Centre for Democratic Futures

Our people

Learn more about our researchers and their expertise.

Ms Laura Bea

Research interests

  • PhD Student; Network Manager for Universities Policy Engagement Network (UPEN) 
  • Supervisors: Dr John Boswell (FSS) & Dr Stephanie Jones (FAH)
  • The relationship between literary studies and policymaking   
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Miss Laura Smith

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Dr Lawrence Mckay BA, MRes, PhD

Senior Research Fellow

Research interests

  • Lawrence is developing a research agenda around geographic divides in political attitudes, between richer and poorer areas, central and 'peripheral' areas, and above all between urban and rural areas. Forthcoming papers explore why voters perceive local decline, unpack citizen beliefs about government's biases towards urban centres, and conduct experiments on the politics of 'levelling-up'.
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Dr Leonardo Aniello

Associate Professor

Research interests

  • Blockchain-based Systems
  • Distributed Systems
  • Machine Learning applied to Cyber Security
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Professor Leslie Carr

Professor of Web Science
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Dr Lexi Webster

Associate Professor of Digital Culture

Research interests

  • corpus-based critical discourse studies
  • social media and communication
  • gender, sexuality and power

Accepting applications from PhD students

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Professor Louise Siddons PhD

Head of Department Art & Media Tech
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Dr Luca Di Gregorio

Senior Teaching Fellow
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Mrs Lucy Msungeni

Research interests

  • Health and safety
  • Education
  • Non-communicable diseases
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