I am a researcher in the areas of sport sociology and sport development, interested in sport for development, sport and gender, the use of sport and physical activity as a tool or vehicle for social development and change, and ethnographic research.  Specifically, I am interested in military veterans and the use of sport and physical activity as a tool to understand, facilitate and support their transition and reintegration into civilian life. 

My recent work focuses on the evaluation of a three-year sport and physical activity based military veteran support programme delivered in England.  This project involves working with several sports clubs, veteran charities, and local authorities to evaluate the impact of the programme and identify key lesson learning in regard to programme delivery and development.  This project seeks to understand the realties and challenges of a delivering a sport-based support programme for military veterans, as well as understanding the unique experiences of veterans undertaking the military to civilian transition and reintegrating into civilian life. 

I currently teach in areas including sport development, global issues in sport, sport tourism and outdoor education, recreation, and sport. 

I am interested in working with researchers or postgraduate students to explore issues related to the following;

• Monitoring and evaluation in sport for development
• The experiences of female veterans undertaking the military to civilian transition
• The use of sport as a tool to support the family members of military veterans, and their inclusion in sport based veteran support provisions?
• How sport and physical activity can be used as a tool/vehicle to support transition, and communities undertaking a transition (such as refugees, offenders, military personnel).
• The impact of the Invictus Games on participants, the host city and public perception.

I am also interested in qualitative research methods, continuing my work on ethnography, and understanding the challenges, consideration and complexities of using this research approach.  

Given my interest in military and veteran populations, I am keen to collaborate with any sporting or military organisations and charities regarding the development of their provisions targeted towards these communities.  I am able to provide research and recommendations for the creation, development and delivery of programmes, projects and provisions that seek to use sport and physical activity as a tool to support serving and ex-service personnel in their transition from the military into civilian life.