Author and Editor Biographies

Matthieu Adam

Matthieu Adam is a Research Fellow in Urban Studies at CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) for the research unit UMR 5600 “Environment City Society” (EVS), Lyon, France. He works on the study of public policies and social practices involved in greening the production of urban space. His research, which borrows from radical geography and critical sociology, focuses primarily on urban cycling, and secondarily on sustainable urban projects and on policies of territorial attractiveness. With Émeline Comby, he edited the book Le Capital dans la cité : une encyclopédie critique de la ville (Éditions Amsterdam, 2020).

Ros Aitken

After a long career in secondary school teaching, Ros Aitken took early retirement and gained an MA from Birkbeck College, University of London. She then spent seven years in the library and archive at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, meanwhile developing an interest in the  Gladstone family as a result of regular visits to Gladstone’s Library. She delivered numerous papers there and had articles published in a range of periodicals.

Derek Alsop

Derek Alsop joined the University of Chester from St Mary’s, Twickenham, in 2001. After serving as Deputy Head, he was appointed Head of English from 2004 to 2010. In 2003 he was awarded one of the first University Teaching Fellowships, and used the role both to develop his outreach work with English Departments in local schools and colleges, and to disseminate research into writing skills funded by the English Subject Centre. In 2010 he was awarded a Senior Teaching Fellowship.

Anthony Annakin Smith

Anthony Annakin-Smith has been studying the early collieries at Neston, Cheshire – the subject of his book published by the University of Chester in 2019 and of his PhD – for many years. He first came across them as part of his Master’s degree in Landscape, Heritage and Society at the University of Chester for which he was awarded a distinction in 2005; he previously studied landscape history at the University of Liverpool. His research interests are often focused on the eighteenth century including, for example, the maritime and industrial history of the Dee Estuary, local connections to the slave trade and, currently the Chester branch of London’s Foundling Hospital. He has also undertaken much research on aspects of the development of the Cheshire landscape. His research had led to the publication of several articles and book chapters

Peter Boughton

Peter Boughton BA, DLitt, FSA, FRSA, AMA (1959–2019) was educated at the University of Hull and Goldsmith’s College, University of London, becoming Keeper of Art at the Grosvenor Museum, Chester in 1983, a post he was to hold, with gradually increasing responsibilities, for the rest of his life. His publications included Picturesque Chester: The City in Art (1997), the Catalogue of Silver in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester (2000), and he edited the book on the sculptor, Michael Sandle entitled Monumental Rage (2018). He lectured on art and acted as external examiner at the University of Chester. Elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 2002 he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University of Chester shortly before his death.

Jaki Brien

Jaki Brien led the English team in the Faculty of Education and Children's Services at the University of Chester. She contributed to several programmes and particularly enjoyed teaching courses on writing for teachers and specialist modules on children's literature on both undergraduate and Masters programmes. She has written many short stories for educational publishers and her first novel for young adults was selected by a major publisher for their 'Print on Demand' project.

Peter Cox

Peter Cox is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Social and Political Science at the University of Chester. His research covers a wide range of topics within the sociology and politics of cycling. He has published and edited a number of books including The Politics of Cycling Infrastructure [with Till Koglin] (Policy Press, 2020), Cycling: A Sociology of Vélomobility (Routledge, 2019) and Cycling Cultures (University of Chester Press, 2015). 

Charlotte Dann

Charlotte Dann is a Lecturer in Social and Developmental Psychology at the University of Northampton. Her teaching centres around qualitative, critical, and feminist work – exploring bodies, discourses, and intersectional issues across the lifespan. She received her PhD from the University of Northampton in 2018, exploring the regulation, conformity, and resistance of tattooed women in the UK. She is currently working on two main projects – first, a multi-university project exploring aspects of parenting practices online and second, a funded project focusing on issues of diversity in higher education. She has published work on meaning-making in tattooed bodies, as well as tattooed mothers, with a monograph due to be published in October 2021. She is an editorial assistant for Psychology of Women & Equalities Review and a committee member for the Psychology of Women & Equalities Section.

