Role
Dr Mhairi Bowe is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. Mhairi is a Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a teacher of Psychology, and an active researcher. Mhairi lectures in social psychology, community psychology, mental health, and clinical practice on a range of BSc and MSc courses. Mhairi supervises research projects at both undergraduate (BSc) and postgraduate levels (MSc, PhD and DPsych), as well as running a series of tutorials and workshops.
Mhairi leads the postgraduate module Theory and Application to Mental Health which connects students with a series of local and national external partner organisations to engage in consultative community-engaged research. The module contributes to NTU’s Community Engaged Learning programme and TILT group and culminates each year with the MSc Psychological Well-being and Mental Health conference. Mhairi’s community-engaged teaching involves several local organisations including Framework, Operation Orphan, Support for Survivors, the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Refugee Forum, and Nottinghamshire Country Council.
Mhairi is Course Leader for the Doctorate in Forensic Psychology, Lead of the Groups, Identities, and Health Research Group , and an active member of the NTU Social Identity Lab.
Career overview
Mhairi achieved a first class honours degree in psychology at the University of Dundee in 2004. After a working as a research assistant for Prof Fabio Sani on an ESRC funded project exploring perceived collective continuity between 2004 and 2006, Mhairi acquired an MSc in Psychological Research Methods in 2008 before embarking on a PhD.
Mhairi's PhD research focused on the role of places in identity processes and specifically assessed the temporal aspects of place identity and their connections with both social identity and mental health. Mhairi joined NTU in 2010.
Research areas
Mhairi's research is primarily located within social psychology, where she employs both quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore identity processes in relation to collective, personal, and place-related identities and how they interact with health and well-being outcomes within communities and national contexts.
Specific areas of interest include: community belonging, stigma and marginalisation, loneliness and isolation, identity transitions, temporal aspects of identity, and group processes, social issues and health. Mhairi's previous research has focused on national and regional groups, family groups, older adults, migration and detention, and women and men transitioning to parenthood. Mhairi’s current research is focused on the links between social belonging, marginalisation, and collective identity where she employs a ‘social cure’ perspective to explore topics like foodbank use and food poverty, community volunteering and mutual aid, and the effectiveness of social prescribing and loneliness reduction within specific communities. Mhairi’s research involves collaboration and knowledge exchange with NHS, community and voluntary sector, and local and national government partners and organisations.
External activity
Mhairi is an External Examiner at the University of Greenwich, an Associate Fellow and Chartered Member of the British Psychological Society, and Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Mhairi is a reviewer for journals such as the British Journal of Social Psychology, European Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, Political Psychology, and Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin and funding bodies such as the ESRC and Nuffield Foundation.
Mhairi is the Chair of the British Psychological Society's Social Psychology Section.
Sponsors and collaborators
Mhairi has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, the British Psychological Society, the European Association of Social Psychology, Nottinghamshire County Council, and ImROC.
Mhairi collaborates with the following researchers:
NTU Collaborators:
- Dr Juliet Wakefield
- Dr Blerina Kellezi
- Dr Niamh McNamara
- Dr Clifford Stevenson
- Dr Beth Jones
- Dr Lydia Harkin
- Prof John Groeger
- Dr Iain Wilson
- Dr Moon Halder
- Kay Bridger
External Collaborators:
- Prof Fabio Sani (University of Dundee)
- Dr Marina Herrera (University of Valencia)
- Dr Debra Gray (University of Winchester)
- Dr Gillian Shorter (Ulster University)
- Dr Sandra Obradovic (Open University)
- Dr Sebastiano Costa (Università degli studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli)
- Dr Andrew Livingstone (University of Exeter)
- Dr Ronni Greenwood (University of Limerick)
- Aurora Guxholli (University of Helsinki)
Press expertise
Mhairi can be consulted on topics relating to social groups, loneliness and marginalisation, society, health and well-being; social prescribing; volunteering, nature and ecotherapy, place-related identity; transitions to parenthood and the impact on mental health; lived experiences of poverty; and the relationships between time, history, and national identity.
Expertise
- Health and Wellbeing
- Psychology
- Relationships
- Science
- Society