Recent and ongoing projects include:

Post Doctoral Research Fellow, CoastMan

This ESRC-funded project (an International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation): Co-developing a Decision Support System for Coastal Mangrove-based Socio-ecological Systems in Eastern and Western Africa (CoastMan), explores coastal mangrove restoration in Eastern and Western Africa, focusing on climate change, ecosystems and socio-economic dynamics, especially youth future livelihood trajectories, in Ghana and Tanzania. Joining scholars from Canada, Ghana, Norway, and Tanzania with diverse disciplinary backgrounds, my role focuses on data collection, analysis, project dissemination and knowledge exchange, helping to respond to the challenges facing coastal mangrove ecosystems (April 2026 – May 2027).

Co-Investigator and Researcher for 2REST: Responsibilities for Resilience Embedded in Street Temporalities: mapping street youth lived resiliences through analysis of secondary data

2REST (2023-2026), funded by the ESRC, analysed secondary data from Growing up on the Streets using a multisystemic resilience approach and involving international partners – including academics and early career researchers in Uganda and South Africa, with an International Academic and Policy Advisory Board, including and street youth, from around the world. 2REST strengthens capacity through training and analysis, creating impactful, practical outcomes that can be used in policy development, advocacy and implementation and street youth engagement. My key responsibilities are to co-lead on our unique analysis framework, develop a collaborative coding strategy, lead NVivo training for analysis with international partners, lead on data management and ethical review processes, undertake coding and analysis, and contribute to the creation of targeted policy tools and other outputs in 2REST’s global engagement strategy.

Research Assistant, International and Canadian Child Rights Partnership: Intergenerational Partnerships While Growing up on the Streets. 

This case study for the ICCRP explores intergenerational trust relationships among street children and youth and adults, using secondary data analysis of data from Growing up on the Streets. (Sep 2022–Dec 2026).

Co-Investigator and Researcher, Youth Engagement in Analysis Programme

Devised with Professor Lorraine van Blerk, the Youth Engagement in Analysis Programme undertook a novel approach to involve Dundee school children in participatory analysis of secondary data around trusting relationships between street youth and adults such as street social workers. (Mar–June 2023).

Growing up on the Streets (legacy). Story map developed with street youth and street workers in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Street Life in the City on the Edge: Street youth recount their daily lives in Bukavu, DRC and a version of the story map in French: Vie de rue dans la ville à la frontière: Des jeunes de la rue racontent leurs vies quotidiennes à Bukavu, RDC (Jan–Mar 2022).

Researcher and Co-Investigator, Growing up on the Streets Fellowship Programme: Building Capacity and Creating Influence. Three ECR academic Fellows from Ghana, Lesotho and Zimbabwe engaged in capacity building, data analysis and co-production of academic articles at University of Dundee Jan-Mar 2020; led on NVivo qualitative analysis training and ongoing role in developing papers (Jan–May 2020). Project Extension for continuing collaboration on publications (Aug 2020–Dec 2021).

Displaced Communities, Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Livelihoods in Uganda. This project employed an innovative methodology combining qualitative and participatory methods with natural science remote sensing techniques to examine the relationships between forced migration and environmental change. (Aug 2020–Nov 2021)

Antislavery using Satellite Technology for Uganda’s Sustainability. An exploratory project into the use of new satellite image technology and how it may be used to aid efforts in anti-trafficking of people in Uganda. (Aug 2020–Mar 2021)

Growing up on the Streets (legacy) – Story map developed with street youth and street workers in Harare, Zimbabwe: In the Shadow of a Pandemic: Harare's Street Youth Experience COVID-19 (https://arcg.is/1q4WvH) (Jun–Jul 2020).

Researcher for Growing up on the Streets. Growing up on the Streets was a longitudinal, ethnographic participatory research project taking place in three African cities, co-produced with street children/youth, the research design employed a capability (rather than vulnerability) approach to their lives. (Jan 2013 – Dec 2020).

Project roles and activities have included:

• Creating story maps with street youth in diverse African contexts: See above for story maps in DRC and Zimbabwe, plus Growing up on the Streets: A Story Map by Accra’s Street Youth
• Managing data sets and undertaking first level descriptive analysis of the data and coding in NVivo.
• Quantitative analysis in SPSS and Excel.
• Collaborating with UK and international colleagues on writing and production of policy outputs, including briefing papers, training materials including award-winning Knowledge Exchange Training Pack, used globally in development of national and UN policies.
• Writing and contributing to journal articles and book chapters.

Awards

January 2017 – Growing up on the Streets won the University’s Stephen Fry Public Engagement Project of the Year Award.

December 2015 – Growing up on the Streets was awarded the 2016 Market Research Society’s President’s Medal in recognition of its extraordinary contribution to impact.

October 2014 – my Masters dissertation, ‘The Implementation of a Single Scottish Police Force: The View from the Beats’ was Highly Commended by the Howard League for Penal Reform’s John Sunley Prize.

March 2014 – Distinction, Masters in Research (Applied Social Research, University of Stirling).

University of Dundee research projects

Jan 2020 – Dec 2021: Researcher and Co-Investigator, Growing up on the Streets fellowship programme: Building Capacity and Creating Influence. 

Aug 2020–Nov 2021: Displaced Communities, Environmental Degradation and Sustainable Livelihoods in Uganda (funded by SFC/GCRF).

Aug 2020–Mar 2021: Antislavery using Satellite Technology for Uganda’s Sustainability (funded by the UK Space Agency). 

2013 – 2020: Growing up in the Streets.

2016 – 2017: Youth Transitions in Protracted Crises: Refugee Youth Experiences of Transitions to Adulthood in Uganda & Jordan.

2013: ‘Review of Trafficking of Human Beings (THB) Literature and Key Themes’ (literature review) as research assistant on the ‘Stop Traffic: Unweaving the Web of Online Human Trafficking’ project, funded by Scottish Crucible and led by Dr Jonathan Mendel at the University of Dundee.

2010 – 2012: Completed three projects with Professor Nicholas Fyfe at the Scottish Institute for Policing Research, including two evaluations into the community policing model in Fife, see: ‘Police and Community Perceptions of the Operation and Impact of the Community Engagement Model in Fife’ (March 2012).

In 2010, ‘An Analysis of Independent Custody Visiting in Scotland’, commissioned by the Independent Custody Visiting Association, included semi-structured interviews with volunteer custody visitors and assessed and compared visit numbers to those detained in police cells across Scotland. Independent custody visiting then became a statutory requirement under the Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Bill 2012.