Ian Dunn

Ian Dunn was educated at Queen Mary College and University College, University of London. He has been County Archivist of Cheshire and Chester Diocesan Archivist, Senior Policy Advisor and County Secretary. He was County Librarian and Head of Archives, Museums, Arts and Information for Cheshire County Council and, until his retirement in 2008, Director for Regional Affairs. He was lecturer in Archive Studies at the University of Liverpool from 1983 to 1995. He is a Past President of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire and was elected Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1988. His particular interests include architectural and ecclesiastical history and he has been Chairman of the Chester Cathedral Fabric Advisory Committee since its inception in 1992.

Peter Francis

Peter studied at the University of St Andrews and then the Queen's College in Birmingham. He was ordained into the Anglican Church in 1978. His ministry has included periods in England, Scotland and Wales. He began his ministry in the West Midlands before becoming a Chaplain at the University of London. From London, he moved to Scotland as Rector of Ayr and then became Provost of St Mary's Cathedral Glasgow. He then joined the team at Gladstone's Library as Warden, and has held this position since 1997. He was appointed to the library to widen its appeal and attract a more diverse audience. This has been achieved partly by the literary programme and Gladfest. From a religious point of view he has broadened the library from being predominantly Anglican to including all Christian denominations as well as other religions. Although The Widening Circle of Us: A Theological Memoir is Peter’s first book, he has contributed to and edited books on a wide variety of subjects: film and theology, inclusive Anglicanism, rural and urban theology, as well as William Gladstone. He is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Chester.

Claire H. Griffiths

Claire Griffiths is a Professor of French and Francophone studies. Prior to joining the University of Chester in 2009-2010, she was senior research fellow in Francophone African Studies in the WISE Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, and taught French and Francophone Studies and postgraduate development studies at the University of Hull. Her most recent work is a project exploring contemporary visual discourses of development in Francophone Africa.

Peter Madsen Gubi

Peter Madsen Gubi, PhD, MA, MA, MA, MTh, BEd, MBACP (Reg Snr Accred), FRSA, FHEA, is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Counselling at the University of Chester, UK, where he teaches on the MA in Clinical Counselling, is Programme Leader for the Doctorate in Professional Studies (DProf) in Counselling and Psychotherapy Studies, and Programme Leader/ Director of Studies for PhD research in Counselling and Psychotherapy in the Division of Counselling and Psychotherapy in the Faculty of Social Sciences. He is also an ordained Minister of Dukinfield Moravian Church, Manchester, UK. Previously he has held the positions of Senior Lecturer, Principal Lecturer (Head of the Division of Counselling and Psychological Therapies in the School of Health), Visiting Fellow and Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, UK; and has been Head of Counsellor Training at South Cheshire College, Crewe, UK (affiliated to Manchester Metropolitan University, UK).

Derek Halbert

His Honour Derek Halbert, MA (Cantab),  BA (Open),  LLD (Chester) was for 24 years a member of the Bar in Chester and then 20 years a Circuit Judge until his retirement in September 2015. He is now an Honorary Professor in Law at the University of Chester.

Stephen Harding

Steve Harding gained a Doctor of Science (DSc) from the University of Oxford and crosses the boundaries between Science and History. Trained by the man who discovered the bonds (hydrogen bonds) that hold DNA together (J.M. Creeth, 1924 2010), he instigated the DNA survey of NW England looking for Viking ancestry in the old population, working with colleagues at Leicester University and engaging heavily with the public and heritage organisations. He is a member of the Saving the Oseberg Viking Ship research team, contributing his expertise in complex carbohydrates in helping save one of Norway s national treasures. Working with Mike McCartney and the Wirral Learning Grid he set up the Schools website Vikings in Wirral where youngsters interact with Ingimund, depicted as a cartoon character who takes them through the science and history behind the study of Vikings. The site was highly acclaimed by the Times Education Supplement. Other recent books include In Search of Vikings (with colleagues David Griffiths and Elizabeth Royles) and Viking DNA (with Mark Jobling and Turi King). He has appeared on many TV and radio programmes and in 2011 King Harald V of Norway made him Ridder 1. Klasse den Kongelige Norske Fortjenstorden Knight of the First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.

Katherine Harrison

Katherine Harrison completed an undergraduate degree in English Literature, an MA in Critical Theory and her PhD thesis investigated the relationship between iconic mediated images and the cultural politics of terror and democracy. Her current research project develops this thesis into an analysis of the globalization of American visual culture and the implications for hegemony and resistance. This research attracted an AHRC doctoral scholarship award and a joint AHRC-ESRC Visiting Research Fellowship to the John W. Kluge Centre at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Her teaching is strongly informed by these research interests on the themes of representation, new media, visual culture, visual research methods, power and ideology, feminism and postfeminism. Katherine was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social and Political Science at Chester, was former Series Editor of the Issues in the Social Sciences book series, is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and now works at Leeds Beckett University.

