Jennifer Mankin

Dr Jennifer Mankin (she/they) serves as Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Sussex's School of Psychology. She also holds the position of Deputy Director of Student Experience for Accessibility (DDoSE-A), where she advocates for accessibility provisions and reduces administrative burdens for students with disabilities.

Education:

• PhD in Psychology, University of Sussex (2014-2017)
• Master's in Psychology of Language, University of Edinburgh (2013)
• Undergraduate major in Linguistics, Western Washington University

Dr Mankin's research focuses on the processing and storage of words, primarily investigated through the color responses of individuals with grapheme-color synaesthesia for letters and words. Her work bridges cognitive psychology, linguistics, and perception studies, with particular emphasis on how synaesthetic experiences can illuminate normal language processing mechanisms. She has published multiple peer-reviewed articles exploring letter-word associations, compound word processing, and the theoretical implications of synaesthesia for linguistic theory.

Her scholarly contributions demonstrate consistent focus on synaesthesia as a window into cognitive processing, with publications spanning cognitive neuroscience, psycholinguistics, and perceptual psychology. The publications reveal increasing sophistication in methodology and theoretical framing over time, with recent work calling for reform in how language is understood through synaesthetic experiences.

As an educator, Dr Mankin has significantly contributed to curriculum development and teaching in research methods and statistics. She has co-created and led core modules including 'Discovering Statistics' (2016-2023) and 'Analysing Data' (2019-present), with a focus on helping students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. She has also developed publicly available R training materials for faculty at r-training.netlify.app and maintains student drop-in sessions through calendly.com/dr-mankin.

Dr Mankin actively participates in university governance as a member of the Academic Advisory Group for Sussex and the Academic Advisory Group for APP Evaluations (since November 2023), demonstrating ongoing institutional engagement beyond her teaching and research responsibilities.