Anya is Professor of Wellbeing and Communities in the Department of Social Care and Social Work. Primarily a qualitative researcher, specialising in structural narrative analysis, she has an academic career spanning over 25 years and has undertaken a range of externally funded projects focusing on less-heard and marginalised communities in a variety of contexts, including migration and integration, housing and homelessness, BAME communities and health and social care. She has previous experience as a housing practitioner, trainer and consultant.   

Anya is a Board Member for the Somali Adult Social Care Agency based in Manchester and a member of Mosscare St Vincent’s Housing Association’s Customers and Communities Committee. She is a Trustee for Knowledge for Change, a charity which runs ethical placements for health and social care professionals in Africa. She is Treasurer of the Social Policy Association and Non-Executive Director at Merseycare Foundation NHS Trust. 

Sadiya Akram is a senior lecturer in Politics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Sadiya’s research is concerned with exploring new and alternative forms of political participation, and particularly that which relates to young people, such as rioting and urban and social disorder. More broadly, Sadiya’s research is concerned with re-politicizing social disorder especially for those at the margins of society, and re-thinking the realm of the political and how people engage with it. Sadiya’s monograph - Re-thinking Contemporary Political Participation: The Difference that Agency Makes (2019) - explores these issues at length. Her research has also been published in the British Journal of Criminology (2014), the British Journal of Sociology (2015), the Journal of Political Power (2016) and Public Administration (2017).

Khawla has worked within the field of English language education for over 13 years. Prior to joining Manchester Metropolitan University in May 2016, she worked in different countries and educational contexts. Over the years, she developed inter-disciplinary research interests that focus on language in relation to social justice, cultural heritage, identity, belonging, inclusive education and place narratives. She has a long experience of working with a diverse range of young people including migrant children and international students. She published a range of articles and reports on language and mobility, unmooring language, intercultural communication, migrant education, young people and place, and educational language policies. Khawla’s current research interests focus on re-imaging education and communication through new materialist and post-humanist perspectives. Through her teaching, research and knowledge exchange activities, Khawla is committed to raising awareness about language as a concern for social justice and a tool for symbolic violence. See Khawla’s full profile.

Paul Bason has a background in managing complex multimedia projects for prestigious museums and galleries around the world. This includes being Creative Director for the world’s largest audio-visual exhibit at Expo 2000 in Hannover. At MMU he has been responsibility for building relationships with broadcasters, agencies and other companies in the North West’s digital media sector. He has a particular interest in how digital technologies can be used to engage with marginalised groups and how these principles can be applied to harness technology for new approaches to education and economic growth.

Ellie is Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research and teaching covers twentieth century British, American and Postcolonial literature and theory, children’s literature, trauma, feminism and queer theory.

She is the author of Deconstructing Disney, and has published on Tove Jansson, Hilary Mantel, Muriel Spark, , Ali Smith, queer hospitality, cosmopolitanism and Orientalism. Recent work has included, Brexit Wounds: Arts and Humanities responses to leaving the EU, Open Arts Journal, Summer 2020, ‘Hanya Yanagihara’s Dark Archaeology of Anthropology’, Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 2018 and ‘The Globalised Garden: Jamaica Kincaid’s Postcolonial Gothic’, WAGADU: A Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, SUNY, 2018.  She was co-investigator on the British Academy funded network, ‘Troubling Globalisation: Arts and Humanities Approaches’ 2016-17.

