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Professor Lisa Lazard

Profile summary

Professional biography

I am a Professor in the School of Psychology and Counselling at the Open University. As a social psychologist, my academic interests broadly lie in the study of identity and subjectivities within contemporary landscapes. I am particularly interested in gender and how gendered identifications become located within relations of power. I have studied these issues in relation two broad areas – sexual harassment and digital cultures. With respect to the former, my work has been concerned with understandings of sexual harassment that have currency in current cultural contexts and how these shape identities and sexual relationships. Through this work, I have been commissioned as a UK parliamentary consultant for several years, working on gendered working relationships and respect and dignity in organisational settings. My work on digital cultures has focused on women’s curation of self and relationships on-line. I am particularly interested in identity curation via posted digital photography. More specifically, my research has focused on women’s sense-making around their own posting of selfies and family photography on social media platforms. In relation to this work, I set up a research group called Networking Families, which includes partners from other UK universities, which focuses on the role of the digital in family relationships.  My academic interest in gendered relationships has facilitated the long-standing involvement I have had in the Psychology of Women Section of the British Psychological Society which has included, for example, serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the Psychology of Women Section Review.

Research interests

My academic interests centre around the relationship between subjectivity, identity and culture. In particular, I am interested in how gendered identities become shaped and located within relations of power in contemporary contexts. These broad interests underpin my research engagements with two areas of interest - sexual harassment and digital cultures.

My most recent work on sexual harassment is concerned with intersectional victim politics arising from the galvanisation of the #MeToo movement in 2017. I have been specifically interested in how neoliberalism, (post) feminism and other relevant cultural understandings are implicated in the complex trajectory of sexual harassment as a social problem over several decades.

Over the last few years, I have also been interested in the curation of self and identities online, particularly through posted digital photography. This work stemmed from a concern around how young women in particular were routinely pathologised in popular discourse for engaging in the well-established and ubiquitous practice of selfie-taking. This pathologisation has extended more recently to parents, particularly mothers, who post family pictures online. My research in this area does not presuppose pathologisation in order to explicate both the complexity of online relational dynamics and the interplay between normative femininities and the digital self.

Selected Publications

Lazard, L. (2022). Digital mothering: Sharenting, family selfies and online affective-discursive practices. Feminism Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1177/09593535221083840

Beetham, T., Turley, E., Lazard, L., Thompson, L. & Donnelly, L (2021) An intersectional feminist response to the UK government’s Violence Against Women and Girls 2021-2024 Strategy consultation. Psychology of Women & Equalities Review, 4(2), 6-16.

Lazard, L. & Capdevila, R. (2021). She's so vain? A Q study of selfies and the curation of an online self. New media & Society, DOI: 10.1177/1461444820919335.

Capdevila, R. & Lazard, L. (2021). The big picture: using visual methods to explore online photo sharing and gender in digital space. In: Reavey P (ed.) A Handbook of Visual Methods in Psychology. London: Routledge.

Lazard, L. (2020, November). Sexual Harassment, psychology and feminism: #MeToo, victim politics and predators in neoliberal times. Palgrave MacMillian.

Lazard, L., & McAvoy, J. (2020). Doing reflexivity in psychological research: What’s the point? What’s the practice?. Qualitative research in psychology17(2), 159-177.

Harrison, V., Moore, D. & Lazard, L. (2020). Supporting perinatal anxiety in the digital age; a qualitative exploration of stressors and support strategies. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 20(1), article no. 363.

Lazard, L., Capdevila, R.,  Dann, C., Locke, A and Roper, S. (2019). Sharenting: Pride, affect and the day to day politics of digital mothering. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(4), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12443. 

 

A repository of research publications and other research outputs can be viewed at The Open University's Open Research Online.

Teaching interests

I am currently Chair of the new level 1 production team (D120). Previous to this I have been a  a module team member of Investigating Psychology 1 (DE300) and the postgraduate production team for the module Evaluating Psychology: Research and Practice DD803. I have also contributed to the production of undergraduate modules  Investigating Psychology 2 (DE200) and Investigating Psychology 3 (DE300).

I am currently supervising four PhD students and I welcome enquiries from students who wish to study for a PhD. My areas of interest are primarily concerned with gender, equality, intersectionality, violence, parenting and digital lives. I mainly supervise qualitative or mixed method projects.

Selected Teaching Publications

Lazard, L. (2021) 'Sexual Harassment' in: A. Strathie, J. Turner, & M.J. Barker (eds). Living Psychology: From the Everyday to the Extraordinary, Volume 2. Milton Keynes: Open University.  

