I am Associate Dean – Research and Innovation in the College of Arts and Social Sciences and Professor of Digital Media, in the University of Salford’s school of Media, Music and Performance. I am also a member of the Communication, Cultural and Media Studies Research Centre and I sit on the University’s Digital Cluster Executive. You can also find versions of me on Facebook and Twitter. I joined the University of Salford in 1999 after working at the University of Manchester. Before working in higher education, I undertook several administrative roles within the UK’s National Health Service and even spent some time as a Health Promotion worker with MESMAC, a sexual health organisation. I’m interested in how people get different kinds of technologies to work for them on an everyday basis. I started out looking at this in the 1990s, generally in the workplace. However, since then I have found that developments outside work have tended to hold my attention more. I still do research about people and work, but given the way life is being played out in many (but not all) parts of the world I think there’s more to do beyond this. My current research agenda centres on analysing the development and use of the Internet and Digital Games, specifically as related to health and wellbeing, engagement, gender and sexuality.
PhD students I am currently working alongside are:
Rhianne Jones – Social Networking with a Focus on ‘the Technology’
Ben Gust – Social Networking and Public Relations Communication Practices
Abudullah Magalooth – Gatekeeping, News and Digital Media
Eileen Wattam – Social Media and Community Empowerment
Atefeh Bazzaordeh – Social Networking and Public/Private Considerations
Cristina Vascilica – Digital Media and Sexual Health Education
