Ustinov Travel Awards Conference Report 4

By Isla Dougall

The Ustinov Travel Award helped with costs that allowed me to attend the European Association for Social Psychology and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues conference hosted by the London School of Economics. This conference took place over three days from 30th June to 2nd July 2022. The conference was centred around “Society in the Classroom” and aimed to integrate perspectives on how socioeconomic disparities unfold in educational settings.

The conference was structured to run through the years of education from primary school through to secondary school and higher education. A brilliant variety of research was shared by researchers from around Europe and the USA. On the final day, I presented my work on “Social class and wellbeing among staff and students in Higher Education settings: Mapping the problem and exploring underlying mechanisms.” This provided me with a fantastic opportunity to share my work with others and their feedback allowed me to consider different perspectives.

This conference was deliberately small, with no more than 40 attendees, to facilitate networking and collaboration. A conference dinner on the first evening allowed me to meet many new faces and to begin conversations that would continue over the following days. I left the conference with a fantastic new network of international colleagues and potential collaborators. This would not have been possible had I not received financial assistance from the Ustinov Travel Award. These events were highlights of my PhD and I am incredibly grateful for the support I received from my college.