I joined Canterbury Christ Church University in 2001, after six years as a Research Fellow and a subsequent six years as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Roehampton University.
In the Sociology Programme we take a team approach to teaching and as such I contribute to many modules across all three years of the undergraduate degree. I teach on the Masters programme and welcome PhD students interested in the sociologies of CAM, mental illness and higher education.
I started studying sociology at the age of 14 (I took one of the first O levels in the subject) and was fortunate to study at Durham and London university, where my love for the subject was consolidated. I am passionate about the promise that a sociology education affords, not least its capacity to foster careful, considered and critical enquiry. As such, I am a strong advocate for the recognition and support of sociology within schools/college and universities.
To this end, I have written a number of books and chapters to showcase why it has never been more important to study sociology and become a sociologist. My own expertise lies in medical sociology and this has focussed my interest in medical knowledges, inequalities and mental health as reflected in many of my research publications. However, my commitment to humane and public sociology - that which seeks to make the lives of ordinary people better, even if in small ways - has also shaped my research projects and sits behind work that has sought to explore and explain the mental health of students, violence against women and girls, and community resilience.