I am a Cultural and Social Geographer at the University of Manchester...

I am currently working as a Research Associate on a project called Methods for Change alongside Dr Sarah Hall, Dr Alison Browne, Dr Laura Pottinger and Dr Ulrike Ehgarter. Methods for Change plans to develop an online platform to showcase the value of social sciences methodologies to the wider world and demonstrate to industry the benefit that social sciences research can bring to their organisations. I am also working with colleagues from Sociology on an ESRC N8 funded creative mapping project which is exploring the lived heritage of canal street, Manchester. I am also completing publications from my doctoral research.

My doctoral research involved working with more-than representational theories to understand the lived experience of older people in the move towards creating 'Age-Friendly Cities'. Using a more-than-representational theories, theories of affect, the life-course, temporality and place along with a suite of creative, playful methods, my research complicated often reductive narratives of older age.  It draws attention to the differences and diversities of the ageing process by attuning to the lived experiences and dialogues amidst people and place.  It is concerned with how people make sense of the world in which they live; with how representations come into being; how they surface; operate and just as quickly dissipate. I also completed a photo and story collection as part of this research. 

My Ph.D., MSc in Geographical Science and BA (Hons) in Geography have all focused on the lived experiences of older people.  You can read about my present research here and other outputs from my research here.

I am particularly interested in:

  • Representation
  • Non-representational theories
  • Culture
  • Difference
  • Senses of Place
  • Affect and emotion
  • Identity and subjectivity
  • Geographies of ageing and the life-course
  • Creative and participatory methods

Grants, Awards and Fellowships

  • ESRC NWSSDTP N8 Collaborative Event Funding, an exploration of creative mapping for engaging with older LGBTQ people's lived experiences of Manchester's gay village, February 2020 - October 2020, £4,588
  • Superbia, an exploration of creative mapping for engaging with older LGBTQ people's lived experiences of Manchester's gay village, March 2020, £1,000
  • ESRC North West Doctoral Training College +3 Award Sept 2019 - Sept 2019, £42,888
  • Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing, thinking ageing and older age conference, The University of Manchester, June 2018, £3,000
  • Methods North west and the Manchester Urban Institute, creative methods for researching urban infrastructures workshop, March 28th - 29th, 2019, £3,000
  • Outstanding Academic Achievement Award - December 2016: Top 0.5% of high achievers across UoM
  • Outstanding Achievement Award - July 2015: The best dissertation in Human Geography, UoM
  • The Manchester Geographical Society Prize - July 2015: Awarded the Manchester Geographical Society Prize for the best performance in BA Geography
  • Outstanding Academic Achievement Award – June 2015: Top 0.5 of high achievers across UoM
  • Manchester Geographical Society – September 2014 -: dissertation Funding: For an outstanding proposal
  • Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), May 2018
  • Associate Fellow of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives
  • Fellow of the RGS-IBG

Papers

Presentations

2018

  • Introducing Temporality and Change: Non-Representational Geographies and Beyond - co-presented with Andrew S. Maclaren (University of Aberdeen). Sponsored by the History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group. Part of the annual RGS-IBG conference, Cardiff.
  • More-Than Representational Dynamics: Ageing with Place - presented in Temporality and Change: Non-Representational Geographies and Beyond. Sponsored by the History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group. Part of the annual RGS-IBG conference, Cardiff.
  • Taking Steps with More-Than Representational Methodologies - presented in Desire Lines, Dawdles and Drifts. Convened by Dr. Morag Rose. Part of the annual RGS-IBG conference, Cardiff.
  • Age-Friendly For Whom? Difference, Diversity and Relational Experiences of Place - presented in Identity and the City. Part of the RGS-IBG Postgraduate Mid-Term Conference, Royal Holloway, University of London.

2017

  • Q&A Session with Film Director of Ping Pong - part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, convened by the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology and the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing.

2016

  • Checklists Alone Cannot Create Age-Friendly Places: Lived Experiences Matter – Presented at Age UK Bristol and Brunelcare Research Forum.
  • What Does Sense of Place Mean to You? - Presented and convened a workshop at the Manchester Intergenerational Design Symposium.
  • Lightening Talk - Presented as part of a workshop on Mundane Methods. Part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.