Profile
Academic biography
I joined the University of York in 2014 after working for 16 years in social care in the UK, Australia and South Africa with a variety of groups, including young people, people with learning difficulties and refugees. My research and teaching interests are varied, touching on different domains in social work and social policy, including marginalisation in youth and mental health; theory and practice of community; social work in different times and places; the policy-practice relationship; and power and control in social work practice. I am interested in all things qualitative and enjoy incorporating different disciplinary perspectives in my research, having collaborated across the fields of health, law, social policy and sociology.
Research
Research and PhD supervision
I am an experienced qualitative researcher who is skilled in conducting ethically sensitive and methodologically creative research with people who have lived experience of marginalisation and disadvantage. I have worked on a diverse range of projects applying creative and participatory methods, ethnographic methodology, and archival/documentary analysis. I am especially interested in critical realist and causal accounts in qualitative research.
My substantive interests touch on varying topics and themes related to children and young people, mental health, social care, policy practice, anti-racist approaches, the history of social work and international social work and development. Most recently, I have become interested in notions of community and how individuals navigate community life. I also have a longstanding interest in how frontline practitioners negotiate the various policy mandates and pressures that are placed upon them as the mediator between individuals and society, and in particular how this impacts on the work they do, and their relationships with service users. Similarly, I am interested in how service users respond to the experience of compulsion when they are compelled to engage with services.
Recent Projects
Pilot and evaluation of an 'Anti-Racism' book club: exploring the use of fictional narratives as an anti-racism intervention. Co-investigator with Dr Jenny Threlfall and Dr Kelly Devenney.
Parents and their Communities. A qualitative study of the potential for asset-based approaches to support parents with learning difficulties. Co-investigator with Dr Jenny Threlfall and Dr Katie Graham. Funded by the National Institute for Health Research for Patient Benefit Programme.
A formative Evaluation of a new resource for Social Care service users, teachers, practitioners and policy makers. Co-investigator with a team from the Health Experiences Research Group based at the University of Oxford (PI Professor Sue Ziebland). Funded by the National Institute for Health Research ‘School for Social Care Research’ fund
Gendered processes of marginalisation and disconnection: co-production with young women in North Yorkshire’s coastal towns. Co-investigator with Dr Aniela Wenham. Funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account.
PhD Supervision
I am open to PhD supervision in the following areas:
Comparative and international social work; Mental health social work and services; social work with young people; the operation of power and the use of coercion and compulsion; discretion and decision making in practice; ethical frameworks for practice; qualitative research methods, particularly ethnography; critical realist approaches; the translation of policy into practice; community-based approaches to social work; history of social work and welfare more generally.
