Gabriela Pavarini

I am a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Neuroscience, Ethics and Society Group at the University of Oxford, affiliated to the Department of Psychiatry and the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. My work focuses on youth participation and wellbeing, and combines psychiatry, ethics and digital innovation. I develop and test innovative tools to empower young people as agents of change for an inclusive, fair and healthy future. 

As project lead for Citizens Early Intervention Ethics (PI: Prof. Ilina Singh), I have (co-)led the interactive development of new research methodologies to enable young people's participation in ethical debate around digital phenotyping in psychiatry. Outputs include What Lies Ahead?, an interactive animation that simulates the experience of taking a predictive psychiatric test, and Tracing Tomorrow, a narrative game that explores the ethics of receiving a risk assessment for depression.   

To enable young people's participation in the COVID-19 pandemic response, I have worked with Youth Era, Imperial College and The McPin Foundation to co-design and test an online programme to train young people to support their peers. I am currently testing the efficacy of the peer support provided in helping adolescents cope with the emotional challenges of the pandemic. 

Alongside my UK work, I also lead research and engagement projects in low- and middle-income countries. I have set up and coordinate The Lancet Young Leaders for Global Mental Health and their global mental health campaign My Mind Our Humanity. Together we have worked with UNICEF on a global mapping of young people's aspirations for engagement in global mental health. In collaboration with Talk2U and the University of Brasilia, I am currently co-designing a chatbot to support Brazilian young people’s sense of agency and responsibility in promoting the wellbeing of their communities.

Before joining the University of Oxford, I completed a PhD in Psychology at the Centre for Music and Science, University of Cambridge, on the effects of movement synchrony on human emotions and social relationships. Alongside my PhD I co-led the Cambridge Moral Psychology Group, a platform for interdisciplinary exchange in the field of morality. 

My research has been funded by the University of Oxford’s COVID-19 Urgent Response Fund, the British Academy, The Westminster Foundation and The Cambridge Trust.