Funding

Research funding has been received from the AHRB, AHRC, ESRC, NCRM, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Council, Home Office, Government Office East Midlands, Ministry of Justice, Leicester Education Authority, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation, The Arts Council, Arts Council East Midlands, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, A Way Out and Barnardos as well as  Walsall South Health Action Zone.

Arts Based Research

Arts based research conducted with communities includes the following. Safety Soapbox was created with residents of Walsall and Walsall Community Arts and Walsall Youth Arts. See:www.staffs.ac.uk  Outcomes from two  AHRC funded research projects on migration were highlighted by the AHRC as examples of good practice around impact. Some of this work can be seen on line at: www.guardian.co.uk and www.diasporas.ac.uk and in a showreel of images taken from the Diasporas, Migration and Identities Final Showcase Event held at Tate Britain on 10 February 2010 www.diasporas.ac.uk

Participatory research on 'Community Politics and Resistance in downtown eastside Vancouver' is documented by AHA Media at: ahamedia.ca and: ahamedia.ca. This short film documents the exhibition that emerged out of this work, curated by members of the community who worked with me as community co-researchers. 

An outcome of research with asylum seeking women and film maker Prof Jan Haaken from Portland State University can be found on YouTube. The participatory arts project examined women, well-being and community in Teeside.

This short film explains a little about the history of conducting arts based research.

In 2016 I had the pleasure of conducting participatory action research, or peer research, with A Way Out in Stockton  in collaboration with Alison Jobe, University of Durham, Kelly Stockdale, York St John University and Barnardo's in Middlesbrough,  to explore the hidden lives of sex workers in Teesside. This involves training sex workers, former sex workers and project workers in participatory action research methods to conduct the research, conduct the analysis and write the report. The report can be found here.

Walking Methods

A Leverhulme Trust Fellowship was awarded 2015-2016 and the walks I conducted as part of the fellowship can be found here: https://www.walkingborders.com

Further research projects based around walking as a research and pedagogical tool include:  A research/practice project with HMP Durham Library, writer in residence Sheila Mulhern and Dr Ivan Hill, funded by the Arts Council  that developed a crime and punishment walk in Durham  http://ghostsofourfuture.com/ 

A crime and punishment walk was later developed  in York with colleagues Dr Ruth Penfold-Mounce,  Dr David Honeywell, and postgraduate researcher  Matt Coward and undergraduate Harriet Crowder. Funding was provided  by the University of York Teaching Committee, the Dept of Sociology and the University Crime Network. http://www.yorkcrimewalk.co.uk

Current Research Includes:

N8 Policing Vulnerability Project  A Review of West Yorkshire Police's Sex Work Liaison Officer Role. Kate Brown (PI York) Sharon Grace (Co-I York)  Alison Jobe  (Co-I  Durham) and Maggie O'Neill (Co-I Cork, UCC).

NHIR: The East London Project examines how removing police enforcement practices against sex work could affect sex workers’ safety, health and access to services in East London: blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/eastlondonproject/

ESRC/NCRM: Participatory  Arts and Social Action Research addresses the UK social science community's need to gain a better understanding of how participatory action research approaches engage marginalised groups in research as co-producers of knowledge. It combines walking methods and participatory theatre: https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/research/PASAR/

More on-line rsources and our toolkit can be found here: https://www.ncrm.ac.uk/resources/online/participatory_research_methods/