Overview
My research interests and publications coalese around affect and emotion, subjectivity and identity; social class, motherhood, higher education, space and place, intergenerational transmission and social justice. Methodologically, my work focusses on psychosocial approaches to social research, particularly psychoanalytically inflected work. I am also interested in innovative, creative, visual and participatory methods of data collection.
My PhD research, ‘Class, motherhood and mature studentship – (re-)constructing and (re)- negotiating subjectivity’ explored the complex psychosocial dimensions of aspiration, motivation and participation in higher education as a working class mature student and mother. Taking an explicitly psychosocial approach, and drawing on my own subjectivity as a tool used in concert with an eclectic range of relational psychoanalytic work, it considered the emotional/affective and unconscious elements of aspiration and motivation, and the consequences for subjectivity as working class women, and as mothers and students within the landscape of contemporary neo-liberalism.
Biography
Education and Qualifications
- 2016 PhD (Social Science), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
- 2011 MSc (Social Science Research Methods), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
- 2008 BSc (Social Science), Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK.
Career overview
Research Roles:
- 2016 - Present Research Assistant, South East Wales Trials Unit, University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff, UK.
- 2014 Research Assistant, Forgotten Abergavenny Project.
- 2009 Editorial Assistant, ‘Subjectivity’, Palgrave.
Honours and awards
- June 2015 ‘Emotions, feelings and Findings’, FIG Event, Cardiff University. Winner of best presentation award.
- April 2016 Winner of the Audrey Jones Memorial Award presented by Wales Assembly of Women at the 2016 Annual Conference.
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Academic positions
Teaching Roles:
- 2015 – 2016 Module Convenor and Lecturer, Developmental Psychology and Social Psychology (Level 4), LEARN (Cardiff University Continuing and Professional Development).
Community Tutor, Live Local Learn Local Project, (Level 3).
- 2014/15 Module Lecturer and Seminar Tutor, Social and Cultural Psychology, School of Social Science.
- 2013/14 Module Lecturer and Seminar Tutor, Social and Cultural Psychology, School of Social Science.
- 2011/12 Seminar Tutor, Key Ideas in Social Science, School of Social Science.
Speaking engagements
- 30 April 2016 Invited Guest Speaker at Wales Assembly for Women 2016 Annual Conference – Class, Motherhood and Mature Studentship – (Re) Constructing and (Re) Negotiating Subjectivity.
Conference Presentations
- February 2016 Reducing Researcher Dominance in Qualitative Interviewing: the intersection of the novel and the mundane, South West Qualitative Research Symposium, University of Bath.
- January 2017 ‘Negotiating Ideologies of Motherhood,’ Exploring Health and Wellbeing in Early Motherhood Dissemination Event, The Cardiff Story. Cardiff.
- June 2015 ‘Emotions, feelings and Findings’, FIG Event, Cardiff University
- January 2015 ‘Reflections from the Waiting Field’, Quality in Qualitative Research and Enduring Problematics Conference, Bath University.
- December 2014 ‘Reflections from the Waiting Field’, SRHE Conference, Celtic Manor, Newport.
- September2014 Re-thinking Academic Sisterhood: Reflections of Relationships between Women in the Research Practice and within the ivory tower. Rethinking Sisterhood: The Affective Politics of Women’s Relationships FWSA Interim Conference.
Publications
2020
- Grant, A., Morgan, M., Gallagher, D. and Mannay, D. 2020. Smoking during pregnancy, stigma and secrets: visual methods exploration in the UK. Women and Birth 33(1), pp. 70-76. (10.1016/j.wombi.2018.11.012)
2019
- Grant, A., Morgan, M., Mannay, D. and Gallagher, D. 2019. Understanding health behaviour in pregnancy and infant feeding intentions in low-income women from the UK through qualitative visual methods and application to the COM-B (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation - Behaviour) model. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 19, article number: 56. (10.1186/s12884-018-2156-8)
2018
- Mannay, D., Creaghan, J., Gallagher, D., Marzella, R., Mason, S., Morgan, M. and Grant, A. 2018. Negotiating closed doors and constraining deadlines: the potential of visual ethnography to effectually explore private and public spaces of motherhood and parenting. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 47(6), pp. 758-781. (10.1177/0891241617744858)
- Mannay, D., Creaghan, J., Gallagher, D., Mason, S., Morgan, M. and Grant, A. 2018. ‘Watching what I’m doing, watching how I’m doing it’: Exploring the everyday experiences of surveillance and silenced voices among marginalised mothers in Welsh low-income locales. In: Taylor, T. and Bloch, K. eds. Marginalized Mothers, Mothering from the Margins. Advances in Gender Research Vol. 25. Bingley: Emerald
2017
- Grant, A., Mannay, D., Morgan, M., Gallagher, D. and Marzella, R. 2017. Qualitative interviews as a collaborative space: lessons from visual research methods to encourage a more participatory approach. Presented at: British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2017, University of Manchester, UK, 4-7 April 2017.
- Grant, A., Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2017. Reducing researcher dominance in qualitative interviewing: the intersection of the novel and the mundane. Presented at: Third Annual Qualitative Research Symposium, University of Bath, Bath, UK, 1 February 2017.
- Mannay, D., Grant, A., Morgan, M., Gallagher, D. and Marzella, R. 2017. Transitions in pregnancy and new motherhood: changing nappies and changing subjectivities. Presented at: British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2017, Manchester University, UK, 4-6 April 2017.
2015
- Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2015. Doing ethnography or applying a qualitative technique? Reflections from the 'waiting field'. Qualitative Research 15(2), pp. 166-182. (10.1177/1468794113517391)
- Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2015. Reflections from the waiting field: engendering quality time in qualitative research. Presented at: Quality in Qualitative Research and Enduring Problematics, Bath, UK, 27 January 2015.
- Morgan, M. 2015. Class, motherhood and mature studentship: (re)constructing and (re)negotiating subjectivity. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
2014
- Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2014. Doing ethnography or applying a qualitative technique?: Reflections from research with non-traditional, mature students in the ‘waiting field’. Presented at: Society for Research into Higher Education, Celtic Manor, Newport, Wales, 9 December 2014.
- Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2014. Rethinking academic sisterhood: reflections on relationships between women in research practice and within the ivory tower. Presented at: Rethinking Sisterhood: The Affective Politics of Women’s Relationships FWSA Interim Conference, Bristol University, Bristol, UK, 13 September 2014.
2013
- Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. 2013. Anatomies of inequality: considering the emotional cost of aiming higher for marginalised, mature, mothers re-entering education. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education 19(1), pp. 57-75. (10.7227/JACE.19.1.5)