Qualifications: BA Hons, MA, PGCE, PhD.
I am an economic geographer and senior lecturer at York Business School (YBS), York St John University. My early research centred on examining food and general merchandise global production networks, national retail markets, and sourcing and supply networks in the UK and elsewhere from an economic geographical perspective.
I am Principle Investigator for an XR Stories Funded Project 'Sustainability Stories: Investigating the UK creative industry and the communication of sustainability'. The project brings together academic expertise in market economies and firms (York St John University), and sustainability (University of Leeds), and is exploring how SMEs involved in film, multimedia arts, advertising and immersive and interactive digital technologies can communicate sustainability transformations through creative storytelling in order to engage policy makers, consumers and market actors.
I specialise in qualitative research methods, in-depth secondary data collection and thematic analyses. I have been particularly successful at developing industry contacts and securing participant interviews within previous research projects in both UK and Southeast Asian contexts. As a result of my research, I have become highly skilled at interviewing diverse participants.
I am the Programme Lead for the Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA), launching in September 2026. The DBA is equivalent in standing to a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), distinguished by its strong emphasis on applied research alongside rigorous theoretical development.
The programme is centred on sustainability, understood broadly as meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. It explores how innovation, leadership, and technology can drive business success in ways that are both socially just and environmentally responsible.
Alongside my role as Programme Lead, I also serve as Module Lead for DBA8001M Sustainability, Ethics and Impact, where I support doctoral candidates in embedding critical perspectives alongside a robust theoretical foundation in responsible leadership and sustainable organisational practice.
I also serve as Module Lead for the MBA Capstone Project at Robert Kennedy College, where I support students in integrating their learning into applied, practice-based research.
Currently I supervise PhD candidate Bassem Abudagga "The role of the Circular Economy strategies in creating resilient SMEs toward building internationalisation in conflict zones: The case of SMEs in Palestine."
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority.
My disciplinary expertise is in economic geography, including global macroeconomic systems, production and supply networks, institutional processes, and the circular economy. At York St John University, my research focuses on sustainability in business and communication, with an emphasis on applied research.
Since 2018, my publications have addressed sustainability in supply chains, business communication strategies, and sustainability narratives in the creative industries.
I led the development of the Critical Sustainability Stories (CRISS) Tool (see criss.org.uk), supported by £29,854 of funding from AHRC Funded XR Stories at the University of York. The Critical Sustainability Stories (CRISS) is a unique educational tool that uses open ended questions to help storytellers integrate climate and sustainability issues into their narratives. The research informed questions prompt users to think critically about climate and sustainability challenges as they create impactful and informed stories. My research through the CRISS Project examines approaches to communicating climate change and sustainability and has contributed to further funding applications and a REF impact case.
In 2025 I secured £250,000 in funding from the University of Leeds Climate Fund, with Rory Padfield, for the two-year project Geosolutions: Sustainability Storytelling and Stakeholder Engagement of the Subsurface. The project focuses on translating geoscience and geology research on the energy transition into four creative events and associated audience resources using the CRISS Tool. It represents an interdisciplinary collaboration and public engagement initiative, extending the application of my research on sustainability communication.
Recent publications
Since 2022, I have been involved in knowledge transfer, exchange, and leadership through a range of projects with external stakeholders. These activities include:
Opera North Green Season (2024) – contributing to creative engagement with Opera Noth 2023 Green Season programme.
Virtual Horizons Theatre Production (with Jack Chamberlain Creative) – supporting the development of digital theatre work exploring flooding in Hull. Virtual Horizons combines virtual reality and live theatre to tell a climate story of hope and resilience.
Green Screens Researcher Residency with Nina Willment (University of Nottingham) – an immersive virtual reality project examining the sustainability of virtual reality technology.
Food on Film – a City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council-funded project focused on community food storytelling in collaboration with the Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds.
Edible Archives - The Bradford Biscuit Selection (an ACE funded Bradford City of Culture 2025 project) – a community arts and heritage initiative to celebrate Bradford diverse communities (see bradford2025.co.uk/programme/the-bradford-selection)
