Anushay is a second-year DPhil student investigating how classroom characteristics are related to Pakistani children’s development. She is supervised by Professor Iram Siraj and Dr Katharina Ereky-Stevens and her work is being supported by the Aga Khan University (Pakistan). Anushay received the Patrice Engle Dissertation Grant Award from the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) in 2023.

Anushay completed her BSc Psychology from UCL, where she also started her master’s in Developmental Neuroscience and Psychopathology. She was based at Yale University for her master’s thesis, where she worked with Dr Craig Bailey at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence to understand children’s emotion development. Anushay also works as a part-time research  assistant at the Developmental Diversity Lab at UCL’s Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. Anushay’s research interests include understanding child development across different cultures, factors that might be affecting it, and devising culture-specific ways to support children’s holistic development through the educational system. She is also keen on improving the research scope in Pakistan by working with Pakistani researchers, practitioners, and families. Anushay balances her research with her position as the founder of a non-profit, Resources for Children, which aims to understand and support children’s development in Pakistan.

Publications

Journal Articles

  1. Mazhar, A., & Bailey, C., S. (under review). Understanding Children’s Emotion-Specific Biases: How They Relate to Child and Family Factors, Emotion Recognition Accuracy, and Social Behaviour.

Presentations

  1. Mazhar, A., & Bailey, C., S. (2023, March). Understanding Children’s Emotion-Specific Biases: How They Relate to Child-Level Factors and Emotion Recognition Accuracy [Paper Presentation]. Society for Research in Child Development, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
  2. Mazhar, A. (2022, April). Understanding children’s emotion-specific biases and how they relate to age, gender, and emotion recognition. Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence Spring Preview, New Haven, United States.
  3. Mazhar, A. (2021, December). Does an extended family improve mentalising in Autistic Children: a cross-cultural perspective from UK & Pakistan. 2nd International Foundation University Conference of Psychology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
  4. Mazhar, A. (2020, October). Developing a non-profit to advance autism research in Pakistan. Anna Freud Centre Seminar Series, London, United Kingdom.

Posters

  1. Mazhar, A. (2021, November). Theory of Mind in Autistic Children: a cross-cultural perspective from UK and Pakistan. Harvard Trends in Psychology Summit, Cambridge, United States.
  2. Mazhar, A. (2021, November). Understanding children’s emotion-specific biases and how they relate to age, gender, and emotion recognition. Yale Center of Emotional Intelligence Research Rounds, New Haven, United States.