Doctor Stefan Leach

Dr Stefan Leach

Lecturer in Psychology

Research interests

  • Political Identity & Engagement
  • Social Media & Virality
  • Big Data & Natural Language Processing

More research

Accepting applications from PhD students.

Connect with Stefan

About

Stefan Leach is a Lecturer in Psychology with expertise in social and moral psychology, as well as computational methods and natural language processing. He completed his BSc at the University of York, followed by an MSc and PhD from the University of Kent.

His research primarily draws on large-scale, real-world data from digital platforms—such as social media posts, news articles, and political speeches—to explore pressing societal issues. These include political engagement, social cohesion and division, and the expansion of moral concern across groups.

Prospective students are encouraged to have a strong interest in observational approaches to social psychology, along with a willingness to develop their technical skills in programming (e.g., R).