I am a Social and Cultural Geographer interested in the lived experience of urban difference, inequalities, and social categories. I often explore these themes through the lenses of age, ageing, and the life course. Amidst profound demographic shifts and increasing demands for justice regarding generational and spatial inequalities, a key focus of my research is providing the conceptual and methodological tools, as well as a wealth of empirical evidence, to explore how specific places are shaped by and shape the variegated lived experiences of urban ageing.

Following a PhD in Human Geography at The University of Manchester, I have undertaken various roles as a Lecturer and Research Associate. Prior to this, I gained an MSc in Geographical Science and a BA in Geography from The University of Manchester.

My research spans four interrelated areas:

1. Age, ageing and the life-course

I am interested in understanding how different age categories —such as youth, adulthood, middle age, older age, and even death— are lived and experienced against a backdrop of research which equates age with the ageing biological body. Such understandings perpetuate often reductive, homogenising representations of what it means to ‘be’ a certain age as well as imaginaries of the human lifespan as following a predictable and linear course of events.

Against this, I welcome an understanding of age categories and the life-course that are not pre-given or free-standing, but as things that emerge, gather and disperse with and through unfolding events. I am interested in the power representations hold in everyday life and sense making practices, and how they structure the lives and capacities of individuals in different ways.

2. The lived experience of urban difference and inequality

My work starts from the premise that encounters are vital to understanding how difference comes to matter. I keep a twin focus on those more structural forms of difference and how difference is lived, embodied and encountered. Focusing on the lived dimensions of difference seeks to capture those aspects of life that often escape the notice of more representational and conventional accounts, keeping sight of how inequalities are reproduced and rendered meaningful. Much of this work takes place within an urban context as an arena where intensities of difference are at play.

3. Place, place-making and memory

My work seeks to understand how places shape and are shaped by the diverse lives of individuals and how we can work to create places that are more facilitative of this diversity. I am particularly interested in understanding the different ways individual life histories interrelate with the histories of places (including cities, neighbourhoods, gardens and homes) and how this shapes place-making practices. I also often consider the temporalities that go into the making of places, where the present is understood as entwining pasts and futures.

I have an interest in the ways in which places are sensorially encountered and this is perhaps best captured in my recent co-edited volume Aesthetics and the City (Routledge), which presents aesthetics as a valuable lens for critically examining the ongoing significance of ‘the city’ in urban theory.

4. Methodology and social responsibility

My research draws on a range of creative, participatory methods to better understand diverse lives. These methods include photo go-alongs, life history interviews, collage and participant packs. I aim to equip academics and practitioners with creative tools to better understand the diverse practices that comprise the everyday lives of those we research with and provide insight and inspiration for how to better understand specific place-based needs.

I understand method as a space of transformative potential and capacity building rather than as a tool for data collection. While researching, I am interested in the factors shaping what is being said and how it is said as much as what is being said. This includes a sensitivity toward the role of silences, pauses, tone, body language, mood and so on.

Across my work, I make the case for immersive, participatory, flexible and creative approaches and provide clear and practicable directions for those wanting to champion such approaches. I have also showcased the potential of social science research methods beyond the academy in the Methods for Change project.

I teach across the undergraduate and postgraduate programme in the Department of Geography. My teaching is closely aligned with my primary research focus on age, ageing, and the life-course. In my third-year module, GEOG30221 Life-Course Geographies: Social Transformation and Intergenerational Justice, I explore these themes in depth.

In my wider teaching, I focus on place, identity, representation, social and cultural geography, urban geography and creative methods.

I have recently played a key role in reforming departmental ethical processes for undergraduate students, ensuring that we are fully compliant with the University Research Ethics Committee’s requirements, alongside serving as a medium-level ethical reviewer for the School.

I have contributed to student-facing texts such as the Concise Encyclopaedia of Human Geography, the Encyclopaedia of Human Geography and Research Ethics for Human Geography.

Ellie Barker Smart and (Un)Sustainable? Empowering Manchester’s Youth to Reform the Smart City (supervised with James Evans)

Alexandra Sears Let’s Talk about Death: A Study of Affect, Space, and Lived Experience (supervised with Kevin Ward)

I am committed to producing academic work that has impact beyond the academy.

I have co-curated eight exhibitions that attracted 1,450 visitors as part of the Greater Manchester Festival of Ageing, part of the World Health Organisation’s ‘Age-Friendly Cities’ initiative. I have been interviewed by Sonder Radio, the Manchester Evening News, Canal Street Manchester and Mancunian matters about my research as well as creating several blogs, videos and methods ‘how to’ guides.

I have shaped policy approaches locally through the Manchester Age-Friendly Design Group and Age-Friendly Wider Team Meetings, nationally by providing training for the Centre for Ageing Better and the National Centre for Research Methods and internationally to the 1000+ cities and communities in the global network of age-friendly cities through making resources available through the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing.

I recently created Beyond Older Age: Approaches to Understand the Diverse Lives of Older People. This is a booklet and wider methodological toolkit for anyone who wants to engage with older people in a more inclusive, creative, and participatory way.

I am a qualitative Human Geographer and draw on a suite of creative, participatory research methods within an ethnographic approach. These include photo go-alongs, life-history interviews, collage and participant packs. I champion these approaches beyond the academy through the delivery of training and the creation of online and physical methods resources.  

I work closely with policymakers and practitioners, businesses, activists, charities and governance groups.