I am a Senior Lecturer in Criminal Justice at the University of the West of Scotland, with an interdisciplinary background spanning sociology, psychology and criminology. My work is shaped by a strong personal and professional commitment to understanding and improving the lived experiences of those who move in and out of crime, poverty and marginalisation. Prior to entering academia, I spent almost a decade working as a youth worker and community safety practitioner in Glasgow, supporting young people involved in the justice system and coordinating city-wide diversionary and preventative services. This experience continues to underpin my research ethos, ensuring that it remains grounded, collaborative and responsive to the realities of people’s everyday lives. 

My research focuses broadly on youth justice, youth studies and cultural criminology, with particular interests in street cultures, inequality, and the social and emotional dimensions of crime. I am especially interested in how young people experience and make sense of their lives within constrained social contexts, and how they navigate pathways into and out of offending. My work on gangs in Glasgow has contributed to developing grounded, theoretically informed understandings of how young people “grow in and out” of group-based offending, while my more recent research has explored the role of boredom, meaning and temporality in shaping behaviour and decision-making. 

A central feature of my research is a commitment to creative, participatory and co-produced methodologies. I work alongside young people, particularly those with justice or care experience, to generate knowledge that reflects their perspectives and priorities. This includes the use of arts-based methods, narrative inquiry and constructivist grounded theory to explore how young people make sense of their worlds. For example, my work on boredom has involved collaborative visual methods such as collage-making, enabling participants to articulate complex emotional and temporal experiences that are difficult to capture through conventional approaches. These approaches not only enhance the richness of the data, but also create more inclusive and ethical research environments, where participants are active contributors rather than subjects.

My research is strongly oriented towards impact and engagement. I have worked with a range of partners across the public and third sectors to inform policy and practice in youth justice, safeguarding and community-based interventions. Much of my work involves co-producing research with practitioners and communities to develop more responsive and effective systems of support, particularly for young people facing structural inequalities.

I am always open to working with partners across academia, policy, and the third sector, as well as prospective doctoral students who are interested in innovative, collaborative and socially engaged research. My work is driven by a desire to better understand everyday experiences of inequality and justice, and to contribute to research that makes a meaningful difference in people’s lives.