• Visiting Researcher at The University of Sheffield, Social research of children's play and cultural worlds / archives of cultural tradition and childhood, University of Sheffield

Catherine Bannister is a trained folklorist and visiting researcher in the School of Education at The University of Sheffield, where she has worked on numerous research projects exploring play past and present, including digital play, and wellbeing, with children, families, and communities. She works with archives of children's lived experiences, with a focus on the Archive of Iona and Peter Opie, folklorists of childhood. She has a particular interest in the cultures and customary practices of uniformed youth organisations, and her monograph 'Scouting and Guiding in Britain: The Ritual Socialisation of Young People' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) was shortlisted for the Katharine Briggs Award in 2023. She is a co-organiser of The University of Sheffield's Contemporary Folklore Research Centre (CFRC).

• –present Visiting Researcher at The University of Sheffield, Social research of children's play and cultural worlds / archives of cultural tradition and childhood, University of Sheffield

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