Profile
Biography
Dr Michaela Edwards joined the School for Business and Society at the University of York in July 2023. She previously held posts as a Senior Lecturer in HR and OB at Nottingham Business School (2018-2023) and as a research assistant and then as a Lecturer at Lancaster University (2014-2018). She completed her PhD in Organisation, Work and Technology at Lancaster University in 2015. Dr Edwards was a Director and Trustee of Lancashire Mind. She is keen to ensure that her research is helpful in real world situations and is also a qualified coach (ILM level 5 accredited). Dr Edwards serves on the EDI steering committee and leads the 'working on EDI in Organisations' group within CPWOP.
Dr Michaela Edwards is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice.
Departmental roles
Teaching
I will be taking over as UG Director of programmes from October 2023. I have previously held roles as a Programme and placement lead at Nottingham Trent. I have taught and led across a wide range of modules at UG and PG levels, both face to face and blended/online. I particularly enjoy developing case studies that bring ethical issues to light for students.
Research
Overview
Dr Edwards is a critical management scholar engaged in research that spans feminist philosophy, psychoanalysis and organisation studies. Dr Edwards has a wide-ranging interest in EDI focusing on care ethics at work, and gender/intersectionality in leadership and management. She has additional related interests in critical approaches to well-being at work and organizational psychoanalysis.
Dr Edwards commits herself to work that seeks to critique the re-production and domination of images of the paternal in neoliberalism and New Managerialism. She suggest that this presents only one form of disembodied individualistic rationality as legitimate. More practically her work strives to improve the working lives of women and those from minority groups.
Dr Edwards is currently working on a number of papers and research projects. Recent successful grants/tenders include:
Co- Investigator - £50,000. Advising the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) on EDI. Dr Edwards led the review of the academic literature was key in presenting areas for further research to the RAE, and in making recommendations to improve EDI in the sector.
Co-investigator £93,000: The Fylde Coast Vanguard. Dr Edwards has made important contributions to the Health sector through knowledge exchange surrounding evaluation and critical analysis. She was the qualitative lead on the project.
Primary Investigator: £3,756.62. The Winnicott Trust. The project focuses on “The facilitating environment and older higher education workers”. It considers how the changing HE sector is impacting upon older workers.
Sponsors and collaborators
The Royal Academy of Engineering; The Winnicott Trust; The Squiggle Foundation; Lancashire Mind; The Fylde Coast Vanguard; Lancaster University
Publications
Selected publications
Journal articles
Technologies of self-care in precarious neoliberal academia: Women academics’ craftwork as strategies of coping and complicity. Work, Employment and Society. (CABS 4*)
Edwards, M., Ridgway, M., Chen, G., Cooper, E. and Pass, S., 2024. (In) visible Working Mama Drama: From Excellent to ‘Good Enough’Academia and (M) Others. British Journal of Management. (CABS 4*)
Ridgway, M., Edwards, M., & Oldridge, L. 2024. Writing differently: Finding beauty in the broken. Gender, Work & Organization.
Edwards, M., Gatrell, C. and Sutton, A., 2023. The case for parentalism at work: balancing feminist care-ethics and justice ethics through a Winnicottian approach: a school case study. Journal of Business Ethics. ISSN 0167-4544.
Edwards, M., Mitchell, L., Abe, C., Cooper, E., Johansson, J. and Ridegway, M., 2022. ‘I am not a gentleman academic’: telling our truths of micro-coercive control and gaslighting in business schools using ‘faction’. Gender, Work and Organization. ISSN 0968-6673.
Gallagher, A., Edwards, M., Nair, P., Drew, S., Vyas, A., Sharma, R., Marsden, P.A., Wang, R. and Evans, D.J., 2021. Anti-interleukin-13 and anti-interleukin-4 agents versus placebo, anti-interleukin-5 or anti-immunoglobulin-E agents, for people with asthma. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2021 (10): CD012929. ISSN 1469-493X
Johansson, J. and Edwards, M., 2021. Exploring caring leadership through a feminist ethic of care: the case of a sporty CEO. Leadership. ISSN 1742-7150.
Froggatt, K., Payne, S., Morbey, H., Edwards, M., Finne-Soveri, H., Gambassi, G., Pasman, H.R., Szczerbinska, K. and Van Den Block, L., 2017. Palliative care development in European care homes and nursing homes: application of a typology of implementation. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 18 (6), 550.e7-550.e14. ISSN 1525-8610
Report
Ridgway, M; Oldridge, L; Edwards, M; Kougiannou, N; Pass, S; Lawley, S; Caven, V. 2023. Equality, diversity, and inclusivity in engineering, 2013 to 2022: a review.
Chapter in book
Edwards, M., Oldridge, L. and Ridgway, M., 2023. Writing as resistance. In: I. FATIMAWATI, A. BADIOZAMAN, V.M. LING and K.D. SANDHU, eds., Women in academia: stories and strategies for navigating the career trajectory. Taylor & Francis.
Edwards, M., 2020. Ethnography in applied health research. In: C. WALSHE and S. BREARLEY, eds., Handbook of theory and methods in applied health research. Questions, methods and choices. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing, pp. 88-106. ISBN 9781785363207
Conference contribution
Oldridge, L., Edwards, M. and Ridgway, M., 2021. Uncensored? Writing our resistance as an act of self-care. In: Gender in Business Schools Conference, Online, 11 October 2021.
Edwards, M., 2021. A Winnicottian approach to the lack of care for educators in the UK education system: how creativity, true self expression and hope are being lost. In: Winnicott: A Present for the Future, Virtual, 25-26 September 2021.
Ridgway, M., Chen, G., Edwards, M. and Pass, S., 2021. Just trying to survive: collective reflections of academic mothers. In: A Gendered Pandemic: Covid 19 and Questions of Gender (in)equalities, Virtual, 15 January 2021.
Professional or trade journal contribution
Edwards, M.J. and Crump, N.J., 2017. Rational and Winnicottian wellbeing 'at work'. Psychotherapy Section Review (60). ISSN 1747-1761
Review
Edwards, M., 2016. Book review: Psychoanalytic geographies edited by Paul Kingsbury and Steve Pile. Cultural Geographies, 23 (1), pp. 172-173. ISSN 1474-4740
