Dr Sumedh Rao PhD CPsychol

Sumedh is a post-doctoral researcher at the Open University. He is an academic and policy researcher focused on intergroup relations, conflict and governance. 

His academic research focuses on intergroup relations in conflict-affected contexts and works with qualitative and quantitative methods. Sumedh was a Research Associate at the University of Oxford working with Prof Shelley McKeown Jones on an interdisciplinary project examining the interplay between the individual and contextual factors that influence whether adolescents in Belfast and Bradford choose or not to engage in intergroup interactions with people from other ethno-religious groups. He was awarded his PhD at the University of Birmingham and his thesis employed a social and political psychology perspective on identity, threat and trust in Northern Ireland. He holds an MPA (Sciences Po, Paris), BSc Psychology (UCL), and BSc Politics and International Relations (LSE).

Prior to his PhD, Sumedh worked as a policy analyst and researcher with the GSDRC/K4D, OECD, DFID, ODI and Development Initiatives. He has produced work for multilateral agencies (World Bank, UNDP, EC, WHO, OECD, Commonwealth Secretariat, UNECA, UNPBSO, UNESCO), bilateral agencies (DFID, Australia DFAT), governmental bodies (UK FCO, South Africa CoGTA), and non-governmental organisations (Amnesty International, U4 Resource Centre, International Justice Mission, Development Initiatives, Plan UK). Recent topics include conflict reduction, service delivery, public sector reform,  behaviour change, democratic assistance and conflict analysis.

Sumedh is a BPS chartered psychologist (CPsychol) and is fluent in French, Spanish, Japanese and Konkani.