Guy Hodgson

Guy Hodgson has more than 30 years experience in journalism, 20 of which he was employed as a staff journalist for The Independent, the Independent on Sunday and the BBC. Before that he worked in regional and local newspapers. Guy has been a Senior Lecturer for 15 years, having worked for the Universities of Central Lancashire and Chester and now Liverpool John Moores. At Chester he was Head of Media for four years, a department that comprised around 400 students and 32 staff teaching 10 diverse programmes. War Torn is based on his PhD research in History on Manchester, its newspapers and the Luftwaffe's Christmas Blitz of 1940, a study that incorporated his broader research interests: newspaper history, propaganda, press censorship and manufactured consent.

James D. Holt

James D. Holt is Associate Professor of Religious Education at the University of Chester. Prior to this he was a secondary school Religious Education teacher working in many different roles including Advanced Skills Teacher and working for the QCA as a Regional Subject Adviser. James is the Chair of Examiners for Religious Studies with one of the major awarding organisations. He is the author of Religious Education in the Secondary School: An Introduction to Teaching, Learning and the World Religions (Routledge, 2015). He holds a PhD in Latter-day Theology from the University of Liverpool where his thesis focussed around constructing a Latter-day Saint theology of religions.

Bee Hughes

Bee Hughes is an academic, curator and artist. Their recent interdisciplinary work explores non-binary and trans approaches to contemporary art and visual cultures, menstrual art history, materiality, and performativity. Their doctorate ‘Performing Periods: Challenging Menstrual Normativity through Art Practice’ (2020) explored the ways art can disrupt normative understandings of menstruation and gender. In 2020 Bee began a collaborative project as Artist in Residence at the Centre for Contemporary Art, Institute for Gender Studies, and School of Art History at the University of St Andrews. Bee is a Lecturer in Media, Culture and Communication at Liverpool John Moores University.

Bruce Ing

Following a career in nature conservation, Bruce Ing lectured in Biological Sciences at the University of Chester between 1971 and 1994, and then acted as Visiting Professor of Environmental Biology until 2013. He has studied slime moulds since 1957 and is a world authority on the group, having published more than 200 papers on slime moulds and fungi and producing the standard work on the British and Irish species.

Nikki Kiyimba

Nikki is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a registered psychologist with the UK Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the New Zealand Psychologists Board. She holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology, and a PhD in Discursive Psychology. Nikki was the Postgraduate Programme Lead in Therapeutic Practice for Psychological Trauma at the University of Chester for a number of years.  Having emigrated from the UK to NZ she now works as a Senior Educator in the School of Social Practice, Programme Lead for the Masters in Professional Practice and Chair of Research and Ethics at Bethlehem Tertiary Institute in the Bay of Plenty. Nikki is a respected international researcher and has published widely in a number of peer-reviewed journals. Her work spans research interests in qualitative methodology, child and adolescent mental health and trauma-informed working. 

Jan Korris

Jan Korris is a BACP Senior Accredited Psychotherapist in Private Practice and the Reflective Practice Group Advisor for St. Luke’s Healthcare – a charity that provides well-being services to the Anglican Clergy. Jan has engaged with two-thirds of Church of England dioceses presenting the preventative well-being philosophy to senior teams, running taster sessions on reflective practice for the Clergy and helping to set up ongoing facilitated groups. She also offers resilience and reflective practice training to the ordinands in theological colleges and designs and runs workshops for diocesan conferences. Along with her St. Luke’s colleagues, she meets with all new bishops and deans for two hours on their induction programme to encourage them to focus upon their own well-being as well as the requirements of their pending responsibilities.

Jonathon Louth

Dr Jonathon Louth is a research fellow at the Australian Centre for Community Services Research at Flinders University. Previously he was a Senior Lecturer in International Politics in the Department of Social and Political Studies at the University of Chester in the United Kingdom. His research focuses on intersections between international political economy and the philosophy and history of (social) science. This informs his research on Southeast Asia and the politics of wider economic integration (with an emphasis on Cambodia), which has generated work on gender, everyday lives, neoliberal governance, financialisation, constructions of order and the impact of economic thought upon social structures.

