My reseach focuses on gender, activism, violence and abuse. I have supervised six PhD students to completion and currently supervise four. I'm very happy to supervise PhD projects looking at gender, violence and abuse (online and offline), and activism.  

My recent research projects include:

'Sexual harassment in the night-time economy' with Dr Amanda McBride (Northumbria Uni), and Rape Crisis Tyneside and Northumberland, 2021

'Media coverage of upskirting' with Professor Sundari Anitha (Lincoln Uni) and Dr Amanda McBride (Northumbria Uni), 2020

‘Online victimisation of women: a case of abuse, activism and agency?’  (£7k) PI, with Professor Mike Rowe British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grants 2015-16

Young women students and feminism in the US and UK’. with Susan Marine, Merrimack University, USA. 2012-16

‘Feminism and women’s spaces’ with Elizabeth Sharp, Texas Tech University. 2014-15

‘Lesbians on Screen: How far have we come?’ with Julie Scanlon and Jackie Collins, Northumbria University. 2015-16

‘Women and Activism in the North East: reclaiming the past, mapping the present and projecting the future’ with colleagues in the Gender and Society Research Hub, Northumbria University 2016-17.

My research focuses on gender-based violence and feminist activism and spans Sociology, Criminology and Gender Studies. Current work examines digital gender-sexual violations, with a particular focus on upskirting and online abuse against feminists, and sexual harassment in the night-time economy. Recent work has focused on gender-based violence in universities and activism about it; how do we transform university environments, rather than just reforming them? Earlier research examined feminist activism and identiy among students, legal responses to domestic violence, including perpetrators’ programmes, and a sociological examination of homicide.

A key reason for social changes around gender-based violence is the activism that generations of women have engaged in to change society. For my own part, throughout my career I have been involved in feminist activism and networks of various kinds, in and beyond universities. This has included helping to run domestic violence organisations, campaign for services and policy changes, organise conferences for practitioners, scholars and activists, raise awareness of the achievements of previous campaigners, and design and manage training about dealing with sexual violence.

I co-organise, with colleagues in Law and Business, Northumbria University's Gender, Violence and Abuse Research Network (GVARN) which provides an intellectual home for the many colleagues with reseach expertise in these areas. 

My teaching in the Department of Social Sciences at Northumbria University includes specialist modules - Gender, Violence, and Abuse at Level 6, and Sex and Gender in Society at Level 5. I also contribute to a range of other modules across undergraduate programmes and on our Postgraduate Training Programme.

As well as working in academia I have worked at the National Audit Office, as a Value for Money Audit Manager, and at the Women’s Sports Foundation as a Regional Development Manager.