Role
Hannah is a researcher in the School of Social Sciences. Hannah is currently working on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project “Name stories: experiences of names & naming in adoptive family life”.
Career overview
Hannah completed her PhD in the geography department at Loughborough University in 2012, focusing on international student mobility for the purpose of a work placement. Hannah was then a qualitative researcher on the European Union funded project entitled “POCARIM”. This project mapped the population, careers, mobilities and impacts of advanced research degree graduates in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Hannah joined the School of Social Sciences at Nottingham Trent University in 2021, working on the British Academy funded project ‘Say my name’, examining student and staff experiences of name (mis)pronunicaiton in Higher education. Following on from this project, Hannah worked on research exploring long term trends in name changes through enrolled deed polls. Hannah now works on the Leverhulme Trust-funded project “Name stories: experiences of names & naming in adoptive family life”, focusing on personal names and identities
Research areas
Hannah’s research interests include:
- The pronunciation of students' names in higher education
- Names and naming in adoption
- International student mobility
- International student experiences
- Academic mobility and knowledge networks
- Research methods
External activity
Hannah volunteers for Sure Start children centre services in the East Midlands. Here she has completed several research projects reviewing service provisions and user experiences. Hannah is also a trained peer support worker in maternal mental health services.
Publications
Pilcher, J. and Deakin-Smith, H. (2022) ‘Say My Name Right!: The Pronunciation of Students’ Names in Higher Education’, Everyday Society, British Sociological Association, 29 September.
Other publications can be found here: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6280-1397