I teach on a variety of modules at both undergraduate and post graduate level. Three of my favourite modules to teach though, are Cross Cultural Criminology (which is about international issues and includes, for example, the death penalty, the Scandinavian prison system, American gun crime and Mexican drug cartels); Criminology in Action (a module about professions within the UK Criminal Justice System such as policing, probation, youth justice and working in the third sector) and Explaining Crime and Criminals (which offers a critical consideration of how the media represent, for example, violent female offenders and so-called ‘natural born killers’).

I am passionate about learning and teaching, which means I strive to find new ways of engaging my students. For example, I regularly use contemporary cases in order to apply what can often be theoretical or conceptual debates; I source relevant video clips to help contextualise the issues we discuss and I strive for variety in my seminars (quizzes, small group discussions, worksheets, large group debates) in order to accommodate and complement the different learning styles of my students.

In addition, I regularly take student feedback on board to change and adapt my approach to learning and teaching. This feedback can relate to key readings I have set, activities I have planned or topics covered in the models I co-ordinate. Broadly speaking, this approach seems to be effective, as I regularly receive excellent feedback from students and was recently nominated for a teaching award.

I have always been interested in the way a society punishes its criminals, and there is no greater penalty than the penalty of death. While many countries still execute offenders, in the westernised world the USA stands alone. More specifically though it is the Southern states which continue to give death sentences, with Texas being responsible for around one third of all executions. As such, my own research has focused on the ‘Lone Star State’, exploring the myths and memories which underpin the Texan self-identity. In addition, I am also interested in the use of qualitative and interpretative methodologies with a focus on narrative analysis, and have recently published on the use of museums as storied spaces of narrativity.

In line with my interest in museums as storytellers, I am also in the early stages of developing a project which examines how policing, past and present, is represented within UK museums. This will involve collaboration with local policing museums and my hope is that we can co-create an exhibition about policing in Sussex. Due to this collection of interests, which have developed alongside my passion for a distinctly cultural criminology, I am engaged in (and excited by) the interdisciplinary links currently being developed between cultural memory studies, cultural criminology and the study of dark tourism.

In addition to punishment and policing museum analysis, I am also interested more broadly in media (re)presentations of crime, criminals and punishment. Whether these representations are fictional, factual or ‘based on a true story’ they nevertheless employ cultural scripts about what 'getting justice' really means. These stories - be they found in newspapers, films or TV shows - are significant sites in which meanings are communicated and negotiated. Furthermore, they can and do impact on our opinions and attitudes toward crime and punishment. For example, most of us will never experience being in prison; instead we rely on second-hand stories. It is these stories which inform the judgments we make and ultimately impact the way we feel about prison and prisoners. More often than not, it is these second-hand stories which ‘teach’ us about crime and punishment in the United Kingdom and around the world.

Lastly, I have also been involved in a project with Professor Yvonne Jewkes which examines how we can best support those seeking to desist from crime. Focusing primarily on offenders serving custodial sentences, the aim of the project is two-fold. Firstly, it will examine how the prison system can facilitate behaviour change and suggest ways of supporting that change upon release. Secondly it will examine how the prison itself can likewise facilitate rehabilitation by ‘designing in’ opportunities for agency and responsibilisation. This is particularly pertinent given the current and future changes likely to come about from the Prison Reform Bill.

Current research projects

• Rehabilitation by design: Influencing change in prisoner behaviour
• I have been building networks with Policing Museums across the South East in the hope of co-creating a special exhibition in the future

Previous research projects

• I have recently completed a punishment museum analysis undertaken in Texas (USA), from which I have published:
• • Prisons and Punishment in Texas; Culture, History and Museological Representation. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology series (2016)
  • “Don’t Mess with Texas”: Stories of Punishment from the Lone Star State, a chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Tourism (forthcoming)
  • Museum ethnography: Researching punishment museums as environments of narrativity. In: Methodological Innovations (forthcoming)

Research centres and groups

• Crime, resistance and security group (CRAS)
• Social Science Policy and Research Centre (SSPARC)