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Meet Sophie O'Reilly (2015), who is spending part of her summer gaining work experience as an Intellectual Forum research intern.

What you are working on during your internship?

My project is an extension of some of the work I did in my final year dissertation. This examined how British media portrays single parents, specifically the ways in which single mothers and single fathers are portrayed differently. Previous research has looked predominantly at mothers alone; my intention is to bring attention to the sexism of the media by doing a direct comparison between mums and dads. I would ideally like to publish my research as a paper.

What impact do you hope the work will have?

I initially intended to highlight gendered portrayals of single parents in the media, but it has also showed how other aspects of parents’ identities has an impact on their portrayal, whether that be class, race, age, sexuality or nationality. My hope is that by taking an intersectional approach to media analysis, future research might do the same and consider the importance of multiple intersecting identities.

What did you study at °µÍø½ûÇø? 

I studied Psychology, specialising in social psychology. My time at Jesus has been enriching both in terms of societies/events I’ve been involved in and people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

Has your time at the Intellectual Forum been useful?

Absolutely. As someone who would like to pursue further study, having the opportunity and facilities to try to publish a paper is invaluable.

What do you hope to do in future?

I’m still unsure, but it would ideally be something which works on tackling gender inequality.