Rebecca Mallett

Rebecca Mallett is a Principal Lecturer at the Sheffield Institute of Education (Sheffield Hallam University, UK). Her main areas of research include “disability” in popular culture, the constitution and regulation of interpretative strategies within cultural disability studies and, more recently, the commodification of impairment. She is on the editorial board of Disability and Society, is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and co-coordinates the Disability Research Forum.

Wayne Morris

Professor Wayne Morris is Director of the School of Humanities, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities, and Professor of Contextual Theology at the University of Chester. Professor Morris was Martin McAlinden’s supervisor for his Doctorate in Professional Studies in Practical Theology. He is a former Editor of the journal - Practical Theology, and his major publications include: (with Roy McCloughry) Making a World of Difference: Christian Reflections on Disability (SPCK, 2002); Theology without Words: Theology in the Deaf Community (Ashgate, 2008); Salvation as Praxis: A Practical Theology of Salvation for a Multi-Faith World (Bloomsbury, 2014); and editor, with Hannah Bacon and Steve Knowles, Transforming Exclusion: Engaging Faith Perspectives (T&T Clark, 2011).

Paul G. Nixon

Paul G. Nixon is a Principal Lecturer in Political Science at The Hague University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. He has contributed chapters to many edited collections and has co-edited ten previous collections including Reshaping International Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (with V. P. Dennen & R. Rawal, 2021) Sex in the Digital Age (with I. K. Dusterhoft, 2018), Digital Media Use Across the Lifecourse (with Rajash Rawal & Andreas Funk, 2016) and Gender and Sexuality in the Contemporary Media Landscape, a special edition of the Information Communication and Society journal (edited with Cosimo Marco Scarcelli & Tonny Krijnen), which was published online in 2021.

Dunja Njaradi

Dunja Njaradi (PhD Theatre Studies) is a theatre and dance studies scholar working within several interdisciplinary affiliations: physical theatre, dance anthropology and contemporary dance. Dunja is working closely with selected performers and performing arts communities, including contemporary and folk dancers, mainly in South East Europe. Her research focuses on performance content as well as social, cultural and political concerns such as gender, the body, ethnic, cultural and national identity and the negotiation of tradition. She is associate editor of Journal of Dance, Movement and Spiritualities and a member of the ICTM (International Council for Traditional Music) involved in research and publishing within Music and Dance in South East Europe study group.

Cassandra A. Ogden

Dr Cassandra A. Ogden is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Liverpool John Moores University and was formerly Programme Leader for Sociology in the Department of Social and Political Studies at the University of Chester. Her PhD thesis explored the experiences of children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which fuelled her interest in exploring the social disgust of particular bodies and the stigma people face due to perceived differences of the body. Much of Cassandra’s current work utilises a critical disability studies perspective but she has also published and co-published on disability hate crime, childhood illness experiences, the social and legal responses to smoking in public and its impact upon the incarcerated, quality of life research, the narrative inquiry technique and the use of food banks in Cheshire.

Nathalie Ortar

Nathalie Ortar is Senior Researcher in Anthropology at the ENTPE-University of Lyon, France and member of the “Urban Planning, Economy and Transportation” (LAET) research unit. Her research has mainly focused on the links between dwelling and spatial mobility. Since 2010, she has been leading research on the changes in social practices that occur in the ways of living in a context of injunctions to mobility and energy transition. Her last book is Ethnographies of Power: A Political Anthropology of Energy (2021) is available via Open Access.

Lisa Peters

Lisa Peters has been the Law Librarian at the University of Chester and now works in Academic Quality Support Services. She has a BSc in Russian and Law from the University of Surrey and a MSc (Econ) in Information and Library Studies from the University of Wales. Her PhD thesis, from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, was on the subject of Wrexham Newspapers, 1848-1914. She also has a PGCertHE from the University of Chester and a CertARM from the University of Liverpool. Prior to joining the University of Chester, she worked at Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru/The National Library of Wales and the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Her research interests are in the North Wales press and the Victorian politics of North East Wales. She has been a member of the committee for the History of the British Book Trade since 2006.

