Dr Julia Pearce
Research Associate
Room K7.05
Department of War Studies
Strand Campus
London WC2R 2LS
Email: julia.pearce@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)207 848 7282
Areas of interest
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Risk and crisis communication
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CBRN Terrorism
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Intergroup conflict and prejudice
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Social and national identity
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Social representations
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Moral panic
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Media influence
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Applied social psychology
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Quantitative and qualitative research methodology
Biography
Dr Julia Pearce is a Research Associate in the Department of War Studies. In this role she has successfully delivered two international, cross-disciplinary European Commission projects (PIRATE and CIE Toolkit), managed the set-up of the EC PRACTICE project and is currently working on the planning, execution and analysis of stakeholder events for the Resilient Futures project, which is funded by the EPSRC/ESRC as part of the RCUK Global Uncertainties Programme. Additionally she has designed and convened an MA module Social Dimensions of Terrorism and co-convenes an MA accredited professional development course Preventing Violent Radicalisation. She also contributes to the MA in Terrorism, Security and Society. Her research interests include risk and crisis communication, social and national identity, social representations and moral panic. She is particularly interested in the impact of perceived moral, cultural and health threats on behaviour. Her PhD thesis critically investigated the concept of moral panic in relation to the UK response to asylum seekers and considered how social psychological theory could be used to understand the cause, content, spread and impact of this type of response. Her recent research uses qualitative and quantitative methods to examine factors and develop/test interventions that impact on public levels of knowledge and intention to perform protective health behaviours before, during and after major public health incidents.
Current research
Julia is currently working on the social sciences stream of ‘Resilient Futures’, an EPSRC/ESRC funded multi-institution interdisciplinary research project which considers the resilience of the UK’s future energy and transport infrastructure to natural and malicious threats. This project will deliver a) fresh perspectives on how the inter-relations amongst our critical infrastructure sectors impact on current and future UK resilience, b) a state-of-the-art integrated social science/engineering methodology that can be generalised to address different sectors and scenarios, and c) an interactive demonstrator simulation that operationalises resilience for key stakeholders and decision makers (including government, emergency services and national infrastructure managers). The social sciences work stream will use the simulation model as an instrument for eliciting greater understanding of infrastructural resilience from relevant stakeholders in a series of events and participatory focus groups. This will encourage a step change in stakeholders’ understanding of UK infrastructure and its interdependencies, and their ability to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience now and in the future. More information about this project is available at http://r-futures.ecs.soton.ac.uk.
Selected publications and conference papers
Peer reviewed journal articles
PEARCE, J.M., Rubin, G.J, Selke, P., Amlôt, R, Mowbray, F. and Rogers, M.B. (2013) Communicating with the public following radiological terrorism: Results from a series of vignette-based focus groups and national surveys in Britain and Germany. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, 28(2): 110-119.
Rubin, G.J., Amlôt, R., Page, L., PEARCE, J. and Wessely, S. (2012) Assessing Perceptions AbouT Hazardous Substances: The PATHS questionnaire. Journal of Health Psychology [epub ahead of print]
PEARCE, J.M., Rubin, G.J., Amlôt, R., Wessely, S. and Rogers, M.B. (2012) Communicating public health advice following a chemical spill: Results from national surveys in the UK and Poland. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness [epub ahead of print]
PEARCE, J.M. and Charman, E. (2011) A social psychological approach to understanding moral panic. Crime, Media, Culture, 7(3): 293-311
PEARCE, J.M. and Stockdale, J.E. (2009) UK responses to the asylum issue: a comparison of lay and expert views. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 19 (2): 142-155.
Other publications
Rogers, M.B. and PEARCE, J.M. (forthcoming) The Psychology of Crisis Communication. In M. Löffelholz, A. Schwarz and M.W. Seeger (Eds) The Handbook of International Crisis Communication Research. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [Drs. Rogers and Pearce contributed equally to this paper]
Rogers, M.B. and PEARCE, J.M. (2013) Risk communication, risk perception and behaviour as foundations of effective national security practices. In B. Akhgar and S. Yates (Eds.) Strategic Intelligence Management. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Inc.
Critcher, C. and PEARCE, J (2013) A missing dimension: The social psychology of moral panics. In C. Krinsky (Ed.) The Ashgate Research Companion to Moral Panic. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Group.
Griffiths, M., Amlôt, R., Carter, H., Riley P., Szosland, D., Merecz, D., Thorstensson, M., Sandström, B., Eriksson, H., Baka, A., Riza, E., Rogers, B., PEARCE, J., Drogendijk, A., Gouweloos, J. and Duarte-Davidson, R. (2012) Public health response to chemical incident emergencies. Chemical Hazards and Poisons Report, Issue 21.The Centre for Radiation, Chemical and Environmental Hazards of the Health Protection Agency.
Rogers, M.B, PEARCE, J.M., Amlôt, R., Rubin, G.J., Wessely, S. and Krieger, K. (2010) Communicating with the public about CBRN Terrorism. Magazine for National Safety & Security and Crisis Management. The Directorate General for Public Safety and Security of the Netherlands Ministry of the Interior.
Conference papers
PEARCE, J. (2013) Human factors in critical national infrastructure resilience. Counter Terror Expo, Olympia London, 24-25 April 2013
PEARCE, J. (2012) Communicating with the public following a chemical spill: A comparison of practitioner expectations and public intentions in the UK and Poland. SRA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, 9-12 December 2012.
PEARCE, J. and Rogers, B. (2012) The role of human factors in enhancing current and future resilience of critical national infrastructure. SRA Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California, 9-12 December 2012.
PEARCE, J., Krieger, K. and Rogers, B. (2012) Towards a resilient future: the role of energy and transport managers in enhancing infrastructure resilience. Themes in Emergency Planning, Response and Recovery (EM12) conference, Nottingham Conference Centre, 13 Nov 2012.
Krieger, K., PEARCE, J. and Rogers, B. (2012) Preparedness and resilience against CBRN terrorism – moving beyond risk perception to make sense of public behaviour. Themes in Emergency Planning, Response and Recovery (EM12) conference, Nottingham Conference Centre, 13 Nov 2012.
PEARCE, J.M. (2012) Crisis communication following CBRN terrorism. Counter Terror Expo, Olympia London, 25-26 April 2012
PEARCE, J and Rogers, M.B. (2011) ‘I’ll just pop to the shop’: The role of risk and crisis communication in enhancing public compliance with health advice during a chemical incident emergency. Annual Conference: Fire Related Research and Developments (RE11),Fire Service College, Moreton-in-Marsh, 17-18 November, 2011.
Rogers, M.B. and PEARCE, J. (2011) Risk Management and Communication for Chemical Incidents and Emergencies. CIE Toolkit Pilot workshop, Athens, 5-6 April, 2011.
PEARCE, J. and Charman, E. (2010) Asylum seekers in the UK: A social psychological understanding of a moral panic. Moral Panics in the Contemporary World conference, Brunel University, 10-12 December 2010.
PEARCE, J., Mowbray, F., Selke, P., Amlôt, R., Rogers, B., Rubin, J., Wessely, S., Renn, O., and Simpson, J. (2010) The PIRATE Project: Public Information and Responses After Terrorist Events. HPA Health Protection 2010 conference, University of Warwick, 14-15 September, 2010.
PEARCE, J and Charman, E. (2008) Perceptions of ‘Britishness’: asylum seeker and refugee experiences in the UK. CRONEM Annual Conference: ‘Nationalism, Ethnicity and Citizenship: Whose Citizens? Whose Rights?’, University of Surrey, 30 June - 1 July 2008.