Surrey Perinatal

Amid growing evidence of the mental health difficulties that can be experienced by both mothers and fathers in the perinatal period, this collaborative project used original research findings to improve information and support through developing p

Start date

2020

End date

Ongoing

Project website

View

Overview

Together with our partner organisations, the Institute for Health Visiting and the National Childbirth Trust, we translated our research on mothers’ and fathers’ perinatal mental health into workshops, infographics, factographics, evidence reviews, training and parent-facing material oriented to enhancing support for perinatal mental health.

Aims and objectives

To inform and engage with key antenatal and postnatal professionals in order to enhance their support for parents with respect to perinatal mental health
To enhance the provision of well-informed direct communication about perinatal mental health issues with new parents via on and offline materials
To improve communication and support related to especially neglected or difficult to reach groups, including fathers and migrant mothers.

Team

Professor Ranjana Das

Professor in Media and Communication

Biography

I am Professor in Media and Communication, in the Department of Sociology, at the University of Surrey. My research interests span technology use and user centric research on algorithms, datafication, and broader digital technologies. I dovetail these interests often with my interest in families, parenting and parenthood. I also have a longstanding background of interest and expertise in media audiences, including 'audiences' in transforming media environments.

2023-2025: Leverhulme Research Project Grant: Parents', news use, risks and crises in datafied societies: From autumn 2023, I am PI on a Leverhulme Research Project Grant investigating parents' engagement with mediated risks and crises, in relation to their news consumption in contemporary datafied societies. My Co-Is are Tom Roberts and Emily Setty.

2023-2024: FASS Sabbatical Book Project: ‘Parents talking algorithms’: Over the course of 2023, generously supported by a research sabbatical from the University of Surrey, an Erasmus Visiting Fellowship to the University of Bergen in Norway and a Data & Society Fellowship at Malmo University, Sweden - I am conducting research and writing on my next book project. I ask in this work, what parents feel about algorithms in their children's lives, including social media algorithms or those in the public domain.

2023-2025: British Academy Grant: Linguistic minority families, emerging technologies, and the raising of bilingual children: From August 2023, I am PI on a British Academy Grant investigating families' engagement with emerging technologies as they raise bi or multilingual children. My Co-I is Dr Doris Dippold.

2022-2023: Data-driven media personalisation: Funded by AI4ME, my work with Philip Jackson (FEPS), Rhianne Jones (BBC) and Yen Nee Wong (Kent) looks at citizens' responses to data-driven media personalisation, with a particular focus on ethics and public expectations of transparency in data driven personalised media.

More broadly, I am interested in the social uses, and consequences of new and emerging communication technologies particularly in terms of their roles inside families, relationships and communities. I have researched media audiences and users in numerous projects. My work has been funded by the Wellcome Trust, the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. My recent work has focused on parenting, parenthood and technology, with a particular focus on health and wellbeing.

Upcoming commitments in 2023: I will be on sabbatical in 2023, during the course of which I will be Erasmus Visiting Fellow at the University of Bergen, Norway, and Data and Society Fellow at Malmo University, Sweden.

Potential PhD students: I am happy to consider PhD proposals in various areas within sociology and media and communications. My research interests span technology use and user centric research on algorithms, datafication, and broader digital technologies. I dovetail these interests often with my interest in families, parenting and parenthood. I also have a longstanding background of interest and expertise in media audiences, including 'audiences' in transforming media environments. Within topics based in sociology - my interests lie in parents, motherhood/maternity, fatherhood, migrant parents, families, relationships, childhood, youth, mental health, vulnerabilities and inequalities in parenthood, and digital sociology. In terms of topics relating to media and communications, I am interested in both media audiences as well as users and use of media and digital technologies including emerging and new technologies including but not restricted to AI, the Internet of Things, VR and other related areas.

I hold a PhD in media and communications from the Department of Media and Communication at the London School of Economics(2008-2011) where I was supervised by Professor Sonia Livingstone. I was Post-doctoral Fellow at Leuphana, University of Luneburg(2011-2012) and Lecturer at the School of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester (2012-2017).

I joined the University of Surrey as Senior Lecturer in 2017, was promoted to Reader in 2018 and promoted to Professor in 2021. I have directed a research consortium on the future of audiences in the context of emerging technologies (funded by the AHRC, 2015-2018), and have been Chair of the Audience and Reception Studies division of the ECREA (2014-2017).

See profile