Dr Vasilena Stefanova

Lecturer in Psychology

Email:: vasilena.stefanova@bcu.ac.uk

Dr Vasilena Stefanova is a Lecturer in Psychology and a Chartered psychologist with expertise in social identity, social interaction and intergroup relations. Vasilena completed her PhD in social psychology at Queen’s University Belfast in 2022.

Vasilena’s current projects investigate social issues such as stereotyping and prejudice, the psychological experiences of pregnancy and maternity, and our evolving relationship with the digital world. Passionate about interdisciplinary work, Vasilena’s research frequently integrates insights from organizational psychology, cyberpsychology, and the study of individual differences to examine social behaviour.

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Memberships

Teaching

Research

Publications

Stefanova, V., & Scheepers, C. (2025). Wawk on the wild side: Context-dependence of pseudohomophone processing. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 10.1037/xhp0001371. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0001371
Stefanova V., Scheepers C., Wilson P., Papageorgiou K.A. (2024) Grandiose narcissism associates with higher cognitive performance under stress through more efficient attention distribution: An eye-tracking study. PLoS ONE 19(5): e0302644. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0302644
Stefanova, V., Latu, I., & Taylor, L. (2023). What Is in a Name? Exploring Perceptions of Surname Change in Hiring Evaluations in Academia. Social Sciences, 12(2), 95. https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci12020095
Stefanova, V. & Latu, I. (2022) Navigating the leaky pipeline: Do stereotypes about parents predict career outcomes in academia?. PLOS ONE 17(10): e0275670. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0275670
Stefanova, V., Farrell, L. & Latu, I. (2021) ‘Gender and the pandemic: Associations between caregiving, working from home, personal and career outcomes for women and men.’ Current Psychology https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02630-6
Farrell, L., Latu, I. M., Linden, M., Stefanova, V. & McCloskey, K. D. (under review) ‘An Evidence-Based Approach to COVID-19 Pandemic Effects on Academics’

Conference Presentations

Oral Presentations

Fullwood, C. & Stefanova, V. (July 2025). Rage against machine learning: A content analysis of an anti-AI forum. Presented at the British Psychological Society Cyberpsychology branch annual conference. Birmingham, UK.
Stefanova, V. & Latu, I. (September 2024). Is there gender bias and parent bias in teaching evaluations? Presented at the British Psychological Society Social Psychology branch annual conference, Belfast, UK.
Stefanova, V., Farrell, L. & Latu, I. (July, 2021). The impact of the gender imbalance in caregiving duties during lockdown on career outcomes. Presented at the International Congress of Psychology, virtual event.
Stefanova, V., Farrell, L. & Latu, I. (April, 2021). Does the coronavirus pandemic have a gendered impact? Assessing the predictive role of the (im)balance between caregiving responsibilities and working from home for women vs. men. Presented at the Northern Ireland branch of the British Psychological Society annual conference, virtual event.
Stefanova, V. & Latu, I. (May, 2019). Parenting Stereotypes in Academic and Family Contexts: Investigating the Role of Explicit and Implicit Bias. Presented at the Gender, Social Justice and Innovation conference, Belfast, UK.

Poster Presentations

Stefanova, V. & Scheepers, C. (March 2019). The Pseudohomophone Effect in Written Word Processing: An Eye-tracking Investigation. Presented at the International Convention of Psychological Science, Paris, France.