Office hours
2026/27 Term 1 Office hours: Mondays: 12:00-14:00 - please book for an on-line slot
Dr Safi Darden (she/her/hers)
Senior Lecturer
Psychology
University of Exeter
Washington Singer Laboratories
Perry Road - Prince of Wales Road
Exeter EX4 4QG
- Internship opportunity with B-HUGs for UoE students
- Join the B-HUGs Youth Advisory Board
- B-HUGs Blog for our project updates
- University of Southampton Black Futures PhD scholarship scheme - get in touch with me to develop a project with us (Principle supervisor: Dr Lauren Nadler, University of Southampton) on fish physiology and behaviour
- Media Enquiries
About me:
I work in both vertebrate and invertebrate systems and in the lab and field to investigate the causes and consequences of social behaviour. Currently, my work spans investigations of the mechanisms underlying decision-making in cooperative contexts and social interventions that promote educational equity.
I am part of Exeter's first cohort of WHEN's 100 Black Women Professors NOW programme so please ask me about this! If you are a student at UoE and interested in helping us with a research and outreach project we are running as a cohort and as part of a wider project and team, then get in touch about internships and other opportunities, including developing an interdisciplinary proposal for postgraduate study.
If you are looking for opportunities to come and work with me I currently have positions available - see below and on my research page and be sure to connect with me on LinkedIn or via email.
In addition to my research endeavours and teaching and supervisory activities, I am passionate about contributing to service activities that foster a more inclusive and socially just research and education environment. My service activities currently include the following roles:
- University Race Equality Group academic member
- Departmental Academic Lead for Student Support | Inclusion and Racial Equality
- Exeter Soapbox Science founder and co-organizer
- University Responsible Metrics Champion
- Collective for Racial Justice steering group member
Interests:
In my research I investigate the interplay between the behaviour of individuals and the processes and patterns expressed at the population level.
My work on non-human animals is aimed at understanding how inter-individual interactions act as a driving force for social evolution. Using the Trinidadian guppy (Poecilia reticulata) as a model system, I have developed a novel research framework for exploring selection for social traits in the context of sexual conflict (i.e. the conflict of interest between the sexes over reproduction) and cooperation. A major component of this work lies in identifying the underlying mechanisms driving changes in social behaviour.
My work in human societies is focused on social interventions that create both opportunity and action in educational spaces. With young people centered as participant researchers, this work aims to develop both theory and methods that can contribute to policy and practice for educational equity.
Qualifications:
PhD, Animal Behaviour, December 2006
University of Copenhagen, Institute of Biology, Copenhagen, DK
MSc, Animal Behaviour, February 2002
University of Copenhagen, Institute of Biology, Copenhagen, DK
BSc, Biology, May 1996
Cornell University, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Ithaca, NY, USA
Career:
Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter, Psychology, 2018-Present
Lecturer, University of Exeter, Psychology, 2013-2018
Leverhulme Research Fellow, University of Exeter, Psychology, 2011-2013
Career Break (maternity leave), 2010-2011
Teaching Fellow in Animal Behaviour, University of Exeter, Psychology, 2009-2010
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, 2009; Sexual conflict in the Trinidadian guppy; University of Exeter, School of Psychology
Career Break (maternity leave), 2008-2009
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Sexual segregation in the Trinidadian guppy; Bangor University, School of Biological Sciences, 2007-2008