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I joined University of Gloucestershire as a student in 2007 where I completed my BSc (Hons) in Sport and Exercise Science, my MSc in Applied Sport and Exercise Science and my GDip in Psychology.
Alongside my studies I trained as an Applied Sport and Exercise Scientist, providing psychological support to athletes, worked as a Teaching Assistant, supporting children with Special Educational Needs, in a secondary school in Swindon and worked as a Research Assistant at University of Gloucestershire in which I collaborated on numerous health related research projects with external institutions.
I started as a Lecturer in Psychology at University of Gloucestershire in 2021 and became academic course lead for MSc Psychology in 2023. I continue to teach across a variety of undergraduate and postgraduate modules, supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate students and engage in research practice. I recently completed my PhD exploring sense of self and wellbeing in people living with, and beyond, anorexia nervosa using mixed methods.
I teach across a range of modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate level inclusive of:
I also supervise both undergraduate and postgraduate students with their dissertation projects and theses. This is a real passion area of mine, I thoroughly enjoy learning with students and watching them progress into outstanding researchers and academics.
My main research interest is lived experiences, specifically giving a ‘voice’ to marginalised and vulnerable individuals and/or groups (for example, people with lived experience of mental and/or physical health conditions, people who have experienced trauma and/or bereavement and the elderly). I aspire to comprehend the ‘storied realities’ of what it is like to live with an invisible and/or often highly stigmatised condition. Thus, I am an advocate for co-creation, that is, working with people who have lived experience to develop, review and refine resources for real-world practice. I adopt a critical stance in my research encouraging people to challenge accepted societal norms that often fail to appreciate the complex realities of living with such conditions.
A further interest of mine is sense of self (i.e., a person’s understanding of who they are) and how this changes over time. I am particularly interested in exploring sense of self at times of transition, when people might be increasingly vulnerable to self-fragmentation and ill-health (for example, being diagnosed with an illness, witnessing or living through a tragic event, going through the menopause, becoming a parent, retiring from work, having a family member die).
For my PhD, I combined my two areas of interest, taking a lived experience approach to explore sense of self and well-being in people living with and beyond anorexia nervosa.
Beyond this, I am interested in social prescribing (referral to social activities such as art, exercise, or mindful photography as an alternative to medication or traditional therapies), exploring the use of creative methods such as art, photo-elicitation, collaging, poetry or music as complimentary to traditional qualitative approaches. I am also interested in health promotion more broadly and sport psychology which I have a background in.
I am passionate about applied practice and engage in collaborative funding bids and research with organisations/charities etc. I have been a co-researcher on many projects with external collaborators including:
Currently, I am excited to be getting more involved in The Body Project Gloucestershire, a world-leading evidence-based programme which supports prevention of eating disorders and promotes body acceptance.
Publications from Samantha Hughes can be found in the Research Repository.