Personal statement

Claire is a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at Bath Spa University. She joined Bath Spa as a part-time member of staff in August 2012 upon successful completion of her PhD.

Claire’s research interests focus on the sociology of power, disciplinarity and governance and concomitant dominations of the social that arise from these things. As a practitioner in higher education for over twenty years, these interests extend into how neo-liberal policies can work against the ‘spirit’ of education, particularly within higher education.

Other interests include the sociology of sport, the sociology of friendship, the political ideas of Hannah Arendt, and the literature of George Orwell and W.H. Auden.

Her current teaching at Bath Spa spans sociology, social and political theory and British and international politics. Claire supervises third year and PhD students at Bath Spa.

Claire also teaches social sciences, politics and education at undergraduate and postgraduate level at another institution.

Academic qualifications

  • BA (Hons), Sociology and International Studies - UWE
  • MA, Social and Political Thought - Sussex
  • PhD, Beyond the Social and Political: A Synthesis of the Political Philosophies of Hannah Arendt and Michel Foucault -Sussex

Professional memberships

  • Fellow - Higher Education Academy

Other external roles

  • VLE co-author, Introduction to Criminology, The Open University, December 2023
  • External Consultant : Level 6 Teaching and Assessment, 'Modern Political Ideas' The Open University, March 2024
  • Research Assistant - 'GAI in Higher Education Teaching and Assessment', Pan-University Research Project' The Open University, June 2024

Areas of expertise

  • Social and Political Theory
  • Political Sociology
  • Educational practice
  • Qualitative research methods
  • Public Sociology

Teaching specialisms

Claire is module coordinator for Power/Resistance. She also teaches on:

  • Questioning Society
  • Dissertation supervision

Research projects

  • Research Assistant – First Year Review of DD101: The South west AL Experience, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, July 2009
  • Research Assistant – ESRC Festival of Social Science, 'Remembering the Floods' – Photography and Urban Ethnography Project, October 2014

External consultancy

  • External subject consultant, MA Sociology, Nottingham Trent University, April 2017
  • External subject consultant, BA Sociology, Nottingham Trent University, May 2017
  • VLE consultant, Introduction to Criminology, The Open University, December 2023.

Research and academic outputs

Go to ResearchSPAce