• Professor of Gender and Education, Lancaster University

My research focuses on gender and education, in particular: constructions and performances of 'laddish' masculinities and femininities; affect and emotion in education (especially fear); sexism and gender-related violence; intersections of gender and student identities; constructions of gender in educational contexts. I have undertaken various projects on boys' and girls' motives for 'laddish' behaviours in secondary schools, leading to several articles and a book - 'Lads' and 'Ladettes' in School: Gender and a Fear of Failure, published by Open University Press. This was awarded first prize for books published in 2006 by the Society for Educational Studies (SES). I edited a book (with Carrie Paechter and EJ Renold) entitled Girls and Education 3-16: Continuing Concerns, New Agendas, that was published in January 2010 by Open University Press.

More recently, I have completed four projects:
- The first explored 'laddism' among university sports science students funded by the Society for Educational Studies (with Steve Dempster, Lancaster University and Lucie Pollard, Greenwich).
- The second was funded by the SRHE (with Vanita Sundaram, University of York) and entitled 'Are 'lad cultures' a problem in Higher Education? Exploring the perspectives and responses of HEI Staff'. A book from this project entitled 'Lad Culture in Higher Education: Sexism, Sexual Harassment and Violence' was published by Routledge in 2020.
- The third explored young people's views about gender and how gender impacts their lives (with EJ Renold, Sara Bragg and Jessica Ringrose).
- The fourth was funded by the Swedish Research Council entitled 'Staging the successful student in higher education' with Anne-Sofie Nystrom and Minna Salminen Karlsson (Uppsala University, Sweden). This project explored constructions of student identities and wellbeing in highly competitive degree programmes - Law, Medicine, Engineering Physics - in Sweden and England.

I have also conducted research on the PhD examination process in Britain and published (with Penny Tinkler) The Doctoral Examination Process: A Guide for Students, Examiners and Supervisors (Open University Press, 2004).

I am currently researching and publishing on fear in education, and also 'laddism' and gender-related violence in higher education.

• –present Professor of Educational Research, Lancaster University

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