Sergio A. Silverio

Biography

I am an academic Psychologist with a research interest in women’s mental health over the lifecourse. I first read for a Masters in Psychological Sciences at the University of Liverpool, where I specialised in Clinical and Health Psychology. My work at the University of Liverpool focused on key life transitions such as pregnancy, motherhood, and widowhood. During this work, I developed an interest in Lifecourse Analysis and qualitative methods and was trained in Grounded Theory – a methodology I later employed to analyse my thesis data. This work explored the experiences of never married older women’s gender identity and social networks and attracted critical acclaim from my learned academy: The British Psychological Society.

Since graduating, I have worked within various academic departments, most notably as a Research Assistant in Qualitative Methods at the University College London’s Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health where I am now an Honorary Research Fellow, a Research Assistant in Qualitative Analysis of Women’s Health at the Department of Women & Children’s Health at King’s College London, and now as a Research Associate in Social Science of Women’s Health. Most recently, I have been made an Honorary Fellow at the University of Liverpool’s Department of Psychological Sciences, where I first trained as a Psychologist, and have read for a Master’s in Psychological and Psychiatric Anthropology, completing a thesis entitled: ‘Anxiety and the Antenatal Clinic’.

As an academic Psychologist, most of my research focuses on the qualitative experience of women’s identity changes over the lifecourse. I adopt a critical female psychology lens, which enables me to focus on and the psychological, social, and emotional impacts caused by these key life transitions. Having worked on various research projects, with mainly qualitative data, I have become an experienced qualitative researcher with particular expertise in in-depth interviewing on sensitive topics and inductive analytical methodologies. I hold national and international collaborations, as well as having enjoyed recent success in attracting grant funding; publishing in international, peer-reviewed journals; and writing a series of invited book chapters. The research I undertake feeds directly into the lecturing and supervision I provide, having newly developed a Qualitative Research Seminar Series and successfully seeing MSc theses through to completion.