Directory of Staff Research Interests
* staff member can offer PhD supervision
David Abbott LLB, MSocSc, MPhil *
Reader in Social Policy
issues for disabled children and young people and their families; making transitions to adulthood; multi-agency working; disabled children living in residential settings.
Sarah Ayres; BSc, PhD *
Senior Lecturer in Policy Studies
Public administration; governance; devolution and decentralisation; English regionalism; economic development.
Sue Baic; BSc, MSc *
Senior Teaching Fellow
Dietary interventions to reduce cardiovascular disease and obesity; novel interventions to change food purchasing behaviour.
Christine Barter; BSc *
Senior Research Fellow
Child protection; institutional abuse of children;gender; peer violence; participatory research with children and young people.
Nazand Begikhani
Senior Research Fellow
Domestic and gender-based violence especially “honour” crimes.
Michaela Benson; PhD
Research Assistant
Middle class, lifestyle, migration, lifestyle migration, geographic mobility, the rural, the urban.
Georgina Bentley; MSc
Physical Activity Facilitator
the impact of physical activity on depression in patients in primary care.
David Berridge; BSc, PhD, DLitt, OBE *
Professor of Child and Family Welfare
Child and family welfare; foster and residential care for children; children in need; adolescence;education of children in care; educational disadvantage; special education; peer violence; teenage dating violence.
Gary Bridge; MA, DPhil *
Professor of Urban Studies
Social theory and the city; rationality; pragmatism; time and space and the city; gentrification; class and space; neighbourhood dynamics.
Ailsa Cameron; BA, MSc *
Senior Lecturer
The emergence of new organisational models within welfare services and the development of professional roles. Health and social care interface, the housing contribution to community care. Professional boundaries, interprofessional and interagency working. The evaluation of policy programmes. Research ethics.
John Carpenter; BSc, CQSW, MA, C.Psychol, AsFBPS, AcSS *
Professor of Social Work and Applied Social Science
Community mental health and learning disability services; disabled children and families; family therapy and family support services; outcomes of social work and interprofessional education.
Sarah Cemlyn; BA, DSA, MA, CQSW, CASS
Senior Lecturer
Gypsies’ and Travellers’ rights and their experiences of ‘welfare’;asylum policy and practice, and the implications for social professionals;human rights issues;community work/development.
Ashley Cooper; PhD *
Reader in Exercise and Health Science
Children's health and fitness; active travel; environment and physical activity; type 2 diabetes; measurement of physical activity.
Jo Coulson; MSc
Research Associate
Physical activity and mental health; physical activity in the workplace; reducing environmental and neighbourhood barriers to being physical active.
Laura Davis; BSc, MSc
Research Assistant
Children’s health; increasing levels of physical activity
Mark Davis; MSc, MPhil
Lecturer
Measurement of physical activity, exercise and hypertension.
Kevin Doogan; MA, PhD *
Senior Lecturer
Job insecurity and the 'new economy', mobility, flexibility and industrial relations at different spatial levels from the local economy to the European Union. European integration, state and society, EU policymaking.
Daryl Dugdale; BA, DipSW, PQSW, AASW
Teaching Fellow
Working with fathers where risk is present;safeguarding, assessment and inter-professional training.
Eldin Fahmy; BA, MSc, PGCE, PhD *
Lecturer
Poverty and social exclusion;fuel poverty;rural poverty;area-based initiatives, social inclusion and anti-poverty policy;participation and community governance;youth, citizenship and exclusion.
Elaine Farmer;BA, PhD, DSA, CQSW *
Professor of Child and Family Studies
Child protection;neglect;looking after sexually abused and abusingchildren away from home;foster care;reunification; kinship care; linking and matching in adoption.
Ray Forrest;MSocSci, PhD *
Professor of Urban Studies
Urban sociology; urban political economy;housing markets and housing policy;social policy;East Asia.
