I was a first generation university student when I moved from the West Midlands to Bristol in 2000. I didn’t realise what ‘first generation’ meant at that time, nor for many years to come. Even during my PhD, I was unaware that just 3% of academics are first generation university students [US data, tellingly, none exist for the UK], and of the low rates of postgraduate study for UK state school educated young adults.

I am passionate about supporting first generation and otherwise marginalised groups into academia. You can find out more about Oxford’s First Generation student society here, and about Oxford’s ‘Fitting in’ campaign.

I joined the University of Oxford in 2016 as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Transport Studies Unit working with the inspirational Prof Tim Schwanen, and the Centre on Innovation and Energy Demand. I also held a Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) at Mansfield College - a truly wonderful Oxford college with 93% of its undergraduates coming from state schools.

After a year or two as a Departmental Research Lecturer in Transport Studies (also at the TSU), I took up my current role as an Associate Professor in Human Geography in 2019.

Prior to Oxford I was in Aotearoa New Zealand, where I completed my PhD (2010-2013) under the watchful and caring eye of Prof James Higham and Prof Susanne Becken. This was followed by postdoctoral training (2013-2016) on the Energy Cultures programme at the Centre for Sustainability, both at Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, the University of Otago.

During my time at Otago, I helped to establish the Otago Climate Change Network - a brilliant group of like-minded colleagues from across the university who knew the climate crisis needed interdisciplinary thinking and creative approaches.

It was during my Master’s studies at King’s College, London that I first started thinking about academia as a career path, and where my wonderful supervisor, Prof Kate Maclean taught me the power and joy of academic research. Prior to this, I had been planning to train as a teacher, mostly inspired by my time in Japan working on the JET programme.

My academic path has been anything but linear - and I sometimes feel like I am still ‘catching up’ with my peers. But I feel fortunate to enjoy the job I do, to work with wonderful and inspiring people, and to get to support the next generation of scholars.