My research interests lie in the philosophy of environmental and sustainability education, creative research methods, as well as political ontology in formal and informal education, policy, and research. To this end my research traverses many areas of education, including how experience, nature, place, and childhood are conceptualised in education discourse. I see education and research as necessarily responding to the materiality and politics of what is widely being called the Anthropocene.

I am the author of the book Practising Immanence: Living with Theory and Environmental Education (Routledge, 2023).  I co-edited the book New Materialisms and Environmental Education (Routledge, 2023). I have published articles in Qualitative Inquiry, Cultural Studies <-> Critical Methodologies, the Journal of Autoethnography, The Qualitative Report, Environmental Education Research, the Journal of Environmental Education, the Australian Journal of Environmental Education, Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning, and the Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education. I have contributed to UNESCO reports and made sustained contributions to environmental education research internationally.

Before starting at the University of Cumbria I held research and teaching positions at the University of Edinburgh, University of the Highlands and Islands, and the University of Brighton as well as working in professional examination services at the University of Oxford. I have worked for a number of organisations focusing on outdoor, adventure, and environmental education in the UK and abroad in both the private and charitable sectors and I have led educational overseas expeditions to the Nepalese and Indian Himalayas, China, Mongolia, and Borneo.

I currently teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses in social research methods, outdoor and environmental education, and supervise postgraduate research students in projects related to education and health and wellbeing. I have previously contributed to primary and secondary initial teacher education programmes and postgraduate courses in the philosophy of education, environmental sustainability education, and social theory. I have shared perspectives on teaching practice in blogs and podcasts for the Times Higher Education supplement.

I completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 2018, on Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari's philosophy of immanence and practise in environmental education research.

PhD Students:

• Sarah Miles
• Aly Foy

Past PhD Examinations:

• Dr Andrew Gillott - Thesis title: Where Are All the Bodies Buried? Towards a Creative-Relational Inquiry (University of Edinburgh)
• Dr Jack Reed – Thesis title: From virtual worlds to the Outward Bound Trust: A study of contemporary residential outdoor adventurous education in postdigital space (University of Edinburgh)