a two new publishing’s:

• “Pivot 2020: Designing a World of Many Centers“. Britta’s section focussed on the initiatives and socio-technical tools for the pluriverse. Britta’s participatory action research facilitates storytelling through an intimate entanglement making this a very engaging read.

• ‘Breathful’ design in breathless times. Strategic Design Research Journal. 2021.

Britta has also recently became a recipient of the Design Research Society Bursary Scheme.

Hussa Khalid Al Khalifia

Institute for Sport Business

Hussa is a Doctoral Researcher within our Institute for Sport Business. Hussa has already made ground-breaking achievements in her home country Bahrain and has even helped establish the Bahrain National football team and women’s league.

Since then, Hussa was appointed as the first woman to hold a seat on the board of the Union of Arab Football Associations and the first woman to be elected to the Bahrain Football Association Board of Directors. Hussa is also currently on the Board of National Olympic Committee

Hussa K. Al Khalifa recently co authored: The soft power of Arab women’s football: changing perceptions and building legitimacy through social media, International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics.

Ian Hill

Institute for International Management

Ian studies within the Institute for International Management and his research is concerned with the contradictions managers face in regard to the work organisation of software development. His research looks at the qualitative comparison between tech co-ops and more traditionally owned tech organisation, using participant observation and semi structured interviews as methods. Ian is interested in concepts such as hierarchy, control, autonomy and empowerment. He is looking to explain variations between co-ops and non co-ops in relation to the aforementioned concepts.

Ian recently published a book review which was added to The Industrial and Labor Relations Review. The book is entitled ‘Coerced: Work Under the Threat of Punishment‘, by Erin Hatton. This peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary research advances new theories, presents novel empirical work, and informs organizational and public policy on the world of work and employment.

Ian has also been awarded a Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA), demonstrating a personal and institutional commitment to professionalism in learning and teaching in higher education.

Sui Liu

Institute for Digital Technologies

Before studying Digital Creative Media MA, Sui gathered work experience at a TV Station. Since joining Loughborough London, Sui has been awarded the Delegates’ Choice award of the Poster Competition in 2019 Loughborough University Annual Research Conference and the Delegates’ Choice award of the 3 Minute Theses Competition in 2020 Loughborough University Summer Showcase exampling her consistent creativity skills.

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You can find out more about our Doctoral Researchers on our website.

You can find out more about our PhD research opportunities here. If you are interested in applying for our PhD opportunities, you can visit the ‘How to apply‘ page on our website.