I completed my PhD in Politics from The University of Manchester before joining as a Lecturer in Sociology in 2017. I am interested in political sociology, critical pedagogy, social movements, sociology of sport (particularly issues of class and gender), and young people’s inclusion in political processes. Some of my work has been published in Social Movement Studies, Critical Sociology, Current Sociology, European Journal for Sport and Society, Power and Education, and Open Democracy.

Since joining Manchester, I have held numerous leadership positions including Sociology’s Undergraduate Programme Director (2021 – 2023), Deputy Head of Sociology (2023 – 2024), School of Social Sciences Deputy Director of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience (2024 – 2025), and I am currently the School of Social Sciences Director of Teaching, Learning and Student Experience.

As a political sociologist, I have a number of research interests ranging from education, authoritarianism and resistance in the Middle East and North Africa, especially Egypt, to examining Rugby League as a working-class ‘rebel’ sport in Northern England.

My PhD and early research explored how education comprised a method of resistance under authoritarian contexts. Through utilising a Gramscian framework, I investigated the multifarious methods adopted and adapted by Egyptian oppositional forces to function, survive, and educate under ever-increasing state repression after the uprisings of 2011. Additionally, I focused on how the Egyptian formal education system played an important, yet underwhelming political socialisation role under the regimes of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, and Hosni Mubarak. As a result, I argued for the need to view formal education as a politicised aspect of contemporary society. My arguments were underpinned by the theories of Antonio Gramsci where I was interested in understanding their capacity to ‘travel’ to Global South contexts without losing their critical and analytical vigour. The four articles published in Social Movement Studies, Critical Sociology, Current Sociology (where I was featured as Sociologist of the Month in July 2022) and Power and Education offer a more detailed elaboration of my theoretical and methodological approaches, as well as the arguments developed as a result.

I am currently working on two research projects. The first, with Hilary Pikington, on a Horizon Europe-funded project entitled the interSectIonal iNClusion in delibeRation and participatiON with Youth (SINCRONY). The project looks at the experiences of young people in deliberative and participatory processes and aims to improve the intersectional inclusion of marginalised young people. The project runs across Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, Finland and Denmark as well as the UK. More information can be found here: https://sincronyproject.eu/

The second project is Rugby League: A Rebel Sport in Uncertain times, which focuses on Rugby league, class and communities in Northern England. Rugby league has been historically viewed as a ‘rebel’ sport, operating outside the establishment and with its own traditions of equality and democracy. I am interrogating this further by understanding whether its historic drive for inclusivity, equality, and democracy still shapes it and its communities today. In other words, can Rugby league offer a lens to explore undergoing changes in working-class identities, communal ties, and what it means to protest inequalities in contemporary Britain? As part of this investigation, I have co-authored a paper with Karl Spracklen published in the European Journal for Sport and Society, which interrogated the stereotypes of rugby league as a sport that has struggled to reinvent its northern, (de)-industrial, white, working-class, and (hetero)-masculine image.

My teaching commitments vary from year to year. However, the following are indicative of my teaching contributions:

Year 1

• SOCY10401 Inequalities in Contemporary British Society

Year 2

• SOCY20052 Education and Society

Teaching qualification

I am a Senior Fellow of Advance HE (awarded in 2023).