Anastasia Rousaki

Anastasia Rousaki is a Research Associate at University of Manchester. Her research focuses on issues related to technology, social, and ideological aspects in digitalisation. She was previously a Postdoctoral Research Associate (PDRA) at the University of Sheffield, where she explored the impact of digitalisation on older informal carers, examining how digital services affected their lived experiences, access to social care, and risks of digital exclusion. In that role, she employed political theory, including Marxist perspectives and Gramscian concepts of hegemony, to critically examine the socio-political context and the alienation experienced by older carers in a digitally transforming social care system.
She also held a part-time PDRA position at Durham University, where she critically examined the UK Digital Strategy and the EU AI Act. Her research highlighted how neoliberal policies prioritise market interests over citizens' well-being and exacerbate digital poverty. She used Critical Discourse Analysis to identify contradictions within the policy framework.
Anastasia's work bridges qualitative research methods with social psychology and cyberpsychology, specializing in critical discursive psychology. She also employs thematic analysis (constructionist), Critical Discourse Analysis, and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Her doctoral research focused on adolescent sexting, consent, and coercion, using discourse, gender, ideology, power, and hegemony as key lenses.
She previously worked as a Lecturer in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University and served as a principal investigator on the Erasmus+ STEP-IN grant, contributing to the development of research-based resources on online safety for young people. Additionally, she disseminated her research via contributing to a parliamentary POST note regarding digital disengagement and impacts on exclusion, as well as various media such as BBC radio Nottingham, Psychology Today and more. She has actively participated in numerous national and international conferences, secured Early Career Researcher (ECR) bursaries, and has been a committee member of the British Psychological Society’s Qualitative Research Methods in Psychology (QMiP) section since 2021 and the European Association of Qualitative Researchers in Psychology (EQUiP).


Twitter: @AnastasiaRousak