My research interests focus around social and cultural geographies of sex and sexualities; public sector LGBT equalities work; LGBT communities beyond the urban; and associated spatial inclusions/exclusions at a variety of scales. I’m interested in LGBTQ lives and politics in areas outside of cities, in new ways of understanding queerness, and in how to move past discourses of gay assimilation vs queer transgression. Uniting these interests, in 2014 I completed my PhD thesis on partnerships between public services and LGBT communities to improve LGBT equalities in rural/non-urban areas surrounding Brighton.

After completing my doctorate I have worked on a variety of international and transnational projects with and for LGBTQ people. These have involved both policy- and legislative-led change, and trying to understand the specific barriers and inequalities faced by sexual and gender minorities. A common theme of these projects, as with others, is how to improve LGBTQ lives through partnership working.

More recently I have begun to work on the complexities of the Bear community of big and hairy queer men. In a society which valorises thin and abhors fat, I ask what happens when a space is created by and for fat queer men; for ‘masculine’ queer men; for older queer men; and how are such spaces permeated and affected by wider embodied power relations.

I try to bring high energy and enthusiasm to all of my lectures, using plenty of visual and audio material. For students, I like to set a couple of important but accessible key readings for lectures – readings which are particularly famous or influential, which outline key arguments, or which review the overall literature. Usually these are academic readings, but sometimes writing or a video from activists, community groups or the media is a good way to get stuck into a topic.

At times, I teach classes which deal with troubling or potentially upsetting issues, such as the interplay between geographies of sexuality, violence, terrorism and geopolitics, which can involve graphic imagery. While it’s important for geographers to engage with such issues, I always alert students to this material in advance so they can make their own decisions about how to do so.