Simon E. Poole

Martin Potter

Michelle D. Ravenscroft

Michelle D. Ravenscroft is a graduate of the University of Chester, where she studied English literature, education and nineteenth-century literature and culture. Michelle is an educational consultant working on projects relating to personal and social education and development in the primary and secondary education sectors. She also delivers enrichment sessions in a North Wales primary school. Michelle is currently undertaking doctoral study at Manchester Metropolitan University, researching nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century literature in relation to the Portico Library’s collection and archives.

Emma L. E. Rees

Professor Emma Rees is Director of the Institute of Gender Studies and her teaching within the Institute and for the Department of English focuses on gender and representation in literature and film from the early modern period. Her book on the 17th-century polymath Margaret Cavendish was published in 2004, and in 2013 Bloomsbury published: The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History. She has contributed essays to many recent books including one on Shakespeare and gender for Rhetorics of Bodily Disease and Health in Medieval and Early Modern England; one on 19th-century gynaecology for The Female Body in Medicine and Literature; a section on Shakespeare and the Renaissance for Studying Literature; and a chapter, co-authored with Richard E. Wilson, on Freudian fetishism, in Led Zeppelin and Philosophy. Emma was born and bred in Birmingham, moving to Chester in 1999 after living in Norwich for several years, where she taught at UEA. 

Simon Gwyn Roberts

Dr Simon Gwyn Roberts is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Chester. He was part of the team that launched the Chester journalism programmes in 2003 and has been at the University ever since. In the 1990s, he worked as a journalist and book editor in London. His current research interests include: regionalism and the representation of place, the history of Welsh newspapers, and the relationship between the news media and political devolution. He lives in the village of Higher Kinnerton on the Wales-England border just outside Chester and he has written three books.  

Ian Seed

Dr Ian Seed was Lecturer in Creative Writing, and Programme Leader for the BA in Creative Writing, at the University of Chester. His poetry, short stories, articles and translations have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. He is the author of a number of collections of poetry and short-short fiction. Among his publications is Identity Papers, published by Shearsman in 2016 and featured on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb.

Jenny Slater

Jenny Slater is a Senior Lecturer in Education and Disability Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. Her doctoral studies involved spending time with two youth groups in the north of England as well as with young disabled women running Iceland’s first and only user-led independent living centre. Her research explores youth and disability as social, cultural and political constructs. She is particularly interested in thinking about “youth” and “disability” alongside gender, sexuality and the body. In her latest research she is working with disabled, queer and trans people’s organisations to think about “access”, “identity” and toilets.

William Stephenson

William Stephenson was Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Literature at the University of Chester. He has published numerous research articles and three academic books. His poetry collection Travellers and Avatars (Live Canon, 2018) was shortlisted for the Live Canon First Collection Prize. His pamphlets are Rain Dancers in the Data Cloud (Templar, 2012) and Source Code (Ravenglass, 2013).

Sharon M. Varey

Dr Sharon Varey is a researcher and tutor. Having gained an MA in Landscape, Heritage and Society, she went on to complete a PhD on the changing landscape of Baschurch, a parish in north-west Shropshire in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Chester. Sharon is currently Publications Editor and former Chair of the Chester Society for Landscape History.

Steve Wakeman

Dr Steve Wakeman is a criminologist interested in all aspects of the sociology of intoxication. Having received a BSc and MA from the University of Chester in the Department of Social and Political Studies, he undertook his doctoral research in the Centre for Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Manchester. His research (funded by the ESRC) is an ethnographic study of heroin and crack cocaine users and dealers in North West England. He is currently a Lecturer in Criminology at Liverpool John Moores University.

William West

Professor William West, MA, PhD, FBACP, FHEA, is Visiting Professor in Counselling at the University of Chester, UK, and formerly a Reader in Counselling Studies and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, UK. He has been a Counsellor Trainer and researcher for over 30 years, and (among other things) facilitates Reflective Practice Groups for Clergy.

Hayley Whitaker

Hayley Whitaker, LLB (Chester), MA (Chester) is a member of the Bar of England and Wales and a Lecturer in Law at the University of Salford where she is in the process of preparing her doctoral thesis in the area of legal history. She formerly taught at Chester and Liverpool John Moores University on the topics of Public Law, Advocacy, the English Legal System and Youth Crime and Justice. Hayley is co-director of the Chester Legal History Forum and is interested in the value of vocational skills-based training in higher education.

