Dr Blessing Marandure BSc (Hons), PGCert, PhD, FHEA, CPsychol

PhD Psychology, University of Birmingham, 2016

PGCert Higher Education, De Montfort University, 2016

BSc (Hons) Psychology, University of Birmingham, 2010

Dr Marandure completed her BSc (Hons) in Psychology and PhD at the University of Birmingham. During her PhD, she worked as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Birmingham and secured a Teaching Fellowship at Keele University. In 2015, Dr Marandure secured a Lectureship in Psychology at De Montfort University during which she held a wide range of leadership and administrative roles. These include module leadership for BPS accredited UG and PGT programmes; interim Deputy Programme Leader for UG Psychology programmes; MSc Health Psychology Programme Leader; ESRC MGS DTP Health and Wellbeing Pathway Lead and Academic Board Member (Elected Faculty Representative).

Dr Marandure also served as a Fair Outcomes Champion on the Decolonising DMU project, where she led on and was involved in multiple initiatives to develop an anti-racist university. For example, she led on the first iteration of De Montfort University’s awarding gap intervention working with 22 programmes across the institution. This work was included in the university’s Race Equality Charter (REC) submission and contributed to the university’s success as the first institution to be awarded a silver REC award (2023). Dr Marandure was also a co-convener of the inaugural ‘Re-imagining Higher Education: Journeys of Decolonising’ conference; and the Decolonising in HE jisc network. Through her work with Decolonising DMU, she received a range of internal and external awards including: - Advance HE Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (2023); UK & Ireland Green Gown Award (2023) and a highly commended at the International Green Gown Awards (2024).

Dr Marandure serves on the Governance Board of the British Academy Early Career Researcher Network; is an AHRC peer review college member; and Review Editor in Public Mental Health (specialty section of Frontiers in Public Health, Frontiers in Psychiatry and Frontiers in Sociology). As a recognised racial equity and social justice advocate in HE, Dr Marandure has had a wide range of invited engagements with organisations such as the British Academy; Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI); British Council; & GuildHE.

I am interested in supervising students whose projects broadly align with my interests in racial/intersectional inequalities in education and/or mental health; asset-based approaches for mental health, and substance use/addiction experiences. I particularly welcome the use of mixed and/or creative, participatory methodologies and indigenous/decolonial epistemologies.

Current Students

Tania Aramburo-Muro “Exploring equality of access to community mental health assets promoted through a novel digital national hub: A mixed methods investigation” (ESRC MGS DTP Collaborative Studentship Award with Chasing the Stigma; De Montfort University)

Hadassah Andrews “Exploration of art-based methods of coping and fugitivity used by Black women within higher education” (HLS Fee Waiver Scholarship Award; De Montfort University) 

Rajvir Gil “Exploring British South-Asian women academics’ experiences in higher education” (De Montfort University)

Akshata Parekh “Development of a mental health literacy intervention utilising expressive arts therapy for nurses: A pilot study in Pune, India” (De Montfort University)

Nkiruka Emodi “Finding a place to call home? Exploring post-covid-19 spatial inequalities, housing, and wellbeing for Black ethnic minority people with sickle cell” (De Montfort University)

Professional Memberships

Chartered Member: British Psychological Society

Fellow HEA (Advance HE)