I’m a Senior Lecturer at the Open University. I’m based in the Graduate School, where I’m Academic Lead for PGR Training in the Social Sciences- that is, I’m in charge of making sure research students across the university get all the social science research training they need.

My research explores how people experience social and institutional spaces where they are seen as, or feel, ‘out of place’. My current work examines the experiences of neurodivergent and disabled doctoral students, and I have recently co-authored a policy report 7 Steps to Equity for Disabled Doctoral Students UK Recommendations from Disabled Students UK and The Open University.

My earlier work examined bisexual people’s spatialised experiences of subjectivity. Sited at the intersection of micro-sociology, critical social psychology and cultural geography, my doctoral work used creative methods (such as Lego and Plasticine modelling and photo-diaries) and hermeneutic phenomenological analysis to develop an experiential approach to bisexual subjectivity, and to present a critical analysis of the ways in which it is constituted in different social spaces. I was a co-author of the internationally influential The Bisexuality Report (2012). I continue to contribute to LGBTQIA+ studies, and am currently editing the Routledge International Handbook of Bisexuality, and working on an ISRF-funded survey of bi+ people in the UK.

Before joining the OU full-time in 2015, I worked in schools and colleges for seventeen years, teaching A Level Sociology and Psychology while studying part-time for my MSc and PhD, and tutoring on Open University courses.

Originally from Leeds, I live in Bedford with my family, and I enjoy wild swimming, weightlifting and mischief.

You can find more details about my work on my OU homepage, or follow me on LinkedIn