I study space, how we use it, how we make our lives in it, and how we position and debate power, identity and representation through it. Much of my research is on graffiti, graffiti culture, and public aesthetics. Specifically, how individuals who produce graffiti construct their identity within their subculture, how their interaction with public space produces a type of political discourse, and how it affects spaces and those who use those spaces. I examine how graffiti's presence affects the way spaces are ideologically constructed, and how producing graffiti affects the individual from a subjective and cultural perspective.
Regarding public aesthetics, I study ghost signs. These are faded public communication and advertising signs. Studying them reveals how the city was once organized and traversed, where and why old ads were placed where they were, what they looked like, what they were for, how people interacted with them, and how they became part of the visual landscape and public memory.
I also study craft beer culture and those who produce it. I look at how those producers work to find space within a crowded marketplace that is dominated by large-scale brewers, and how they create and maintain their identity and 'authenticity' while they find their position within that market.
Additional research interests include memes, subculture studies, visual culture, deviance, politics of resistance, semiotics, and ethnography.
Courses taught on:
- Sociology
- Criminology
- MRes in Social Science
- MSc Criminology
Modules taught:
- Introduction to Sociological Theory
- Terrorism, State Crime and Political Violence
- Critical Criminology
- Spatial Sociology
- Crime and Deviance in the Contemporary World
- Sociology of Everyday Life
- Advanced Research Methods 2
- Exploring Society
- Crime and Media
- Spacial Sociology
- Advanced Research Methods
- Criminological Theory and Practice
Recent publications
Directorial Boards and Consultancy
- Board of Advisors - American Graffiti Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, USA
- Graffiti, Street Art, and Urban Aesthetics Expert - Canvas8 Consulting Group
Editorial Boards Served On
- Graffiti and Street Art Journal
- Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
- Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
Grants
January 2026 - £2,002
Travel Grant for PCA Annual Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
York St John University, York, UK
September 2025-Present - £7,164 YorkBID
Creative Director
Ghost Signs Mural
York St John University, York, UK
June 2025 - £3,472
Travel Grant for WAC-10 Conference, Darwin, Australia
York St John University, York, UK
November 2023-January 2025 - £37,305 Historic England
Primary Investigator
Ghost Signs of York: Preserving faded history and public memory
York St John University, York, UK
December 2022-August 2023 - £1,500 QR Funding
Primary Investigator
Ghost Signs of York Project: Preserving public memory and curating public space.
York St John University, York, UK
April 2019-September 2020 - £2,500 QR Funding
Primary Investigator
To Build A Better Beer: An examination of the reciprocal relationship between production and consumption in the northern England craft beer market.
York St John University, York, UK
January 2007-June 2007
Research Assistant (P.I., Robert D’Ovidio, Ph.D.)
Adult-Child Sex Advocacy Websites as Social Learning Environments: A Content Analysis
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa. USA
Journals and publishers reviewed for
- Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
- Visual Anthropology Review
- The Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice and Criminology
- Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
- Berghahn Books
Grant and fellowship review boards served on
- Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF): Seventh Independent Scholars Research Fellowship Competition
- The Leverhulme Trust
Invited talks
Urban Creativity conference, Lisbon, Portugal.
Topic: Blackbooks: Artefacts of Identity, Status, and Cultural Preservation (02/07/26)
Georgia State University - Graffiti as Crime (CRJU 4900)
Topic: The Art of Defiance: Graffiti Culture in Philadelphia. (25/01/23-25) Repeats yearly.
University of York - The Built Environment, Economics, and Ecology Seminar Research Group
Topic: Ghost Signs as Cultural Artefacts (30/11/23).
