I am a Lecturer in Higher Education, and my main research interests relate to how we can conceptualise and investigate how different groups experience and negotiate being at - or working in - universities. Much of my work to date has been with students, but I am increasingly interested in the dynamics across and between staff and students. This incorporates relational and social justice questions around personal and professional identity, organisational cultures and practices, and the geographical and physical aspects of university campuses. I am particularly interested in exploring how these questions compare on a domestic, as well as international, basis.

Alongside and within this work, I am actively involved in moves to decolonise higher education, Lancaster University, and my own practice.

I am interested in supervising research projects which relate to one or more of the following topics: understandings of the sociomaterial nature of universities and campuses; decolonising higher education; student or staff experiences of higher education; the creation, implementation, and effects of (higher) education policy; international comparative studies;

Following a period working for government agencies in the UK and then New Zealand, I took a sabbatical period in Japan, teaching English for a few years. I then returned to university to take a Master's in Educational Research Methods and then an ESRC-funded PhD. After completing my doctorate I worked as a research assistant on a widening participation project as well as coordinating staff development partnership schemes between four universities. Before moving to Lancaster I was a Senior Lecturer in Education Studies at Liverpool Hope University. 

I have recently completed an internally funded project on the awarding gap in relation to those from racial/ethnic minorities. Prior to this I was awarded funding by the Society for Research into Higher Education, for a project titled 'The 3-D University’, which explores how universities' organisational culture, social composition, and geography, influence students' experiences. 

Before coming to Lancaster I was a co-investigator on a four-person project investigating how different universities manage their doctoral provision in the face of complex policy, social, and cultural pressures.

I am an avid Twitterer @ddubdrahcir and maintain a personal blog called Stuff About Unis on all things HE.

BA (Hons) Psychology and Management - Leeds Trinity University

MSc Educational Research Methodology - University of Oxford

PhD Sociology of Higher Education - University of Bristol

PGCert Learning and Teaching in Higher Education - Liverpool Hope University