Stenner, P & Lazard, L (2016) ‘Why use text-based qualitative methodologies? The phenomenology and social construction of jealousy’ in H Ness, H Kaye and P Stenner (eds). Investigating Psychology 3, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp 299-388. ISBN: 9-781473-002968. 

Lazard, L. (2015) ‘How do we make sense of the social world? Categorisation and attribution’ in Capdevila, R. Dixon, J. & Briggs, G. Investigating Psychology 2: From social to Cognitive (eds).Milton Keynes, The Open University. 

 

 

Impact and engagement

My scholarly work on sexual harassment has led to impact work with UK parliament. I was invited to give a keynote address in the House of Commons on ‘Effecting Positive change in Climates of Uncertainty’ in 2018 and ran workshops designed to raise awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace. Since then, I have continued to act as a parliamentary consultant on these issues. My research on gender and violence has informed articles I have written for The Conversation (a global online news provider) which has had significant reach (over 305,000 readers). One article was subsequently republished in both national and international broadsheets including The Independent.  With respect to impact and engagement work around digital cultures, I have produced an OU mini documentary on selfie-posting online and have recently appeared on the BBC documentary Inside Out to talk about social media influencers. Together with colleagues from the newly established Networking Families Research group, I have written articles on parental posting for The Conversation which have been translated for international audiences. Based on this work, I successfully co-applied to the British Psychological Society’s prestigious Research Seminar Competition for the Locating gendered relationships in digital space series (Young women’s digital lives, Digital mothering, and Digital families) which brought together academics, charities and interested members of the public.

Selected Links

http://fass.open.ac.uk/research/groups/networking-families/media

Publications

Calling it out? A Q Methodological Study of Sexual Harassment Labelling (2023-10-25)
Lazard, Lisa; Capdevila, Rose and Turner, Jim
Violence Against Women ((Early access))


Doing feminisms on the ground: Challenges and opportunities for critical feminist psychologies (2023-06)
Thompson, Lucy; Turley, Emma L.; Frances, Tanya; Donnelly, Lois C. and Lazard, Lisa
Psychology of Women and Equalities Section Review, 6(1) (pp. 5-19)


Digital mothering: Sharenting, family selfies and online affective-discursive practices (2022-11)
Lazard, Lisa
Feminism & Psychology, 32(4) (pp. 540-558)


A qualitative analysis of feelings and experiences associated with perinatal distress during the COVID-19 pandemic (2022)
Jones, Katie; Harrison, Virginia; Moulds, Michelle L. and Lazard, Lisa
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 22, Article 572(1)


#mothersday: Constructions of motherhood and femininity in social media posts (2022)
Capdevila, Rose; Dann, Charlotte; Lazard, Lisa; Roper, Sandra and Locke, Abigail
Feminism & Psychology, 32(3) (pp. 336-356)


Digital families: Gendered relationships in online spaces (2022)
Locke, Abigail; Capdevila, Rose and Lazard, Lisa
Feminism & Psychology, 32(3) (pp. 310-317)


She’s so vain? A Q Study of Selfies and the curation of an online self. (2021-06-01)
Lazard, Lisa and Capdevila, Rose
New Media & Society, 23(6) (pp. 1642-1659)


Doing reflexivity in psychological research – What’s the point? What’s the practice? (2020)
Lazard, Lisa and McAvoy, Jean
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 17(2) (pp. 159-177)


Supporting perinatal anxiety in the digital age; a qualitative exploration of stressors and support strategies (2020)
Harrison, Virginia; Moore, Donna and Lazard, Lisa
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, 20, Article 363(1)


Sharenting: Pride, affect and the day to day politics of digital mothering (2019-04-17)
Lazard, Lisa; Capdevila, Rose; Dann, Charlotte; Locke, Abigail and Roper, Sandra
Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 13(4) (pp. 1-10)


Special Focus: Revisiting ‘‘the woman question’’ (2016-08-01)
Lazard, Lisa; Bolak Boratav, Hale and Clegg, Helen
Feminism & Psychology, 26(3) (pp. 245-253)


How is this feminist again? Q as a feminist methodology (2015)
Roper, Sandra; Capdevila, Rose; Lazard, Lisa and Roberts, Anca
Psychology of Women Section Review, 17 (pp. 3-12)


‘Please don’t put the whole dang thing out there!’: A discursive analysis of internet discussions around infant feeding (2012-08)
Callaghan, Jane E. M. and Lazard, Lisa
Psychology & Health, 27(8) (pp. 938-955)


Virtually Experts: Exploring constructions of mothers’ advice-seeking in online parenting communities (2011-08-07)
Mungham, Samantha and Lazard, Lisa
Radical Psychology: A Journal of Psychology, Politics, and Radicalism, 9(2)


