Shazza Ali, PhD, is an ECR who recently started a lectureship in Social Psychology, in the School of Education at the University of Bristol, UK. She was born and raised in London, UK, a ‘superdiverse’ city that brings together an eclectic mix of people and cultures. Growing up she became interested in how social group membership such as race, ethnicity, gender, class and religion greatly influence people’s day-to-day experiences over the course of the life span. With this interest in the intersection of developmental, social psychology and education, she went on to completed her BSc, MSc and PhD in Psychology at the Centre for the Study of Group Processes at the University of Kent. She then started as Postdoc at the University of Bristol where she now works as a lecturer. She is particularly interested in in exploring strategies to increase positive emotions, positive behaviours and positive intergroup relations, especially during childhood and adolescence.

During her PhD she explored whether and how emotions such as moral elevation and admiration can motivate intergroup prosociality in children and adolescents. Her post-doc focussed on exploring factors that help or hinder intergroup contact in Adolescents in divided societies. She is broadly interested in positive psychology, wellbeing, mental health and intergroup relations.