Sahar Bakr

Dr Sahar Bakr serves as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Marketing at Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University. She concurrently holds significant external roles including External Examiner at Oxford Brookes University, Vice President of Communications and Events at the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM; 2025-2027 term), and active council membership with the British Academy of Management (BAM).

Her academic credentials include an MSc in Biotechnology and Entrepreneurship and a PhD in Business and Management from the University of Nottingham. Her doctoral research examined consumer use of smart devices in health, fitness, and self-tracking contexts. Prior industry experience as a Product Manager in pharmaceuticals and medical devices—where she managed social media campaigns and launched B2B/B2C products across the MENA region—informs her industry-integrated teaching philosophy.

Sahar's research centers on smart technology's impact on consumer reality, decision-making, and wellbeing, with specialized focus on wearable self-tracking devices. Applying Practice Theory, she investigates how digital technologies reshape user practices and identities, bridging health marketing, consumer psychology, and sociological frameworks. Her work consistently examines the health-wellbeing-marketing nexus through qualitative methodologies.

Analysis of her recent publications reveals a concentrated trajectory in digital health consumer behavior, with increasing emphasis on identity construction, longitudinal usage patterns, and ethical dimensions of self-tracking. Her work demonstrates methodological consistency in practice-theoretical approaches while expanding into refugee mental health applications through current grants.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• BAM Medal for Outstanding Contribution by an Early-career Academic (2024)

As Principal Investigator, she currently leads two major projects: the £120k UKRI-funded Universities for Nottingham PhD Studentship Grant investigating refugee mental health challenges, and a £2,500 Internal Small Grant exploring the 'Dark Side of Self-Tracking' through co-production workshops. She actively supervises PhD candidates and seeks multidisciplinary collaborations, particularly in health-digital marketing interfaces. Her teaching portfolio spans Direct Marketing, Digital Consumer Behaviour, and Digital Entrepreneurship across undergraduate, MSc, and MBA programs.

Sahar contributes to the Practice Theory research group at Nottingham Business School, participating in reading groups and events to advance theoretical applications in digital consumption contexts while co-leading BAM's mentorship scheme for early-career academics.