Background

With influences from anthropology, biology, psychology, and philosophy, Martha’s research is inter-disciplinary. She uses psychological techniques and her anthropological training to answer questions relevant to scientists and social scientists alike. Her research and consultancy practice is guided by the themes of social cohesion, ritual, and belonging. Her primary focus is on the rituals underlying social cohesion and the ensuing cooperation and conflict emerging from tightly bonded groups.

While some self-sacrificial acts are beneficial to society, e.g. charitable donations or giving blood, others have distinctly hostile implications, e.g. sectarian or gang violence. Over the last nine years she has investigated football ‘tribes’ across four continents. Her doctoral thesis was the first to analyse a particularly powerful form of group bonding - identity fusion - among football fans, including Brazilian and British football fans and ‘hooligans’. Martha is now developing intervention strategies that use football and other sports as a platform to (a) increase social cohesion, (b) reduce reoffending rates in prisons, and (c) reduce violence. Her other research strands include work on women’s reproductive health in prison, psychedelics, the effects of the pandemic on wellbeing, and racism.

Education

Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology
University of Oxford
Anthropology, DPhil (PhD), 2017

University of Oxford
Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology (MSc), 2013

University of Sussex
Human Sciences (BSc Hons.)

Grants

• Future Leaders Fellowship (PI: Righting Recidivism), UKRI - £877,189 (2020-24)

• Plus Funds (PI: The Groups Network), FLF Development Network - £21,976

• Returning Carer’s Fund, Univ Oxford - £2574 (2019)

• Writing Up Bursary, Univ. Oxford - £1500 (2017)

• John Templeton Foundation sub-grant (co-PI), Univ Oxford - £32,000 (2014)

• ESRC graduate studentship award, Univ Oxford - £1,999 (2014)

• St Cross ESRC Scholarship, Univ Oxford - £85,894 (2013)

• Chancellor’s Scholarship, Univ Sussex - £4,000 (2007)

Teaching

Martha is actively engaged in teaching and has led lectures, research groups, seminars, and workshops at the Universities of Oxford, Kent, and Greenwich. She has also given talks for public engagement events at science and wellbeing festivals, local schools, and for international audiences.

Having been diagnosed with dyslexia only while completing her Masters at Oxford, Martha is passionate about inclusion in education, particularly with regards to women in higher education. Martha also has a background in teaching English as a foreign language and has taught teenagers and adults from across the world in the UK, Spain, and Viet Nam.

Qualifications

University of Oxford
Associate Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Language Link International
CELTA