Research and impact

Prof Memon directs the interdisciplinary Research Centre for the Study of Emotion and Law at Royal Holloway Centre for the Study of Emotion & Law (CSEL)

She conducts robust and ecologically valid research on information gathering in legal contexts and contextual influences (such as emotion) on judgements about accuracy and credibility. She studies the impact of  technology on access to justice and draws attention to biases that can exacerbate social divisions and endanger human rights. Her work is informed by cognitive and social psychological approaches to understanding memory, decision making, detection of deception and credibility assessment. She has ongoing research collaborators in Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, North America and Finland. 

Prof Memon’s work has had substantial impact outside of academia, as evidenced by her ESRC prize for contributions to policy. Her work has important implications for the way children, young and older adults are supported in interviews, how these interviews are undertaken and processed by police officers, judges and other professionals within the judiciary system.

Expert Work: Prof Memon has served as an expert witness in civil and criminal cases where she has been consulted on her expert knowledge on child witnesses, memory, eyewitness identification and historic abuse in the UK and USA. She is on the appointing panel of the Netherlands Register of Court Experts and has contributed to the work of the Anti-Torture Initiative. She is currently part of an international effort to implement best practice in interviewing among all professionals involved in gathering and assessing the quality of testimony.

External engagement & contributions to the community: Prof Memon's contributions to the voluntary sector include recent collaborations with the Helen Bamber Foundation, Trilateral Research and the Afghan and Central Asian Association. She supports the Royal Holloway University of Sanctuary.

Awards:

• Asian Women of Achievement in the Professions (2016)
• Economic & Social Research Council Impact Winner for contributions to National Policy (2017)