Jo Hickman Dunne

I am a qualitative researcher, and currently manage the UKRI-funded #So.Me project which is developing a measure to understand young people's use of social media and relationship to mental health and wellbeing. This product aims to both advance our understanding of young people's experiences of using social media, and champion best practice and novel methods in scale development through centring young people's voices throughout the reseach process.

Prior to working in MIE I was a Project Manager at the Centre for Youth Impact, leading research and evaluation projects and supporting the youth sector to include young people's voices in service design and delivery.

My research interests centre on young people's social and emotional development. In particular I have a focus on how individual identities shape experiences of educational spaces, and the interplay with affective and emotional geographies.

I have a passion for creative and participatory methods and champion participatory and collaborative approches that support young people to have a voice and develop their skills as young researchers, at every stage of the research process.

My PhD, completed in 2018 (Geography and Environment, Loughborough University) invoved ethnographic research with young peopele aged 11-14, exploring their experiences of the social, physical and relational spaces of outdoor experiential education. In particular, I exlpored the ways in which the physicl landscape and social environments were curated and manipulated create a learning experience, and how this played our differentially for different young people. My case study for research was the Outward Bound Trust. The final summary report written for the Trust can be found here.

Prior to the #So.Me study, I worked on a research project at Lancaster Universty, exploring womens' experineces of giving birth and using Facebook as platform for data collection. This research focused on exploring the tensions between social and medical models of birth, and how westernised, normalised birthing narratives alienate and silence the everyday stories of birthing women.