I am a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, as Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University.
My research focuses on the meaning making of young children, particularly those aged under three years. I am interested in the complexity of young children’s non-verbal meaning making, and in particular I have developed a focus on their use of movement as a communicative practice. This connects with my theoretical interests in new materialism, sensory ethnography, multimodality, critical spatial theory and anthropology of childhood.
My doctorate, which I completed in 2014, looked at toddlers and their families experiencing and making meaning in museums.
My background is in community outreach and learning work at museums and heritage sites. I worked with children, families, young people and local history groups for small local museum services and archaeological sites before doing museum consultancy full time for a number of years. Completing my doctorate enabled me to deepen my thinking about things that have always fascinated me; people, stories, social justice, place, access, engagement and meaning making.
