Nihan completed her PhD in Social Psychology at PBS, before which she completed a master’s degree in Applied Social Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London and a master’s degree in Neuroscience at King’s College London. In her PhD, she focused on the role of physical and psychological distance on individual humanitarian responses to global emergencies. In doing so, she examined political support, helping intention, and charitable donation for Syrian refugees in multiple countries. During her PhD, she served as a PhD Representative from 2016 to 2018, assisted in organising departmental research seminars in 2016/17, and worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from 2017 to 2020 for both undergraduate- and postgraduate-level courses, including Psychological and Behavioural Science, Research Methods for Psychological and Behavioural Science, and Social Psychology. She was also selected to SPSSI’s Graduate Student Committee as Membership Coordinator, Member-at-Large and served in 2019/20.

She started a postdoctoral fellowship at Open University after her PhD while she continues to contribute to teaching at PBS. Currently, she investigates social identity dynamics and intergroup relations underlying prosocial attitudes and behaviours, especially within the contexts of global emergencies, migration, and higher education. She is also interested in meta-science and examines the ways in which unequal power structures and poor research and teaching practices influence the production of academic knowledge and the development of academics. To date, she has been awarded several prestigious grants from the British Psychological Society, the European Association of Social Psychology, the Psychology Postgraduate Affairs Group, and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues.

Awards

• LSE Student Event Funding Competition Winner Prize (2020)
• LSE Class Teacher Award for Learning Development (2018)
• LSE Beveridge 2.0 Festival Research Competition Popular Prize (2018)