Elena is a PhD candidate and researcher at the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health. Her research work and interests are in various topics related to microcredit, financial exclusion, financial vulnerability, social banking, diverse and alternative economies. She has experience in using qualitative and quantitative methods, Q methodology and financial diaries.
After graduating with an MSc in Social Business and Microfinance in 2017 and working in the Italian microcredit sector for two years, Elena joined the Yunus Centre as a PhD student in October 2019. Her PhD research explores how community finance organisations in the UK offer a responsible alternative to exploitative forms of subprime lending through the provision of small, personal loans to individuals on low incomes. Dr Neil McHugh, Dr Micaela Mazzei and Professor Olga Biosca jointly supervise this research.
Elena is currently working on the Real Accounts research project, part of FinWell programme of work, which seeks to better understand people’s experiences of financial insecurity and vulnerability during the cost-of-living crisis.
Elena is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA). She has worked as a module tutor and occasional lecturer in the Social Finance module, which is part of the GCU-based MSc Social Innovation, and she has supervised MSc dissertations on microcredit in the Global South.