Emmie is a research fellow in neurodiversity and Contextual Safeguarding in the Department of Psychology at Durham University. Her research focuses on the contextual and systemic contributors to harm experienced by neurodivergent children, particularly within education systems and among children experiencing school distress. She is especially interested in understanding these experiences through socioecological approaches, with attention to neuro-normativity, power, and epistemic injustice.
Emmie completed her PhD in psychology at Newcastle University, where her research explored school anxiety and distress among neurodivergent young people. Her doctoral work used qualitative and mixed-method approaches to examine how interactions between individual needs, school environments and wider educational systems shape experiences of distress and attendance. Prior to beginning her PhD, Emmie worked for seven years as a teaching assistant and trainee teacher in primary schools. She draws on both her professional experience and her lived experience as a neurodivergent person to inform her research. She is passionate about conducting meaningful, co-constructed research with neurodivergent young people, ensuring all research is grounded in their lived experience.
Emmie joined the GCCS in September 2026, where her work explores the intersections between neurodivergence, extra-familial harm and Contextual Safeguarding. She is particularly interested in disproportionate, investigative, punitive, and blaming responses towards neurodivergent children and their families, and in how keeping neurodivergent children safe depends on neuro-affirming approaches that are attentive to children’s lived experiences and the contexts in which harm occurs.