Graduating in 1992 from Sunderland University, Pete Dale has worked as a musician, bookseller, school teacher specialising in music and, for the last eight years, an academic. In one side of his research, Pete has focussed on punk, post-punk and indie music and was a founding member of the Punk Scholars Network in 2012.  He is associate editor of Punk and Post-Punk (Intellect) and published a monograph on punk (Anyone Can Do It: Tradition, Empowerment and the Punk Underground, 2012) and another which has substantial sections on punk (Popular Music and the Politics of Novelty, 2016). The other side of Pete’s research concerns itself with music education and, in particular, the use of DJ decks and other contemporary technology which he argues can have transformative effects on learner engagement and achievement in class. This claim was central to Pete’s 2017 monograph Engaging Students with Music Education: DJ Decks, Urban Music and Child-Centred Learning and numerous journal articles and book chapters. More recently (2020) Pete carried out a study of and published a lengthy reflective report on the Ableton/Musical Futures ‘Tech Champions’ project, giving further evidence that up-to-date music technology such as Ableton Push units can help transform teaching and learning.​ 

Holly is a Research Associate on the Manchester Voices project at Manchester Metropolitan University. She specialises in sociophonetics and speech perception, and is interested in combining these methodologies to explore the social meaning of linguistic variation. Before joining MMU, she completed her PhD at the University of Sheffield, where she investigated language use amongst 11-13 year olds in West Cornwall. This work explored how the stigma associated with rurality can influence processes on language change, and how rural adolescents, just like their urban counterparts, can be innovative and creative in their language use. As part of the Manchester Voices project, Holly has also co-designed Talking About Voices, a podcasting workshop and competition about language and identity for teenagers in Greater Manchester.

Joy is a Professor of Mental Health at Manchester Metropolitan University. She has worked on numerous funded projects pertaining to mental health, inclusion and participation. Research on the exploration of stakeholder perspectives and implementation has been a strong feature of her work to date. She has a background in forensic mental health and more recently her national and international focus has been upon minimising restrictive practices such as physical restraint and coercion across varied settings. She was a member of the Guideline Development Group for the NICE guidelines on Violence and Aggression: Short-term management in mental health, health and community settings. Joy has written extensively on this subject over the past 20 years.

As a result of her profile in this area and collaborative ventures, Joy was Chair Elect of the European Violence in Psychiatry Research Group, and is currently Trustee and Chair of the Restraint Reduction Network. In recognition of her work she was awarded the national mental health nursing accolade: The Eileen Skellern Award in 2014. More recently she has been made a NICE Fellow 2020-2023.

Joy has secured funding to examine a range of topics including coercion, patient safety, service user engagement, participatory action and co-creation research, the mental health act and detention. She has conducted extensive research in her field using co-production, multimethods and implementation science. Funders have included NIHR, MOJ, YJB, ESRC and the Health Foundation. She has published extensively in the area of mental health care and coercion and made a number of media appearances pertaining to the topic.

John’s practice led research explores themes of identity and self-expression through fashion and image. John is co-founder of Portrait Youth with colleague Jo Jenkinson, this ongoing collaborative project aims to record the personal and collective identities of diverse groups of young people through portrait photography. Inviting young people from Greater Manchester to take part in creative 'wear your identity' workshops that explore the communication of their identity through fashion, styling and dress. The photographs from each group are exhibited publicly, celebrating the diversity of the amazing young people of Manchester. www.portraityouth.com

Ffion is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the Department of Social Care and Social Work at MMU. She has been a registered Social Worker for over 20 years’ and has extensive experience in children and families social work practice, including consultancy roles in practice development, service improvement and participatory work with children in care and care leavers. Ffion’s academic work is focused on digital rights and inclusion, poverty, professional education and critical practice with children and young people, and she has advised on research and practice concerned with children’s participation and social work.  Ffion is committed to supporting young people’s active participation in decision making and professional education, and she has developed collaborative teaching and learning methods that center the voices of those who have experience of services, including young people with experience of social work. Ffion is currently undertaking PhD research to explore the digital lives of young people with care experience, and their awareness and interpretations of professional practices that shape and interact with their digital identities. Ffion remains actively involved in community-based youth work.