Ken Fox; BSc, PGCE, MSc, PhD, DSc (Hon),
FFPH *
Professor of Exercise and Health Science
Physical activity and public health, exercise and mental health; exercise and the elderly; young people and physical activity; self-esteem psychology;physical education and health.
John Franey; BEd, BA, MEd, EdD, CPsychol, AFBPsS *
DEd. Psy Programme Director
Leadership and management in local authorities; ethics in professional practice; school based multi agency group work.
Geetanjali Gangoli; BA, MA, MPhil, PhD *
Lecturer
Gender and violence, domestic violence and forced marriage in South Asian communities in the UK; prostitution and trafficking in South Asia; domestic violence and young people's experience of violence within the home in China.
David Gordon;BSc, PhD *
Professor of Social Justice
Social and distributional justice; social harm; scientific measurement of poverty and social exclusion; child poverty and human rights; childhood disability; fuel poverty; crime and poverty; area-based anti-poverty measures; the causal effects of poverty on ill health; rural poverty.
Rob Green BSc, MSc
Professional Tutor
Assessment, learning and intervention; psychological dimensions of interpersonal communication; dimensions of social and emotional development; multi-agency working.
Pippa Griew; MSc
Research Assistant
The influence of the school environment on children’s physical activity.
Anne Haase; PhD *
Senior Lecturer
Psychology and intergenerational transmission of health behaviours (physical activity and eating in families and individuals), Theory-based behaviour change interventions; Physical activity and mental health; body image, self-presentation, eating disorders and obesity.
Gill Hague;BSc, PhD, DSA, CQSW
Professorial Research Fellow in Violence against Women
Gender and violence; domestic violence;international approaches to combating violence against women (eg. in Africa and South Asia); disability and abuse; social work professional training; early childhood studies; women's studies; family policy.
Carmel Hand; BSc, PGCE, MScEd Psych
Assistant Principal Educational Psychologist/Senior Educational Psychologist
Inclusion and participation; special educational needs.
Lorna Henry; PhD
Research Associate
The state and 'the family', child neglect, gender inequality, gender and child welfare, the sociology of social work practice, research methods, research ethics, service user views.
Pauline Heslop; BSc, PhD, RGN, RSCN *
Senior Research Fellow
General health-related issues; mental health and related issues; Transition from children’s to adults services; Short-break services and supports; Poverty and social disadvantage.
Marianne Hester; MA, PhD *
Professor in Gender, Violence & International Policy
Comparative and transnational research on gender and violence; perspectives on violence against women and children in the UK, Denmark and China; domestic violence perpetrators; domestic violence in same sex relationships; child contact and domestic violence; prostitution and sexual exploitation.
Misa Izuhara; BA, MA, PhD *
Senior Lecturer
Housing and urban/social change;family change and social policy;ageing and intergenerational relations;housing assets and inheritance; East Asian social policy;cross-national comparative studies.
Russ Jago; PhD *
Reader in Exercise, Nutrition & health
Physical activity and obesity interventions in youth, measurement of physical activity and sedentary behaviour, determinants of physical activity and eating behaviour.
Kelley Johnson; BA, Dip Ed, MA, PhD *
Professor of Disability Policy and Practice
Rights and disability; deinstitutionalization; inclusion of people with learning disabilities in the community; sexuality and relationships; social change; bullying and people with learning disabilities; inclusive research; life history
Sue Jones; PhD
Research Associate
Domestic abuse and violence, male and female victims and perpetrators: parents and early years groups: attractions and barriers to service use.
Patricia Kennett;BSc, PhD *
Reader
Comparative, cross-national social policy; globalization, governance and public policy; welfare systems and citizenship in Europe and East Asia; housing and homelessness.
Sue Kilroe;BA, RMN, RGN, Dip Agric
Lecturer
Health and social care provision and practice; ‘looked after’ children policy and practice; interprofessional practice in mental health.
