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Dr Nicola Schmidt-Renfree

Dr Nicola Schmidt-Renfree (PhD MA BSc)

Research Fellow in Neuroscience, Centre of Dementia Studies and Research Fellow in Primary Care and Public Health
E: N.Schmidt-Renfree@bsms.ac.uk
Location: Trafford Centre, University of Sussex and Watson Building, University of Brighton

Areas of expertise: Dementia and quality of life; empowerment through communication; listening well in a first and second language

Research areas: Dementia and quality of life; the pragmatics of conversation and discourse; listening and cognition

Biography

Nicola previously worked as a lecturer in communication at the University of Ulster and as a lecturer in English language at the University of Kent. After moving from Kent to the county of Sussex, she studied for her PhD in the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex, and this has led to her interest in developing research and taking up my Postdoctoral Research Fellowships at Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

Research

Nicola is currently working as a Research Fellow on two research projects: The Vivaldi-ASCOT project on Quality of Life in Residential Homes which investigates the impact of prevention measures during outbreaks of covid-19 or other respiratory infections, and the Dementia Risk Prediction project which investigates aspects of the uses of a dementia risk prediction tool in Primary Care.

Previous research projects include investigating how people respond when they are thanked; how people with dementia continue to engage with spoken politeness rituals; how music can have an effect on people with dementia; and how we listen to spoken language in our second language compared with how we listen in our first language.

Teaching

Nicola is currently working with PhD students on developing writing skills. Previous teaching includes lecturing in verbal and non-verbal communication, interpersonal skills, pragmatics of language, and English language and linguistics.