Biography

I joined the University of Surrey in December 2012, having previously worked at Kingston University from 2007. I gained a BSc (Hons) in Sociology and Psychology (first) in 2002, an MSc in Social Research Methods (distinction) in 2003 and a PhD from Surrey in 2007.

Research Interests

My research falls into three broad areas: gender, sexuality and ageing; young people’s adulthoods and qualitative methods and social theory.

1) Gender, sexuality and ageing – I am interested in the lives and experiences of older lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) adults. I have conducted funded research (Tower Hamlets Borough Council and the Economic and Social Research Council) with Dr Ann Cronin about the lives of older LGBT people, including their experiences of services. This has included a project called ‘Putting Policy into Practice’ where we worked with service providers to empower them to improve their services with older LGBT people in mind http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-189-25-0189/read
I am currently writing a monograph based on these older LGBT studies to be published by Ashgate (2013).
I am principal investigator on an ESRC funded Seminar Series: Older LGBT People: Minding the Knowledge Gaps (with Dr Kathyrn Almack, Dr Yiu-Tung Suen and Sue Westwood

2) Young People’s Adulthoods – my doctoral research focused on young people’s transitions to adulthood, exploring this through the lens of the Gap Year. I have continued to write about young adulthoods, publishing in the Journal of Youth Studies and Sociology as well as edited collections.

3) Qualitative Methods and Social Theory – I have a long standing interest in social theory, particularly micro social theories such as symbolic interactionism and ethnomethodology, as well as qualitative methods, particularly conversation analysis. I have published on the latter in the International Journal of Social Research Methodology. I co-edited ‘Sociological Objects’ (Ashgate 2009) with Dr Geoff Cooper and Professor Ruth Rettie examining the changing relationship between classical and contemporary social theory and sociological objects. I received funding from Kingston University for two methodologically innovative projects: ‘Learning Place’s (with Lorraine Allibone and Dr Heidi Seetzen) and ‘Faith in Action’ (with Dr Sylvie Collins-Mayo). I have expertise in NVivo, a qualitative data analysis software tool.

Publications

Teaching

• Representing Difference (SOC1032)
• Sociology of Gender (SOC2036)
• Sociology of Sexualities (SOC3030)
• BSc, MSc and PhD supervision

Departmental Duties

• MSc Programme Admissions Tutor
• Departmental Library Representative