About

General

My research focuses on utopian communities, social movements, radical pedagogy and DIY-culture. I am interested in radical forms of grassroots action and resistance to structures of domination. I aim to record hidden and marginal histories, ideas and communities and keep social movement knowledge alive.

I have recently been working on two major projects. The first looks at anarchist-inspired social movements organising mutual aid disaster relief. This has involved interviews and ethnographic research with Occupy Sandy! in New York, and London Covid-19 Mutual Aid groups. The second looks at social movements and grassroots responses to increasing automation in the workplace and society. This has involved research with worker’s co-operatives and hackspaces.

I am currently employed as a Lecturer in Sociology at UCL Institute of Education, where I will be leading modules on Sociology of Education, Gender, Sexuality and Education, and Global Issues.

Experience

From 2004-2010 I undertook an MA in Political Science then a PhD in Politics and International Relations at the University of Nottingham. Both were funded by the competitive ESRC 1+3 studentship scheme. In 2010 until 2011 I was awarded a Postdoctoral Bursary at the Centre for Advanced Studies at the University of Nottingham. In 2012 I became Research Fellow in Education at the University of East London, until 2019 when I started my current post as Senior Research Officer in Sociology at the University of Essex.

Throughout this time I have also held several part-time, hourly paid and sessional teaching and lecturing posts, I led a module on Radical Social Movements, and have given many guest lectures and have helped to co-ordinate programmes, particularly focused on Research Training. I have also worked on several small and large research projects, funded by organizations including the ESRC, EPSRC, and the University of Nottingham Centre for Advanced Studies and Centre for Integrative Learning.

Publications

A collection of my publications, including peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, book reviews and blogs.