Geraldine’s background is in Sociology and Social Policy and the focus of her research includes exploring individual’s and group’s experiences of public policy and practice, community engagement and community action. A key aspect of her work is to consider factors which contribute how individuals and groups experience exclusion or marginalisation and, in so doing identify ways of bringing about ‘change’.

Geraldine takes a community development approach to her work and has undertaken research with ‘pregnant teenagers and young parents’, ‘Black and Minority Ethnic communities’, ‘older people with a mental health need’ and men and women who come to the attention of the criminal justice system. Geraldine’s doctoral thesis focused on understanding the relationship between African Caribbean communities and ‘urban gun crime’.

Geraldine is an experienced researcher and has developed and delivered a range of training to practitioners, community workers and also uses her experience in teaching.

Inequality; Social Justice; Race and Ethnicity; Research Methodology; Community Engagement and Action; Children Young People and Families; Health and Social Care Policy and Practice

My aim is to undertake research that allows for the production of 'oppositional knowledge' and 'counter narratives.' Hence, research that produces knowledge grounded in the lived reality of those whose voices are often ‘missing’ and/or ‘seldom’ heard. As an activist and researcher my ambition is to engage in research that makes a difference through uncovering practical and theoretical insights. This is alongside contributing to the development of knowledge aimed at reducing the nexus between community and the academic ways of knowing and moves towards more 'intellectual democracy'.