Dr Anastasia Vikhanova
Teaching Fellow in Psychosis Studies
Contact details
Biography
Anastasia joined IoPPN Department of Psychosis Studies at KCL in 2023 after working as a Teaching Fellow in Psychology at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). She has completed her PhD Psychology at QMUL in 2022, as well as BSc Psychology (2017) and MSc Clinical Mental Health Sciences (2018) at University College London (UCL).
Her current research interest focuses broadly on physical and mental health inequality and discrimination within two streams. The first stream follows her PhD project on cognitive biases, mental health and discrimination in refugees and ethnic minority migrants, whereby her work highlighted the need for decolonisation of psychological research and its expansion to testing ethnic minority participants on a spectrum of cognitive biases, which currently form the basis of several psychological theories and therapies. The second stream explores people from low socio-economic background living in almshouses, their peculiar live expectancy extension linked to community living, and the impacts of community living on mental and physical health in elderly low income individuals.
Research Interests:
- Mental health inequality
- Discrimination
- Migration
- Cognitive biases
- Health psychology
Teaching:
Anastasia is currently teaching on Introduction to Applied Statistical Methods and Early Intervention in Psychosis Research Methods modules, as well as supervising master’s dissertation projects on MSc Mental Health Sciences.
Expertise and Public Engagement:
Anastasia has spent several years working in a charity sector (Refugee Council), where she developed an expertise working with asylum seekers and refugees. She still maintains close working relationship with the organisation and advises on Russia-Ukraine War refugees.
In line with her almshouse research, Anastasia actively collaborates with the Almshouse Association – the largest charity supporting almshouses across the UK, and St Saviour United Charity. She often speaks on almshouses’ positive impact on physical and mental health at public events, as well as a recent report Anastasia co-authored has been featured in the media, such as pieces in the Guardian (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/may/22/almshouse-residents-may-live-up-to-two-and-a-half-years-longer-study-finds) and the Financial Times (https://www.ft.com/content/a63bf568-53e5-4020-98f7-9ae34d526232).
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