Lecturer in Modern Greek History

Themes: Thriving communities, Sustainability and creativity

Expertise: Urban history, history and memory of interreligious coexistence and conflict, displacement and resettlement

I am intrigued by the close relationship between history, memory, and community in multiethnic urban environments. My own research focuses on cultures of coexistence in the past and the deleterious effects of divided memories in the present and seeks to help strained urban communities thrive by building a sustainable future on a resilient memory.

My experience includes serving as a specialist speechwriter to the mayor of Thessaloniki, Greece, and working with heritage, educational, and civil society stakeholders to advance intercultural understanding. My work-in-progress recovers the adaptability of multiethnic urban elites in the post-imperial Eastern Mediterranean of the early twentieth century.

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Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature and Thought

Themes: Sustainability and creativity, Thriving communities

Expertise: Community engagement through creative practice/research; urban/rural relations; sustainability and history of transport; nineteenth-century natural history.

My research focuses on the social and cultural effects of industrialisation in the nineteenth century. I also work with arts organisations, museums, and community groups using literature to explore sense of place in smaller towns and communities undergoing major challenges now. My last book – Writing the Stagecoach Nation (2016) – explored the ways in which writers helped nineteenth-century readers come to terms with the new infrastructure of the railways in Britain by looking back to the capillary networks of the horse-drawn stage coach system.

My current research focuses on the idea of ‘provincialism’ and fictions of the provincial town c. 1820-1930 and the cultural legacy of this thinking.  I have also written about nineteenth-century practices and knowledges drawn from natural history and philosophy as an anticipation of present eco-critical thinking. I am a passionate advocate of the value of interdisciplinary research and creative practice in addressing the challenges of the present.

Professor of Management

Themes: Thriving communities,  Sustainability and creativity

Expertise: Employee share ownership, performance management, small and medium enterprises, creative and media sector

My research interests include performance management, employee share ownership schemes and their impact on organisational and behavioural outcomes (e.g. organisational performance, labour productivity, commitment and employee turnover). The research on employee share ownership and performance based on quantitative analysis using the Workplace Employee Relations Survey and similar secondary databases. Another strand of research is predominantly qualitative and focuses on employment relations in small and medium enterprises, particularly in the creative and media sector.

The project report on Employment Relations in SMEs with Professor Paul Edwards facilitated a dialogue between policy and practice and was recognised for its research impact. An emerging area of research interest is precarious employment in the Indian Film industry. I would like to work with UKDA, IOD, Film Council UK and relevant audio visual medium.