Craft Your Thesis

This thesis presents an Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis study of former prisoner's experiences of school exclusion and trajectories into offending and imprisonment. All participants were Black Caribbean men who received SEN support during their schooling and experienced a form of alternative provision post-exclusion. Consequent to participants' difficulty fitting into mainstream education there was a unanimous sense of relief from being permanently excluded. The participants acknowledged that this event was a critical turning point in their lives that contributed to their exposure to crime. Growing up as one of the only Black pupils in their schools and neighbourhoods, racism and discrimination were a regular part of their early lives. As they grew older and interacted with police and prison officers, they appeared to accept and normalise this without challenge. This study provides stakeholders with recommendations to support Black Caribbean pupils permanently excluded from school to help prevent a school-to-prison-pipeline from occurring.

This research aims to identify if forensically relevant insects can be used to identify an offender (if biologically male) within fatal rape and serious sexual assault investigations. The first objective is to assess how long semen will persist on decomposing cadavers. The second objective is to analyse if blowfly larvae present on a cadaver will consume semen and subsequently identify if a DNA profile from sperm cells within their gut content can be obtained.

A slice of evolution: frogs, eggs and edited DNA, it’s not just desert… it’s science!

Rare genetic diseases are estimated to affect 300 million people worldwide and caused by changes that occur in DNA. Currently, rare genetic diseases are difficult to diagnose due to lack of evidence supporting the disease-gene link. This is problematic because 30% of undiagnosed children die before their 5th birthday. To address this global challenge evidence can be obtained from model organisms, like the Western Clawed Frog. In this system, it’s possible to recreate human gene changes by injecting gene-editing constructs (alongside a red tracer dye) into frog eggs. Development of these eggs into tadpoles can be followed and changes compared to the disease presentation in humans. My project focuses on understanding a neurological disorder caused by changes to the gene, FAM177A1. An important element of this work is collaboration bringing together scientists, bioinformaticians and clinicians.

My research examines discourses and perceptions of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) in national British newspapers. ME is an invisible, chronic, neurological condition affecting more than 404,000 individuals in the UK alone. As ME is an invisible illness, I wanted to represent linguistically many of the unseen symptoms that individuals with ME experience every day. ME is an underfunded and misunderstood condition, and many living with ME have experienced stigmatisation and disbelief surrounding their physical symptoms from friends, family members, and medical professionals. One of the aims of my research is to draw more attention to this condition and people living with it. Through constructing a garment covered in common ME symptoms, I hope to give some visibility back to those of us living with this invisible illness.

My thesis considers the contribution of women to the study and culture of ferns, pteridology, across the long nineteenth century, rehabilitating women’s extensive and wide-ranging scientific work on ferns. 

An important group of women pteridologists were those who collected ferns around the world. My Craft Your Thesis entry is a crochet doll of Maria Graham, the earliest woman fern collector featured in my thesis, who collected ferns in Brazil in the 1820s which she sent back to the botanist William Jackson Hooker, who became the first Director of Kew Gardens. Graham is an incredibly important figure in the history of women pteridologists. At a time when few women travelled, Graham was alone in Brazil and became an expert on the ferns of South America. 

This doll is adapted from a pattern by @amourfou_crochet and depicts Graham as she appears in a portrait from 1819 which is held at Chawton House.

My research considers the changing role of public libraries, focusing on Portsmouth’s Public Library service since its inception in 1883. Public libraries today are often seen as welcoming, community spaces, designed to be open to all – but this is not always how they were seen, with stories of early public libraries imposing strict rules under the watchful librarian.  

The research will debate to what extent the role and purpose of the public library has changed, and explore periods in which this role shifts, either because of the influence of stakeholders managing the service, or as a result of the way in which the public made use of the library. It will give focus to the history of library users, consider challenges the service has faced, from war to Covid-19, and debate which social, cultural, and political factors have impacted the service.

The clay creations represent findings from my research comparing mutual gaze and emotion in infant chimpanzees and humans. In my study, I analyzed natural interactions across various socioecological human and chimpanzee groups. Across both species, positive emotions were closely linked to moments of mutual gaze. My attempt with the clay sculptures gazing at each other, is a playful way to show the emotional connection we share with other primates from an early age. Despite my lack of artistic ability, it reflects a real pattern that the study showed: Mutual gaze is a meaningful form of communication that may be deeply rooted in our shared evolutionary history.

This research is aimed at girls between 13-17 years of age and their families to highlight online safety issues and what it means to be a girl in the online world. Using feminism and anti-feminism approach and online safety bills and guidance. Could young girls be safe online – how and why are the dangers prevailing still – who should be accountable so far for these dangers. There has been no research in this area to date. Ofcom recently released their draft guidance in accordance with the Online Safety Act of 2023 to outline measures for tech giants such as Google and Meta. When a young girl logs on to her Insta, Facebook or Snapchat can she be assured that the safety of her clicks will be in place rather than pre-determined code alarming her of how to be in body image and identity, what to buy who to see or are these her choice when a sense of independence means everything to her.

With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now observing the most distant galaxies ever seen, we need powerful tools to understand what it's showing us. My research focuses on creating realistic “mock” observations of galaxies using computer simulations. By modelling how light from stars and black holes travels through gas and dust in the Universe, I generate synthetic data that mimics what JWST sees. This allows us to test our theories of how galaxies form and evolve by directly comparing them to real observations. So, I thought it was fitting to create a 'mock' version of the JWST to help visualize my PhD thesis!

My research challenges the universality of global comfort standards like European and American models, which are based on temperate, high-income settings. I tested their relevance in tropical low-income housing by studying Earth and Makeshift dwellings in southern Nigeria. Inspired by a scatterplot from my research, this mixed-media sculpture depicts key research findings. The driftwood inspired by upward regression line represents Earth dwellings, which are more solid, thermally insulated and comfortable. The shells and netting inspired by scattered data points and grid, symbolise Makeshift dwellings which are more porous, and less comfortable. The wooden fork and spoon inspired by the plot axis reflects the low-income setting, with many occupants feeling satisfied in indoor temperature conditions that exceeded international limits. This sculpture therefore reflects the adaptive nature of thermal comfort and advocates for standards that reflect local context and climate, in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

My novel takes testimonies of abuse victims and retells them through fantasy fiction. By setting those stories within magical worlds and turning abusers into mythical monsters, distance is created between the reader and this difficult subject. This sculpture is a visualisation of the following testimony from The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (Jaye), 2022, p.51. “Victims and survivors repeatedly said that there were clear physical signs that they were being sexually abused as children. They reported bleeding, swelling and pain. Often no one appeared to notice these visible signs or recognise that they could indicate sexual abuse. May was sexually abused in the 2000s and the 2010s. One day at primary school she told a staff member that she was bleeding from her bottom and that a man had hurt her. The staff member cleaned May up but did not take any further action.