Professor Bryony Hoskins (lead)
Professor Bryony Hoskins has a chair in Comparative Social Science at the University of Roehampton. She is a world-leading expert on citizenship education specialising in inequalities and political socialisation across Europe and the Middle East. Her latest book is on Education, Democracy and Inequality: Political Engagement and Citizenship Education in Europe and is published by Palgrave Macmillan.
Christy Traore (co-lead)
Khuyen Dinh
Natalia López-Hornickel
Natalia López-Hornickel is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Roehampton and a PhD candidate in Advanced Quantitative Methods at the University of Bath, funded by the South-West Doctoral Training Partnership (ESRC). She holds a Master’s in Research in Advanced Quantitative Methods, a Master’s in Sociology, a Diploma in the Intersectional Approach to Gender and Public Policies, and a degree in Sociology. With over nine years of research experience in Chile and the UK, her work focuses on attitudes towards gender equity, employing advanced statistical techniques to analyse large-scale educational assessment data. She has participated in educational research projects across Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.
As part of the G-EPIC project (Gender Empowerment through Politics in Classrooms), she participates as Quantitative Researcher, responsible for the design and statistical analysis of a co-constructed pilot intervention in the UK. Her contributions include the quantitative evaluation and production of research outputs to inform education policy and practice in the areas of gender and citizenship.
Afsana Hamidy
Afsana Hamidyis a Research Assistant at the University of Roehampton. She holds dual Master’s degrees: in International Child Rights and Development from King’s College London, and in SEND and Inclusive Education from the University of Roehampton. Afsana is a qualitative researcher with interests in social exclusion—particularly in the contexts of migration and education—the sociology of education, social justice in education, and children's rights. In 2023, her MA dissertation at the University of Roehampton, on the experiences of school headteachers in welcoming Afghan evacuees and the implications for UK schools enrolling Afghan children in the future, was awarded distinction and received the Outstanding Dissertation Prize.
As part of the G-EPIC (Gender Empowerment through Politics in the Classroom) project, Afsana co-leads the development of educational toolkits for teachers and students for the five-week G-EPIC intervention. She has conducted classroom-based research, including observations, interviews, and focus groups. Afsana also contributes to the dissemination of the intervention among schools and policymakers and delivers training and workshops for teachers on the five-week G-EPIC intervention.
Sofia Ferrer
Sofia Ferrer is a Research Assistant at the University of Roehampton. She holds dual Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include incarceration, digital media, social and economic inequalities, minority rights, and education.
Sofia is primarily involved in the STRIDE Project, where she has led a systematic review examining the effectiveness of early childhood education policies in reducing educational inequalities between children facing intersectional disadvantages and their more affluent peers. Additionally, she has conducted a qualitative analysis of the Sure Start early childhood education initiative, incorporating a media analysis and interviews with key policymakers involved in the program’s design and dissemination.
As part of the G-EPIC Project, Sofia has contributed to the development of civic learning tools for students and has conducted classroom-based research, including observations, interviews, and focus groups.
Kimberly Olden
Kimberly Olden is a Visiting lecturer and a PhD student at Roehampton University. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology from Roehampton University and a Master of Arts degree in Migration and Diaspora Studies from SOAS University of London. Her research interest includes social justice, immigration and migration, and political justice and equality.
Kimberly is primarily involved in the G-epic project where she assists in conducting research for the project. This work involved conducting teacher and student interviews and focus groups and undertaking class observations of the classes involved in the G-Epic intervention.
Yiyan Shi
Dr Athina Mara
Dr Athina Mara is a Lecturer in Strategy and Social Policy at the University of Roehampton (London, UK). Athina is an experienced qualitative researcher with strong collaborations with various consortiums on several European and International research projects, NGOs, and civic society.
As part of the G-EPIC project, Athina is the co-leader of Work package WP3 – Observing Classroom Dynamics: in-depth, multi-method. Athina has conducted field work, qualitative design and analysis for the intervention and pilot intervention phases of Work package WP5 – Gender Empowerment in Classrooms: a school design-based research intervention. Athina has worked as a postdoctoral research associate for the Measuring Life Skill & Citizenship Education (LSCE) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).
Her research focuses on sociology, social policy, gender, (in) equalities, citizenship, and integration in EU societies. In 2022 her doctorate dissertation on same-sex parenting rights, socio-legal attitudes, and revendications in Greece was awarded with cum laude distinctions from the Department of Social Policy of Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences (Athens, Greece).
Irma Malafronte
Dr Markieta Domecka
Dr Markieta Domecka is a Sociologist working as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehampton Business School. She specialises in qualitative research methods and mix-method research design. She studies inequality and social inclusion through the lens of intersectionality of class, gender and ethnicity. She previously worked in several ERC and FP7 projects. Her work appeared in Human Relations; Work, Employment and Society; Cambridge Journal of Economics; British Journal of Industrial Relations; International Labour Review, and Gender, Place & Culture, and Italian Journal of Sociology of Education. She recently published a book (co-authored with Valeria Pulignano) on The Politics of Unpaid Labour: How the study of unpaid labour can help address inequality in precarious work, by Oxford University Press.
