Overview
I have recently transitioned into my 2nd year as a PhD student in the School of Social Sciences (SOCSI), Cardiff University. My PhD is provisionally titled: 'Exploring the Impact and Harms of Online Abuse toward LGB+ Victims'. I am specifically interested in how much hate manifests online and how words/language 'cause' harm. My skills are primarily in statistical analyis and data management techniques. This spans a multitide of analysis techniques, including regression, longitudinal analysis and multi-level modelling. I also have experience in using 'big data'. At present, I am collecting twitter data over Pride month for my second empirical analysis chapter, whilst exploring my interest in factor analysis and how this can be utilised in my first PhD empirical analysis chapter.
I recently undertook a PhD Internship at the Welsh Government working on a project that explored the impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic using the Understanding Society Study.
Research
Research interests
Collaboration Work:
In addition to my PhD, I am currently working on a collaboration project with Luke Hubbard from the LGBT+ anti-violence charity 'Galop'. The project is interlinked with my PhD and is broadly titled: Investigating online abuse toward LGB+ individuals. Luke and I hope this project will contribute an insightful and timely contribution to the emergent field of online hate.
Specifically this project aims to explore:
1. The impact of online hate toward LGB+ individuals
2. The role that Social Media Platforms play in LGB+ Hate Online
3. Offenders of online hate (from victims' perspective)
4. The intersectionality of online hate
5. The response to online hate from Police and Social Media Platforms (from the victims' perspective)
from a UK and European perspective.
Panel Member:
I am currently a member of the Bryman's Social Science Research Methods 'Learn from experience' panel. As a panellist, I have provided my own insights on various aspects of social research methods to help inspire, reassure and guide the readers of the upcoming 6th edition of Bryman's Social Science Research Methods. Some of my comments are featured in the chapters of this bestselling, globally-popular text. I am also the author of the SPSS, R and Stata resources that accompany the book.
Teaching
PGR Tutor 2019-2020
- SI0297 Social Research Methods (Quantitative) (2nd Year)
- SI0268 Criminological Inquiries (1st Year)
- SI0266 Analysing Social Change (3rd Year)
Thesis
Exploring the Prevalence and Harm(s) of Online Hate toward LGB+ Communities
Until recently, research on the prevalence and harms of online abuse toward LGB+ individuals have received scant attention. However, this emergent field appears to be gaining more traction as of late and this project hopes to be an insightful and timely contribution to this changing landscape.
Social media has expanded and transformed society; it has allowed conventionally ‘hard-to-hear’ minority voices gain power and enter mainstream online debate. However, this increased level of exposure comes with a greater risk to the LGBT community; with content published online having the potential to impact suffering beyond the virtual space. Combine this with the fact that a significant amount of hate has migrated to the internet, it is imperative for policy and practice reasons, to understand the impacts of this new mode of online communication.
This dark side of the internet has become an unprecedented arena for hatred. To gain a better understanding of this pernicious social problem, this project will explore the ‘Speak Out’ Survey data. Specifically, through the analysis of the data, the work will investigate the prevalence, impact, manifestation of, and responses to, online hate toward lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB+) individuals. The analysis is anticipated to consist of a range of statistical tests, for example, descriptive statistics, t-tests, regression models and multi-level modelling.
The work will explore the prevalence of online hate toward LGB+ victims, both within the UK and across the EU. Furthermore, it will explore the impact of online hate toward these victims and the manifestation of hate across different social media platforms. Lastly, to contribute to the growing field of governance and regulation of online hate, it will explore the experiences of the response from the police and social media platforms to reporting online hate from the perspective of LGB+ victims.
This project has the potential to find an array of issues – for example, between country variance on impacts of online hate, which could potentially highlight LGB+ oppression and marginalisation in member states.
For further updates on the progress of this project or if you are interested in this research project or have any comments; please contact me via email, Twitter or LinkedIn.
Funding source
ESRC Studentship
Supervisors
Professor Matthew Williams
Chair in Criminology - School of Social Sciences, Director - ESRC Social Data Science Lab, Director - ESRC HateLab