Dr Louisa Donald: Principle Investigator

I am a Chartered Psychologist within the British Psychological Society (BPS), with a background in the health and developmental divisions. Over the years I have become increasingly passionate about sustainable fashion on a personal level, which sparked my interest in fashion psychology within my teaching and research. I was therefore delighted to receive funding from Research England’s Participatory Research fund in order to carry out a study in collaboration with Keech Hospice Care, exploring perceptions and experiences of charity shops in relation to community, sustainability and fast fashion.

View Louisa's profile

Professor Ann Weatherall: Co-Principle Investigator

Professor Ann Weatherall is an associate investigator on the project. As a social psychologist she is interested broadly in understanding how sustainable communities work and can be supported. Her role in this project is leading a video study of the service encounters in Keech Chairty shops. The aim is to discover the ways sustainability is supported through the social interactions between servers and customers.

View Ann's profile

Dr Erica Cook: Co- Principle Investigator

View Erica's profile

Amy Ridge: Research Assistant and Dissemination Officer

I’m a MSc by research student at the University and work with academics across a few different projects to support their research. I have a keen interest in fashion and consumerism and have enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone with this project. My role for the project consists of attending fieldwork and ensuring ethics are adhered to, facilitating interviews, photography of apparel, transcription, analysis of data and assisting in dissemination. This role has enabled me to develop my confidence, and I have found it super interesting learning about discourse analysis!

James Fake: Research Assistant

Hi, I'm James, and I joined this research project initially to help with the technical and practical needs of recording interactions in the charity shops themselves. My previous experience of video recording and editing, and my interest in naturalistic qualitative data and its analysis, put me in a what I hoped was a good position to offer that help. Following initial data collection I have been helping with making clips and basic transcription, as well as supporting as best I can with analysis at our bi-weekly in person research meetings. It's a fascinating topic with new concepts and theories constantly popping up, and it's a beautiful data set to work with (If I do say so myself!) that I look forward to continue working with throughout this research and in the future.

Ashleigh Fraser: Research Assistant

My name is Ashleigh Fraser, I am in my second year of my PhD at the University of Bedfordshire, where I am heavily involved in other research projects as well as teaching. My recent role in the charity research project has given me the opportunity to gain experience in collecting data through mini questionnaires and interviews, as well as transcribing data though conversation analysis. This has given me the confidence and experience which will follow through in my own transcribing and analysis during my own research project.This project has allowed me to develop certain skills such as teamwork, communication skills, and building on my analytical skills, which has given me the confidence to apply these not only in my own research, but also in everyday life too.The team are amazing, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this project.

Tallulah-Blue Reay: Research Assistant