Leanne Weston

Dr Leanne Weston is an IAS Early Career Fellow. She holds BA, MA, and PhD in Film and Television Studies, all undertaken at Warwick. Her CADRE-funded doctoral research, supervised by Professor Rachel Moseley explored music programming, memory, and materiality in post-broadcast screen culture. She is currently working to turn this into a monograph, while expanding her research on television memory and the biopic.

Leanne is a member of the Centre for Television Histories, the Midlands Television Research Group, and the Songwriting Studies Research Network. She is also co-convenor of the BAFTSS Performance and Stardom Special Interest Group with Julie Lobalzo Wright.

Leonello Bazzurro

Leonello completed his PhD in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Warwick in 2021. His thesis explores the work of experimental visual poet Juan Luis Martínez (Chile, 1942 – 1993). By drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of the assemblage, Leonello analyses Martínez’s conception of the book as an assembled intermedia artwork (i.e. “artists’ book”) and his use of appropriation methods to critique individual authorship and copyrights. More broadly, Leonello is interested in the political potential of contemporary Latin-American art and literature – in particular, visual poetry, performance art, artists’ books, mail art and digital poetry.

Sabera Bhayat

I am a cultural and social historian of Modern South Asia. My doctoral research intervenes in the history of sexuality in colonial India. I explain why and how different groups framed polygamy as a Muslim problem over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by which the 'problem of Muslim polygamy' was consolidated as a social common sense of Muslim marriage and sexuality. Through a close reading of primary literature in English, Urdu and Hindi, my research examines how 'Muslim polygamy' became a site on which identities were formed and power structures reconfigured through the social governance of bodily practices. My research interests include gender, sexuality, intersectional feminism and Islam in South Asia and Britain.

Rhiannon Brooks

"My doctoral research focussed on elucidating the molecular interactions between highly-curved biological lipid membranes and proteins that sense this curvature. This work is a first step to understanding how the membrane morphology can be a unique target in itself, separate from receptors embedded within, and has implications in industrial biotechnology areas of antimicrobial development and drug transport. As an early career fellow, I intend to publish at least one more paper from my PhD and establish new interdisciplinary collaborations in order to extend my work to in-vivo studies."

Marion Coumel

Marion Coumel is an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies working in the Psychology department at the University of Warwick. She recently submitted her thesis in which she used a phenomenon called "syntactic priming" (i.e., the tendency of speakers to repeat each others' syntax) to examine the psycholinguistic processes supporting the acquisition of second language syntactic knowledge for language production. Her goal is to understand the theoretical psycholinguistic mechanisms underlying bilingual language processing and second language learning and to use this knowledge to inform language learning and teaching practices. Marion has previously studied Cognitive Science at McGill University and at the universities of Vienna and Zagreb.

Scott Dwyer

Scott Dwyer undertook his PhD in the biological control of Varroa mite, an ectoparasitic mite that feeds on honey bees, looking at using entomopathogenic fungi to control them. His main research interests lie within insect pathology, biocontrol and insect behaviour. He is fascinated by the ’little things that run the world’.

He believes we have a duty to inform the public of misconceptions, inspire the next generation and help pass on our wonder to others beyond our academia bubble and has been involved in a variety of outreach & engagement events. He deeply cares about removing barriers to careers in STEM for under represented groups.

As an early career fellow within the IAS, he plans to publish his research from his PhD thesis, as well as explore potential future research topics within the remit of his interests.

Eli Gemegah

Eli Gemegah’s passion and interests lie bringing marginalised voices and experiences to the forefront to make positive changes to students’ lives in school settings and within the wider community. Eli’s research examined Black parents’ lived experiences of autism in the UK, highlighting contextual, experiential and psychological factors that influence parents’ wellbeing.

Eli’s research raises awareness of the intersectionality of autism experiences: contextual and systemic factors such as ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status. Such diversity produced findings that can be transferred and generalised to a wider UK population and begin dialogue that addresses transnational and global issues, while providing a framework to address government policies and funding for services.

Erika Herrera Rosales

My doctoral research looked at the implications of the social relationships between humanitarian organisations and migrants from Northern Central America (i.e. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras). Specifically, my research examined the complex practices, roles and interrelationships of non-governmental organisations in Mexico as they interact and participate directly in migrants’ journeys and experiences. During the IAS fellowship, I intend to explore my broader research interests that include immigration detention, everyday bordering and the racialization of Global South migrants.

Daniel Mensah

Daniel is an Early Career Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, working at the Warwick Medical School Division of Health Sciences. He recently completed his PhD thesis which employed a mixed methods design to explore how emerging adults interact with the university food environment and how this in turn shapes food behaviours and the environmental sustainability of their diets.

Daniel’s research interests lie at the intersection of the socio-behavioural aspects of eating, health, and sustainable development. As an Early Career Fellow, he aims to expand on the findings of his PhD thesis and consolidate his research career. Daniel is part of the EATEx study team, a cross-disciplinary group at the University of Warwick developing a digital intervention to improve wellbeing and reduce loneliness among students via social eating.

Melissa Pawelski

Melissa’s thesis entitled ‘Languages of Punishment. Translating Michel Foucault’s Surveiller et punir into English and French’ examined one of the French philosopher’s most influential writings in translation. Her research therefore sits at the intersection of modern languages, translation, social theory, and philosophy. Melissa is especially interested in the challenges that arise when translating concepts. As an IAS Early Career Fellow, Melissa works on publishing her research, developing a postdoctoral project, and guest-editing a special issue entitled ‘The Effect of Plurality in Translation’ with Exchanges, Warwick’s peer-reviewed and interdisciplinary journal based at IAS.

Avis Tam

Avis recently completed her PhD, ‘Impact of Leader Identity on Leadership Development:

the Role of Leader Future Work Self (LFWS), Implicit Self Theories (IST)/Implicit Leadership Theories (ILT) Congruence and Gender’, at Warwick Business School. Investigating this topic from comparisons of the self with a future and ideal leader perspective, her research fills the gap in understanding the role of leader identity in individuals’ pursuit of leadership development and leadership more broadly. Going forwards, her plan is to further extend the research of LFWS in different national context and industries (such as entrepreneurship and healthcare sectors).

Anjana Wijesekara

I recently submitted my PhD thesis on “Electrode and Interface Materials for Tin Perovskite Photovoltaics” supervised by Prof. Ross Hatton in the Department of Chemistry. My work is based on fabricating low-cost, air stable solar cells using highly abundant low-cost materials. Prior to my doctoral studies I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate studies in Sri Lanka. I have published 4 papers during my PhD in respected journals with 2 first author papers. I have also taught in the Department of Chemistry in Warwick and in Sri Lanka. My current work is focused on enhancing the stability of tin based perovskite photovoltaics towards oxidation in air.