Nicole is a social researcher and author, whose expertise lies with social research practice. She focusses on the development and pragmatics of research methods and approaches for data analysis as well as dissemination. She conceptualises her work as sitting on the cusp of practice/teaching/research, thereby emphasising that each area of expertise intersects with and impacts on another.

Her exploration of research paradigms, data collection methods, and data analysis therefore recognises the researchers' interactions with the field of study, the research participants, the research contexts, and settings, as well as the variety of practices involved in developing understanding and generating knowledge through thinking-doing-being.

In that sense, her creative practices as a fiction writer and poet as well as her activist work in response to, on the back of and as research represent an extension of her conceptualisation of research practice that interweaves practice/teaching/research.