As a Reader in Educational Psychology, Claire is committed to conducting applied social psychological research, which has both theoretical and practical implications. She is particularly interested in the problems of school bullying and teenage relationship abuse. A collaboration with Prof David Gadd (University of Manchester) resulted in a major ESRC award to examine the question of how to prevent more boys from becoming perpetrators of domestic violence in later life (2010-2013). As part of this project, Claire led on the evaluation of a domestic abuse prevention education programme - ‘Relationships without Fear’. At the same time, they led a European wide project supported by a substantial grant under the Daphne III call, which involved the team working with six partners across Europe. The research findings from these two projects are presented in the book 'Young Men and Domestic Abuse' (2015). Claire has recently completed a project with West Midlands Police to evaluate the Mentors in Violence Prevention Programme and another with New Vic Borderlines to evaluate the 'Love Hurts?' play shown in secondary schools in Staffordshire. A current project with the Proud Trust is examining school bullying and mental health problems of LGBT+ youth and the role of school contextual factors.

Connie is a PhD student with the Manchester Writing School. Her project is “Whitewashing, White Supremacy and White Saviours: Reading and Writing Young Adult Fantasy”. Her research aims to formulate a new interpretation of YA fantasy fiction narratives through a post-colonial lens. Her work engages with issues of race and representation in children and young adult fiction. She is writing a novel that interrogates and reinterprets fantasy genre conventions for this age group.

Alina is a Research Fellow within the Faculty of Health, Psychology and Social Care, Department of Nursing at MMU. She has extensive experience of conducting research with vulnerable populations with complex needs, accessing mental health services and/or in contact with the criminal justice system.

Prior to arriving at MMU in July 2018, she has worked as a researcher and/or lecturer with the Universities of Liverpool, Huddersfield and Cardiff in the area of offender rehabilitation, youth mental health, policing, forensic mental health, conducting complex evaluations and employing mixed methods approaches. She specialises in applying for research funding and in the last 10 years has been successful in securing as a Principal Investigator or Co-investigator around £2.2million.

Alina's passion and goal go hand in hand in relation to the reduction of restrictive practices for people with mental health difficulties or learning disabilities, focusing on action research, involvement of self-advocates and people with lived experiences and co-design methodologies.

She is a believer that mental health and physical health are interrelated and is a promoter of physical activity at all levels. And, of course, she loves animals!

Dr Sarah Parry is a clinical psychologist who works with children and young people experiencing a range of mental health difficulties. Sarah predominantly works with people who have experienced trauma and posttraumatic stress, as well as trauma-informed residential services for children in care. Sarah joined Manchester Metropolitan in 2015 and her research centres around children’s mental health, specifically signs and symptoms often associated with psychosis, such as hearing voices. Sarah and colleagues have worked within clinical and non-clinical populations to develop a more holistic understanding of sensory hallucinations in childhood, which are a common developmental feature. Sarah leads the Children in Care Research Group at Manchester Met, which currently has a number of live studies around trauma-informed models of care and practitioner wellbeing. Sarah has edited and co-authored two books exploring practitioner wellbeing for Jessica Kingsley Publishers and an international handbook on brief interventions for SAGE. Her research has been published in a variety of international journals, including the Journal of Children’s Services, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, and Trauma and Dissociation. 

Beate is a musicologist and social scientist whose research is concerned with music as communication. She is particularly interested in the impact that the performance and consumption of music has on people’s everyday lives. What is it like to be part of an audience, to scream the lyrics of your favourite song at a gig or in your bedroom? How do we connect to other people in the audience or the artist on stage? How can we make sense of our musical experiences? Driven by these questions, Beate employs a variety of research methods and methodologies. In order to understand the musical experience in a range of contexts and for a diverse group of people, she works interdisciplinarily. Beate has collaborated with scholars from criminology, linguistics, history, sound design, theatre and dance studies.  

Currently, she is involved in projects (the Lapsed Clubber, Hip Hop and Home) that aim to establish how music can help to build communities and inform a person’s identity. For a full list of publications, please see Beate’s profile in ResearchGate here.

