Email: portico-services@ucl.ac.uk
Help Desk: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ras/portico/helpdesk
- Associate Professor of Sociology
- IOE - Education, Practice & Society
- UCL Institute of Education
I joined UCL in May 2019 as Associate Professor in Sociology and the Deputy Programme Director for UCL's new BSc in Sociology. Prior to this, my career history is:
- Reader, Department of Sociology, Roehampton University (2016-2019).
- Senior Researcher, Centre on Migration, Policy & Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford (2012-2016).
- Research and Teaching Fellow, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge (2006-2012).
- Lecturer in Sociology, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (2002-2005).
- PhD candidate in Sociology & Social Anthropology and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Hull (1998-2002).
- BA(hons) degree (first class) in Sociology & Social Anthropology with Development Studies, University of Hull (1994-1997).




My early work explored international retirement migration, and used ethnographic research to understand how later-life migration enabled the re-imagining of ageing and social class identities. Over recent years, my research has focused on urban responses to migrants and their consequences for social justice. From 2016-2019, I led mixed-methods research into city-led innovation in asylum seeker reception, evaluating the Utrecht Refugee Launchpad in the Netherlands, funded by the EC’s Urban Innovative Actions (UIA) scheme. Our evaluation was selected as a good practice by the UIA, and drew out learning from the initiative’s use of co-housing and co-learning to address local hostility, and improve newcomers' wellbeing and labour market prospects. From 2012-2014 I led a four-country international study on rights and entitlements of Family Migrants across Europe, funded by the EU’s European Fund for the Integration of third country nationals (EIF). In 2015-2016, I worked with European urban governments to facilitate migrant parents' engagement with their children's schools (see here).
Parental identities is a theme I am examining further following research with the families of autistic children and young people on the experiences of the COVID-19 lockdown. This was funded by the British Educational Research Association and inspired by my own experiences as a parent.
I am a passionate sociologist who believes in using research to inform change, especially through partnerships with urban local governments, NGOs, and social enterprises. In 2016, I was part of a University of Oxford team that developed a prize-winning online tool to simplify assessment by local government and NGOs of migrant families’ eligibility for welfare and housing support. I am co-Editor in Chief of the journal Evidence & Policy, as well as Series Editor of the BSA Sociological Futures book series.
UCL Teaching:
- Deputy Programme Director BSc Sociology.
- Module leader on two second year core BSc Sociology modules: 'Urban Sociology in a Global World' and 'Identities: Sociological Perspectives'.
- Lecture contributions and supervisions on MA Sociology of Education degree
- Doctoral supervision: four PhD students and two EdD students.
Teaching qualifications:
- Postgraduate certificate in academic practice (PGCertAP) in 2005 (with distinction) University of Newcastle upon Tyne.
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2018).