Graeme J. White

Graeme White is Emeritus Professor of Local History at the University of Chester and President of the Chester Society for Landscape History, having launched the Diploma in Landscape History (later to become the MA in Landscape, Heritage and Society) at what was then Chester College in 1978. Among his publications is The Medieval English Landscape, 1000–1540 (2012).

Authors and Editors of Chester Academic Press Titles

Brian Baker

Brian Baker worked at Glyndŵr University and the University of Chester, and is currently a Lecturer in English at Lancaster University, UK. He is the author of Masculinities in Fiction and Film (Continuum, 2006) and Iain Sinclair (Manchester, 2007), and is completing the Reader’s Guide to Essential Criticism in Science Fiction (for Palgrave Macmillan) and Contemporary Masculinities in Fiction, Film and Television (for Bloomsbury Academic). He has contributed to numerous books and journals, often on science fiction. He is also currently working on science fictions of the 1960s: a critical monograph on the decade, and a critical/creative work on experimental science fiction. He teaches American literature, film, and genre fiction.  

Mark Bendall

Mark Bendall, Senior Lecturer in Social and Communication Studies at the University of Chester, obtained a First Class degree and a PhD at Cambridge University. His work has been published by a number of US and UK publishers, including Fitzroy Dearborn (2001), Bowling Green University Press (2001), Greenleaf (2004) and Chester Academic Press (2006). He was also a contributor for Communication and Corporate Social Responsibility, edited by Stephen May (Oxford University Press, 2007). His research is primarily on representation and responsibility in the fields of communications and criminology, and he is currently collaborating on a project on luxury and ethics with members of the United Nations Research Institute of Social Development, commencing a "Reading Bond" project, and contributing to studies of pedagogy.

Peter Blair

Peter Blair is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Chester, where he specialises in twentieth-century literature, colonial and postcolonial literature, and creative writing. He was formerly an editor with a publishing company, and has made numerous contributions to major reference books. Peter's poems and stories have appeared in periodicals and anthologies, and he has been runner-up in the short-story section of the Bridport Prize. He has published articles and reviews on various aspects of South African literature, and is currently writing a book on the liberal tradition in the South African novel. He is also co-editor with Ashley Chantler of Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine.

Anne Boran

Anne Boran was Head of the Department of Social and Communication Studies at the University of Chester until 2012, where she taught World Development, Latin America Area Studies, Global Political Economy and Globalisation programmes. Her research interests are labour/social movements and globalisation. She was a former series editor of the Issues in the Social Sciences Series and her publications include: Crime: Fear or Fascination?, Gender in Flux (co-editor: Bernadette Murphy), and Implications of Globalisation (co-editor: Peter Cox).

Ashley Chantler

Ashley Chantler is a Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Chester, where he specialises in twentieth-century literature and creative writing. He has presented papers and written articles and reviews on Rochester , William Cowper, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Shelley, Romanticism, Byron, Ford Madox Ford, Zbigniew Herbert, William Burroughs, and the theory and practice of textual editing. He has had poems published in various national and international periodicals and his poetry collection, In Praise of Paving, was published in 2003; he is also the author of Nana and Grape (2004), an illustrated narrative poem for children, and the novella He Is the Fire (2013). With Peter Blair, he edits Flash: The International Short-Short Story Magazine.

Meriel D'Artrey

Meriel D'Artrey was Associate Dean of the Faculty of Business and Management at the University of Chester, having previously headed the Department of Social and Political Science. She gained a first class MA from the University of Edinburgh in Politics followed by an MSc from the London School of Economics in the History of Political Ideas. She obtained her Doctorate in Professional Studies from the Centre for Work-Related Studies at the University of Chester in Teaching and Learning in Politics. She also has Fellowship of the HEA and a Post-Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. Before joining the University of Chester, Meriel was a Senior Lecturer at the Leeds Metropolitan University’s (now Leeds Beckett) Business School on the public relations and marketing undergraduate programmes, and the MBA postgraduate provision. She was Chair of the External Examiners for the Chartered Institute of Public Relations accredited international and domestic programmes. She has been a self-employed consultant advising a range of clients, many in HE, before which she worked for corporate communication agencies in the City of London (specialising in financial marketing) and as Head of Communications for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. She started out in business as a graduate trainee in advertising, public relations and marketing, following funded research and undergraduate tutoring at the University of Edinburgh in political theory.

