I am a Senior Lecturer in International and Comparative Education at the Manchester Institute of Education (MIE) within the School of Environment, Education and Development (SEED).

My teaching and scholarship spans across a number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes which feature strong international, comparative, and civic-engagement components. I have acted as Programme Director for the BA Management, Leadership and Leisure from 2021 to 2023, and currently lead the BA Education, Leadership and Culture (launch in 2024/25). The latter is an innovative programme in which students authentically engage with education and educational leadership beyond formal settings, e.g. in culture, heritage and the creative industries; diverse urban communities; or digital and social media.   

I also enjoy my work as personal tutor and supervisor for students at all levels and have a proven track record of supporting students in successfully completing their BA and MA dissertations and PhD theses. 

My research focuses on the interlinks between education and mobility in the context of international education, particular higher education.

I am particularly interested in international student migration into, and across, Europe and how this intersects with concurrent forms of global migration, diaspora and exile. Commensurate with my expertise in non-/informal, place-based and civic education, I have also a keen interest in tourism, heritage and the cultural industries as sites of learning, memory formation and cultural contest.

I am member of the Higher Education Research Network (HERE@manchester) at the Manchester Institute of Education.

Email: [email protected]

PhD (Tourism and Heritage Studies), Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change (Leeds Beckett University, 2011)

MA (Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology), University of Vienna (2003)

PGCert (University of Hull, 2016)

• International education and academic mobilities
• Anthropologies of Education
• Intercultural learning in diverse socities
• Social in/exclusion and participation in international education
• Travel and tourism as sites of learning, ideological contest and memory formation
• Learning through heritage, arts and cultural events
• Place-based education 

Co-Editor - Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change (JTCC, Taylor&Francis)

Co-Convenor - SRHE International Research and Researchers Network

External Examiner (MA Education) - Department of Education, University of Bath

External Examiner and Supervisor - MSc Creative and Cultural Industries, University of Sheffield

Higher Education Academy (HEA) - Fellow

Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE) - Member

Network European Citizenship Education (NECE) - Member

Culture, Place and Policy Institute (University of Hull) - Associate Researcher

I welcome PhD applications in the following areas: 

• International and transnational higher education
• Global mobilities and/in higher education
• Diversity, inclusion and social justice in education
• Travel and tourism as sites of education and learning 
• Learning and participation through heritage and cultural events
• Childhood and youth cultures

Completed PhD supervisions (indicative theses titles): 

Dr Mary Cryan (2021, EdD) Education, transition, and self-identity among school-aged mothers.

Dr Mike Parker (2021, EdD) Resilience and students' attrition in a UK  Bachelor of Science Nursing Programme.

Dr Lee Fallin (2020, EdD) Reading the academic library: an exploration of the conceived, perceived and lived spaces of the Brynmor Jones Liberary at the University of Hull.

Dr Barbara Grabher (2020) Gendering Cities of Culture. City/Capital of Culture mega-events and the potential for gender Equallity.

Dr Ally Dunhill (2019, EdD) Shifting narratives and ideologies in the international language of children's rights. A critical discourse analysis.

Dr Steve Ward (2019, PhD by publication) The artistic and pedagogical dimensions of Circus in the UK.

Dr Safyah Aldayel (2018) The use of wiki technology in support of self-regulated learning among female university students in Saudi Arabia.

Dr Erica Lau (2017) Intercultural communities of practice in UK - Hong Kong transnational higher education partnerships.

Dr Alys Mendus (2017) A rhizomatic edge-ucation: Searching for the 'ideal school' through school tourism and performative auto-ethnographic-we.