Dr Saffron Passam

Saffron Passam is a lecturer who specializes in the field of social/occupational psychology. In terms of teaching, Saffron co-ordinates the Personal Development and Organisational Behaviour module at level 1; she also teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, including modules in developmental psychology and behaviour change at Master’s level, and supervises students undertaking final-year dissertations as well as Master’s and PhD research projects. As Employability Co-ordinator and Academic Champion of Enterprise, she serves as a point of contact for organisations seeking to offer placements, internships, or volunteering. She is a Fellow of the HEA (FHEA) and has a Post-Graduate Teaching Qualification (PGCTHE).

As a critical psychologist, Saffron is interested in issues of intersectionality, encompassing the psychology of gender, race, disability, and class. Drawing on expertise in qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research, her work centres on the psychology of belonging and its relationship to self-regulated learning and graduate identity development. She also researches trauma-informed pedagogies and sustainable approaches to learning and employability in higher education. In 2016, She was funded by the Home Office Gender Equality Network to examine the barriers for women from lower socio-economic status backgrounds in aspiring to work in the Civil Service. More recently, Saffron contributed to a successful multi-disciplinary/ multi-agency EPSRC bid that investigated matters of inclusion in academia. Her research further engages with questions of fairness and inclusion in higher education and the workplace, exploring how ideas of meritocracy intersect with organisational practices. She welcomes opportunities to collaborate on research that advances equity, inclusion, and sustainable employability.