Sadie is a Research Associate on the Manchester Voices project at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her PhD research, completed in 2018 at the University of Glasgow, focused on the linguistic and social experiences of Polish teenagers in a Glasgow high school. She also makes the award-winning podcast Accentricity (www.accentricity-podcast.com), where she tries to narrow the gap between academic knowledge about language and people’s everyday linguistic experiences. She aims to spend her academic career developing methods for the study of language which centre and empower the speakers of marginalised varieties, and to throw her weight behind the fight for linguistic equality in the UK.

Edda Sant is a is senior lecturer in education at Manchester Metropolitan University. A former citizenship and social studies teacher, her research interests lie in citizenship, political, history, and democratic education. She has worked with young people, schools, and a range of authorities developing resources related to political education and young people’s civic engagement. Among them, Edda led an evaluation of the Barcelona Youth Council, and she is currently supporting the implementation of the Council of Europe’s Competences for Democratic Culture in England. She has published in numerous journals including Review of Educational Research and British Educational Research Journal. Her 2016 co-authored article was recognised with a Children’s Identity & Citizenship European Association Award, and her book, ‘Political education in times of populism’ will be published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2021.

Graham came to Manchester Metropolitan University in 2006, following a career in probation, community safety and youth justice, including setting up and running Bury’s Youth Offending Service from 2019 to 2006. Across his career he has set up a number of innovative criminal justice initiatives. Graham’s teaching at MMU his primarily drawn on this background, focusing on criminal justice, interventions with offenders and youth justice. Now leads the Masters programme in Applied Criminology. His research has included looking at restorative justice and preventative work in youth justice; interventions with offenders designed to change their behaviour; probation; crime prevention, resettlement schemes for released prisoners and a scheme offering ‘life coaching’ to prisoners. Graham has been involved in the Greater Manchester Youth Justice University Partnership from its inception in 2014.

Helene Snee is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. She is currently conducting research on nursing, social mobility and educational reform. Her research has explored stratification with a particular focus on youth and class. She is the author of A Cosmopolitan Journey? Difference, Distinction and Identity Work in Gap Year Travel (Ashgate, 2014), which was short-listed for the BSA’s Philip Abrahams Memorial Prize for the best first and sole-authored book within the discipline of Sociology. She was also a contributor to Social Class in the 21st Century (Pelican, 2015). She has published journal articles on youth transitions and educational choice; narratives and representations of difference and inequality; and digital methods.  

Ville Vuolanto is a family historian and ancient historian, specialising in Late Antiquity and Early Christianity; he is especially interested in the history of childhood, the history of experience and of the continuity strategies for immortality, as well as in more theoretical aspects of studying and writing history, particularly around youth. His current research projects all touch on children's socialization, agency and spheres of interaction in the Roman and late Roman world. In a collaborative research project with Dr April Pudsey, here at MCYS, Child in the Ancient City. Growing Up in Roman Oxyrhynchos, Ville and April are scrutinising thousands of ancient Greek documentary and literary papyri from Roman Oxyrhynchos in Egypt, with a view to reconstructing the lives and concerns of children and young people in the city. They have published five peer-reviewed items in relation to this project and are preparing a monograph for publication. For links toDr Ville Vuolanto's publications, see: https://researchportal.tuni.fi/en/persons/ville-vuolanto/publications/

Dr Shana Zaia is Assistant Professor in Assyriology at University of Vienna specialising in the 1st millennium BCE. Her work has focused on religion and socio-economic history in the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires. Her current research investigates how young men in 1st millennium BCE Mesopotamia were educated and trained for their future roles as professionals, social actors and heads of households. She also examines the influence and impact of Mesopotamian educational traditions within the Hellenistic and biblical worlds. Her research unites traditional philology with historical and anthropological methods, and she is especially interested in bridging between Assyriology and Classics, Archaeology and Anthropology. Shana is working with April Pudsey here at MCYS developing the earliest stages of a project around youth in Antiquity. You can read more about Shana's work at shanazaia.com