'Square pegs in round holes' - an investigation into inclusive assessment. (2010)
Butcher, John; Hey, Jane; Sedgwick, Paul and Lazard, Lisa
Skill Journal, 98 (pp. 13-16)


‘You’ll Like This – It’s Feminist!’ Representations of Strong Women in Horror Fiction (2009-02)
Lazard, Lisa
Feminism & Psychology, 19(1) (pp. 132-136)


Reviews: Irina Anderson and Kathy Doherty: Accounting for Rape: Psychology, Feminism and Discourse Analysis in the Study of Sexual Violence (2009-02)
Lazard, Lisa
Feminism & Psychology, 19(1) (pp. 138-140)


Moving past powerlessness? An exploration of the heterosexualisation of sexual harassment (2009)
Lazard, Lisa
Psychology of Women Section Review, 11(1) (pp. 3-11)


Changing the Story: An Examination of Strategies for Resisting Sexism and Racism (2005)
Lazard, Lisa and Marzano, Lisa
Psychology of Women Section Review, 7(1) (pp. 12-20)


Reviews: Caroline Ramazanoğlu and Janet Holland: Feminist Methodology: Challenges and Choices (2004-08)
Lazard, Lisa
Feminism & Psychology, 14(3) (pp. 460-462)


Reviews: Richard B. Felson: Violence and Gender: Reexamined (2003-08-01)
Lazard, Lisa
Feminism & Psychology, 13(3) (pp. 391-395)


Sexual Harassment, Psychology and Feminism: #MeToo, Victim Politics and Perpetrators in Neoliberal Times. (2020-10-05)
Lazard, Lisa
ISBN : 978-3-030-55255-8 | Publisher : Palgrave MacMillian | Published : London


Social Psychology (2011)
Callaghan, Jane and Lazard, Lisa
Critical Thinking in Psychology
ISBN : 978087252807 | Publisher : Learning Matters Ltd.


The big picture: Using visual methods to explore online photo sharing and gender in digital space (2021)
Capdevila, Rose and Lazard, Lisa
In: Reavey, Paula ed. A Handbook of Visual Methods in Psychology. (pp. 239-255)
ISBN : 9781138491793 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : London


The big picture: Using visual methods to explore online photo sharing and gender in digital space. (2020-08-24)
Capdevila, Rose and Lazard, Lisa
In: Reavey, Paula ed. A Handbook of Visual Methods in Psychology: Using and interpreting images in qualitative research (Second Edition) (pp. 239-255)
ISBN : 978-1-138-49180-9 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Abingdon, UK / New York, USA


Postmodern feminist psychology (2016-04-21)
Lazard, Lisa; McAvoy, Jean and Capdevila, Rose
In: Naples, Nancy; Hoogland, Renee C.; Wickramasinghe, Maithree and Wong, Wai Ching Angela eds. The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies
ISBN : 978-1-4051-9694-9 | Publisher : Wiley Blackwell


Psychology of women: questions of politics and practice (2015-04-26)
Capdevila, Rose and Lazard, Lisa
In: Parker, Ian ed. Handbook of Critical Psychology. Routledge International Handbooks (pp. 191-199)
ISBN : 978-1-84872-218-7 | Publisher : Routledge | Published : Hove, New York


Gender, Overview (2014)
Capdevila, Rose and Lazard, Lisa
In: Teo, Thomas ed. Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 763-767)
ISBN : 978-1-4614-5583-7 | Publisher : Springer-Verlag | Published : New York


British Psychological Society response to the Home Office Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy 2021-2024: call for evidence (2021-02-19)
Lazard, Lisa; Beetham, Tanya; Donnelly, Lois; Thompson, Lucy and Turley, Emma
British Psychological Society


British Psychological Society response to the Home Office Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy 2021-2024: Survey (2021)
Lazard, Lisa; Beetham, Tanya; Donnelly, Lois; Thompson, Lucy and Turley, Emma
British Psychological Society


Why sportspeople convicted of violence against women forfeit their right to be ‘stars' (2016-03-01)
Owton, Helen and Lazard, Lisa
The Conversation


Response to the home office: Together we can end violence against women and girls: A consultation response (2009-05)
Gilchrist, Elizabeth; Fisher, Martin; Kinmond, Kathryn; Lazard, Lisa; Majumdar, Anamika and Rouf, Khadj
British Psychological Society


Response to the Northern Ireland Office and DHSSPS consultation entitled “Hidden Crimes Secret Pain” (2007)
Lazard, L.; Buys, D.; Callaghan, J.; Motzkau, J. and Keating, S.
British Psychological Society