Victoria Clarke (psychologist)

Biography

Higher education

Victoria Clarke completed an undergraduate degree in psychology at Brunel University; she graduated in July 1997. After graduation, Clarke started a PhD in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University supervised by Professor Celia Kitzinger (and later Professor Jonathan Potter and Professor Sue Wilkinson). Her PhD - in women's studies and psychology – focused on lesbian and gay parenting. This research further advanced the intersection between queer psychology and qualitative methods – she explored the social construction of LGBT parenting from both a queer studies and critical psychological perspective. Clarke graduated from Loughborough in July 2002. Lastly, Clarke got her postgraduate certificate in higher education at University of the West England, Bristol, graduating in July 2004.

Career

Between October 1997 and March 2002, Clarke was a PhD student in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. Her PhD research explored the social construction of lesbian and gay parenting – in psychology and mainstream media. She published papers on television talk show debates about same-sex parenting, on arguments used by opponents of same-sex parenting to justify their opposition to equality for lesbian and gay families and arguments about children's need for male role models and 'concerns' about homophobic bullying. She also published several papers critically exploring the representation of same-sex parenting in psychological research - exploring themes of sameness and difference, the rhetoric of pseudoscience and constructions of lesbians as parents in psychological literature from 1886 to 2006.

After completing her PhD at Loughborough University, Clarke worked with Dr Carole Burgoyne and Professor Janet Reibstein, as a Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. The project - funded by the Lord Chancellor's Department - focused on money management in first time heterosexual marriage.

She joined the University of the West of England as a lecturer in Social Psychology in 2003. Currently Clarke is an Associate Professor in Qualitative and Critical Psychology at the University of the West England, Bristol. Her research and teaching is centered around qualitative methods, queer psychology, human sexuality and gender studies.