Anne Knight-Elliott; BSc, Med, EdD, CPsychol
Professional Tutor
Frameworks for understanding team cultures and the implications for multi-agency working.
Adele Laing; PhD
Research Associate
Disability, inclusion and empowerment.
Joan Langan;BA, MA, MSW, CQSW
Senior Lecturer
Mental health law, policy and practice; risk assessment and risk management; service user involvement, particularly in risk assessment and management; Mental capacity law and policy. Practice issues in relation to people with compromised decision-making capacity. The impact of the Deprivation of Liberty safeguards on human rights and care practice.
Rachel Lart;BA, PhD *
Senior Lecturer
Drug misuse policy and services. Mental health and marginalised groups, eg. offenders, drug users. General health and social care policy. Evidence based policy and practice.
Liz Lloyd; BSc, PhD, CQSW *
Senior Lecturer in Social Gerontology
Ageing; health and social care policies and practices with older people; social aspects of death, dying and bereavement; policies on unpaid care; the health and well-being of carers.
Patricia Lucas; BA, PhD *
Lecturer
Early childhood development; educational, nutritional and social interventions and outcomes for children; child disability, poverty and deprivation, and inequalities in health.
Eleanor Lutman; BSc
Research Associate
Kinship care; neglect; child protection; the reunification of looked after children with their parents and foster and residential care for children.
Kyle Macdonald-Wallis
Research Assistant
Exercise, nutrition and health sciences
Anna Marriott; BA, MSc
Research Associate
Health care for people with learning disabilities; dementia and learning disability; human rights of people with learning disabilities; sexuality and relationships
Alex Marsh;BSc, MSocSci *
Professor of Public Policy
Housing policy, economics and finance;theorizing the policy process;economics, organisation and management in the public sector.
Melanie McCarry; BA, MPhil, PhD *
Lecturer
Violence against women; gendered interpersonal violence; young people and interpersonal violence; forced marriage; masculinity; constructions of gender, feminist ideology and methodology; research ethics; participatory research with children and young people.
Jade McNeill; BSc, MSc
Fieldworker
Exercise, nutrition and health sciences
Shailen Nandy; BA, MSc, PhD
Research Associate
Child poverty; undernutrition; poverty measurement; international development; health inequalities and survey analysis.
Angie Page, PhD *
Senior Lecturer
Childhood obesity; exercise and self-esteem; measurement of physical activity; clustering of health behaviours, developmental aspects of eating and exercise behaviour
Christina Pantazis;BA, MA
Senior Lecturer
Social harm, crime and criminalisation;poverty, social exclusion and inequality;security and civil liberties.
Demi Patsios; BA, MA, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
The health and social care of older people; long-term and community care; cross-national comparisons of ageing policy; poverty and social exclusion ofolder people and pensioners.
Sarah Payne;BA, PhD *
Professor in Health Policy and Gender
Sex and gender inequalities in health, gender aspects of health care use and service delivery; gender equity in health, gender mainstreaming; poverty, social exclusion and health, particularly mental health.
Simon Pemberton; LLB, MA, PhD *
Lecturer
State and corporate harm; criminalisation; human rights; poverty and social justice.
Dendy Platt; MA, PGCE,PhD, DipSW, CQSW *
Senior Lecturer
Social worker's assessments of children and families; children on the child protection register; social worker's decision-making; working in partnership with families and social work education.
Sue Porter, PhD
Research Fellow
Disability, inclusion and empowerment.
Hilary Saunders; MA
Research Associate
Adoption and fostering.
Swantje Schmidt; BSc, MSc
Research Assistant
European health policy, health care systems and financing, health determinants and child health policy.
Sam Scott; BA, PhD, PGHCE
Research Fellow
Immigration; emigration; low-paid work; forced labour; skill mobility; food industry; workplace regulation/deregulation; migrant labour markets.
