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Dr Emma Langley

Job Title
Assistant Professor
Department
Education Studies
Phone
024 7652 2160
Research Interests

Learning disabilities; autism; parental well-being; family systems; paternal mental health; social care outcomes of disabled adults (quality of life; relationships; independence); sexuality and disability; research with non-verbal children; inclusion; Special Educational Needs; early years/childhood.

Research

I am an interdisciplinary academic with a background in education, psychology, and early years. My main research interest is understanding and reducing inequality for disabled people and their families, employing mixed methods. My doctoral work focused on exploring the well-being of parental caregivers of children with learning disabilities and/or autism. My research aims to have a positive and tangible impact, and is often in collaboration with other academics, charities, disabled people, and family members.

Impact and engagement

I am very interested in sharing my work and collaborating with those at the focus of my research. During my Postdoctoral Fellowship, I created the 'Dads of Disabled Children Research Advisory Group' for fathers of children with disabilities in the local area. Together, the group co-created a range of online video resources for other fathers to support their well-being.

I am a Foundation Fellow of the Warwick Institute of Engagement and have previously been invited to discuss my work on paternal mental health at the ESRC Festival of Social Science, and co-present research related to disability and sexuality to a general public audience at the British Academy in London.

Biography

I joined the Department for Education Studies as an Assistant Professor in January 2021. Prior to this I worked at the university as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. I have also worked as a Teaching Fellow in Early Childhood and Social Studies/Health & Social Policy in the Centre for Lifelong Learning (CLL).

In 2014, I was awarded funding by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to undertake a PhD in Education and Psychology in collaboration with the charity Cerebra. This involved working on the Cerebra 1000 Families Study, the largest longitudinal study of parental caregivers of children with learning disabilities and/or autism in the UK.

Education

PhD Education and Psychology. University of Warwick
MEd Psychology of Education. University of Manchester
BA (Hons) Early Childhood Studies. University of Warwick

Title Funder Award start Award end
Understanding and supporting the psychological wellbeing of fathers of children with Intellectual Disability (ID) (Postdoc Fellowship - Emma Langley) ESRC 01 Oct 2019 31 Jul 2021