Biography
I am an Associate Professor of Criminology (Learning and Teaching) and Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) Criminology degree at Edinburgh Napier University. In my role as Programme Leader I am responsible for enhancing the programme to deliver an excellent student experience, supporting and coordinating module leaders, strategic planning, management and review. I am currently module leader for Violence and Society, Violence and Society (Hong Kong), and Criminal Justice in Practice, and contribute to a range of other undergraduate and postgraduate modules. I am an Employability Lead for the Social Sciences Subject group. In 2018 I received an Above and Beyond ‘Inspiring Leadership’ award in relation to these roles. In 2021 I became the School Academic Lead for Curriculum Design for the School of Applied Sciences, supporting the implementation and development of the ENhance curriculum framework. In this role I continue to lead capacity building initiatives to enhance learning and teaching practice at school and university level.
I have led and contributed to a number of learning and teaching related projects and innovations. Since 2018 I have been a leader of the QAA Scotland Enhancement Themes sector cluster on Programme Leadership, and have led and presented at roundtable and webinar events, and produced outputs to support programme leaders. I also supported, and led the evaluation of, ENU’s institutional Enhancement Themes work on Community and Belonging at university and have published and presented on this work at national and international conferences. I am a member of the Centre for Higher Education Research at Edinburgh Napier University , and the British Society of Criminology Learning and Teaching Network steering group, leading on the award of national prizes for L&T excellence. I gained HEA Fellowship in 2016 and HE Senior Fellowship in 2022.
I have extensive experience of programme development, having supported several new programmes including: MSc Applied Criminology and Forensic Psychology; BSc (Hons) Policing and Criminology; MBA (Criminal justice); MSc in Social Research. I have been external peer for several validation/revalidation events. I am currently the external examiner for London South Bank University’s suite of criminology programmes.
In my disciplinary research, I am passionate about understanding and giving a voice to the lived experiences of those with convictions. In criminology, my areas of expertise include: experiences of imprisonment; mental health; violence; masculinities; desistance; justice involved veterans. My skills and experience are in qualitative research, particularly with vulnerable populations and in institutional settings. I led 2 funded (Edinburgh Napier and Carnegie Trust) projects exploring the lived experience of veterans in custody in Scotland and have disseminated this work at international conferences, and policy and practice focused knowledge exchange events. I am an academic link in the National Veterans in Custody Support Officer network. More recently, I completed 2 funded projects (Scottish Funding Council and Criminal Justice Volunteer Sector Forum) which explored the experiences of 3rd sector criminal justice organisations during the Covid-19 pandemic. I am currently Co-I on a funded pilot project which applies participatory action research approaches to teaching social research methods to people in custody in the Scottish Prison Service, and the RELEASE project (Chief Scientist Office funded) exploring mental health and substance use care and support after prison.