Simon Sebire; BSc, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Assistant
Exercise, nutrition and health sciences
Julie Selwyn;BA, CQSW, DASS, MSc(Econ),
PhD *
Reader
Adoption and fostering; permanency policy and practice; the costs of care; sibling relationships.
Ann Singleton;BA, MA *
Senior Research Fellow
International migration, asylum and human rights in the European Union; the use of migration research and statistics in European Union policy development; labour migration; international migrants in the South-West of England; trafficking of human beings; migration as crime.
Randall Smith; BA
Honorary Professorial Research Fellow
Community care policies and practices; policies for older people.
Jo Staines; BSc, MA, PhD
Teaching Fellow
Youth justice, the interface between the criminal justice and caresystems, fostering adolescents, the criminalisation of children andchildhood, and restorative justice interventions
Eileen Sutton; BA, MSc, PhD
Research Associate
Poverty, social exclusion, health inequalities, ageing and health, end of life care, provision of complementary and alternative medicine in state health care
David Sweeting; BA, MSc, PhD
Lecturer in Urban Studies
Local governance; local political leadership; citizen engagement and comparative urban governance.
Beth Tarleton; BSc, PGCE, MPhil
Research Fellow
Inclusive research and the development of accessible information;improving policy and practice in supporting parents with learning difficulties.
Janice Thompson *
Professor of Public Health Nutrition
Nutrition, physical activity and public health. Lifestyle behaviour and diabetes. Health in socially disadvantaged groups.
Ruth Townsley; BA, PhD *
Senior Research Fellow
Empowerment and social justice for disabled children, family carers and adults with learning disabilities.
William Turner;BSc, MSc, PhD
Lecturer
Practice and outcome evaluation in social policy;psychotherapeutic approaches in working with young people;gender identity and development in children & young people;research synthesis and systematic reviews in child mental health and child welfare programmes.
Danielle Turney; BA, PhD, MSW/CQSW
Senior Lecturer in Social Work
Child welfare and protection; child neglect;relationship-based practice; theorising anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice in social work.
Paula Vaisey; BSc, MSc
Research Associate
Kinship care, wellbeing, positive psychology, child and adolescent mental health.
Linda Ward; BSc, PhD, OBE *
Professor of Disability and Social Policy
Learning difficulties and disability; equal opportunities; ethical issues; accessible information; advocacy; support to disabled children and their families (especially at transition); support for parents with learning disabilities and their children, human rights.
Debbie Watson; BSc (Ed), PhD *
Senior Lecturer in Childhood Studies
Theorising social exclusion, identity and child well-being; children’s social and emotional learning; assessment of performance; inter-professional working and professional identities; interpretive and creative research methods.
Kate White; BSc, PhD
Research Assistant
Ageing and retirement; the transition from full-time work to full-time retirement; the work/life balance; policies on ageing; ageing and end of life care;the transition from self-reliance to dependence on others in later life.
Dinithi Wijedasa; BA, MSc
Research Associate
Adoption and foster care; developmental screening and early intervention; psychosocial development of children; child development in culture and context; research methods.
Val Williams; BA; MEd; PhD *
Senior Research Fellow
Inclusive research: including disabled people as active researchers; analysing naturally-occurring communication.
Emma Williamson; BA, PG Dip, PhD *
Research Fellow
Violence against women in all its manifestations; gender inequality; domestic violence and health; professional interventions and state responses to victims and perpetrators of gendered violence; research ethics; research methods.
Elizabeth Wilson;Dip in Social Sciences, CQSW, Cert in Counselling, Dip in Management of Training
Lecturer
Child care/child protection - skills in family work; anti-discriminatory policies and practices, particularly anti-racism and its impact on black and minority ethnic individuals and communities;gender issues relative to training and development in local government and voluntary sector.
Marsha Wood; BA, MSc
Research Associate
Interpersonal violence in young people’s relationships; disadvantaged groups; adoption and fostering; ethnicity.
* staff member can offer PhD supervision