John graduated from the University of Leicester in 1997 with a degree in BA (Hons) Geography and Social and Economic History, followed by a research-based MSc degree in Human Geography at the same institution.

In 2002, after a short break from academia, he started an ESRC/ODPM PhD in the Department of Geography at Durham University, examining everyday geographies of multiculturalism amongst young people in the city of Leicester, England.

John then went on to work as a Research Associate on two large projects at the University of Sunderland, firstly exploring the learning and socio-cultural experiences of working-class students in higher education (ESRC) followed by digital inclusion/exclusion in Sunderland, England (DCLG).  

In 2009 John took up a Lectureship in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Sunderland in the Department of Social Sciences and arrived at Northumbria University in October 2013 as a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography. He is now an established member of the Department of Geography and Environmental Sciences, contributing through both research and teaching.  

I am a critical social geographer, interested in the connections between space, identities and inequalities. In my work I draw on a range of approaches and methods that explore the ways in which unequal socio-spatial relations are contested, navigated and negotiated. My inter-disciplinary and collaborative work is widely published through a diversity of outputs including international geography, sociology and social science journals.

I have researched several inter-related topics including the emotions of austerity and digital exclusion, but my work mainly centres around geographies of ‘race’, ethnicity and multiculture, particularly in the British context. My interests in this area were established through my ESRC/ODPM PhD exploring everyday geographies of multiculture amongst young people living in the city of Leicester. I was able to extend these interests (and intersections with classed identities) working as a Research Associate on an ESRC project exploring the cultural and learning experiences of working-class students in Higher Education.

More recently I have examined the experience of work for ‘new migrants’ in North East England (British Academy/Leverhulme), the experiences of the Zimbabwean diaspora in a post-Mugabe era and the reporting of intersectional hate crime/incidents. Through ongoing research with academic colleagues and practice-based partners, we propose the concept of ‘hate relationships’ to capture forms of ‘low level’, enduring and home-concentrated hate incidents and the forces which re-produce them. Relatedly, other current interests are around processes and experiences of home takeovers or ‘cuckooing’ and the diversity of ways in which homes might become colonised as well as pedagogical research exploring the value of self-reflection in teaching and learning our undergraduate modules including ‘Geographies of ‘race’, ethnicity and multiculture’.