Celia Deane-Drummond

Celia Deane-Drummond was Professor of Theology and the Biological Sciences and Director of the Centre for Religion and the Biosciences at the University of Chester. She studied Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, and gained a doctorate in Plant Physiology at the Reading and Letcombe Research Station (University of Oxford). She then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in Vancouver and Cambridge, followed by a period as a lecturer at the University of Durham, before developing her interest in theology, which led to her second doctorate, from the University of Manchester. Her publications include Theology and Biotechnology: Implications for New Science (Cassells, 1997), Creation through Wisdom: Theology and the New Biology (T & T Clark, 2000), The Ethics of Nature (Blackwells, 2004), andGenetics and Christian Ethics (Cambridge U.P., 2006). She was editor of the journal Ecotheologyfrom 2001 to 2006 and is consulting editor to its successor, The Journal for Religion, Nature and Culture.

Eric Dunning

Eric Dunning, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Leicester and Visiting Professor of Sociology of Sport at University College Dublin, has since 2004 also been Visiting Professor of Sociology of Sport at the University of Chester. His works include: Quest for Excitement (with Norbert Elias; Blackwell, 1986); The Roots of Football Hooliganism (with Patrick Murphy and John Williams (Routledge, 1988); Sport Matters (Routledge, 1999); Fighting Fans (with Patrick Murphy, Ivan Waddington and Antonios Astrinakis; University College Dublin Press, 2002); Norbert Elias (with Stephen Mennell; Sage, 2003); Sports Histories (with Dominic Malcolm and Ivan Waddington; Routledge, 2004); and Barbarians, Gentlemen and Players (with Kenneth Sheard; Routledge, [Rev. ed.], 2005).

David Charles Ford

Until 2011, David Charles Ford was Programme Leader for Sociology at the University of Chester. He gained his BA (Hons) at the University of Humberside, an MA at the University of Essex, a PGCE (16+) at the University of Huddersfield and a PhD at the University of Essex. He previously taught at the University of Essex, and held posts as Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bath and City University, London. His primary research area of interest was in Social Theory, with a particular emphasis on social inequality and disadvantage, together with explaining the socio-economic polarisation of smoking in Britain.

Ron Geaves

Ron Geaves was formerly Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Chester and Professor of Religion at Liverpool Hope University. He also chaired the Muslims in Britain Research Network and is a lifetime member of the committee. His research focuses on the adaptation of the religions of the Indian subcontinent to their respective communities in Britain. Much of it is interdisciplinary, with a concentration on field work. His major publications include The Sufis of Britain: An Exploration of Muslim Identity (Cardiff Academic Press, 2000), Continuum Glossary of Religious Terms(Continuum, 2005), Aspects of Islam (Georgetown University Press, 2005) and Islam And The West Post September 11th (with Theodore Gabriel and Yvonne Haddad; Ashgate, 2004).

Ken Green

Ken Green is Professor of Physical Education and Youth Sport and Head of the Department of Sport and Exercise Sciences at the University of Chester. He is Visiting Professor at Hedmark University College, Norway and the University of Wolverhampton. He has published articles on related issues in a number of academic journals and several books including Understanding Physical Education (Sage) and Key Themes in Youth Sport (Routledge).

David J. Hunter

David Hunter was Professor of Health Policy and Management at Durham University. He was Director of the Centre for Public Policy and Health, School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health and Wolfson Fellow in the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing. He was Deputy Director of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health. He is a special adviser to WHO Regional Office for Europe, and non-executive director with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). His research interests include public health partnerships and governance, transformational change in health systems, and prioritisation methods in investing for health. His books, published by Policy Press, include The Health Debate (2008) and Partnership Working with Public Health (2014). David is an Honorary Member of the Faculty of Public Health and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

Goronwy Tudor Jones

Goronwy Tudor Jones is an Honorary Professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. He is a particle physicist who has also taught and published widely on historical and educational aspects of science.

Roger Kay

Roger Kay was Professor of Family Law at the University of Chester from 2004 until his retirement in 2012 and appointment as Emeritus Professor of Law. He was previously Head of Law at Coventry University and had also practised Family Law as a solicitor and had lectured on professional courses at the Guildford branch of the then College of Law. His interests in Family Law are particularly in the area of adult relationships and this was reflected in the subject of his Inaugural Lecture in the summer of 2005. Whilst at Chester he gave papers at five World and Regional Conferences of the International Society of Family Law (and was a keynote speaker at the Regional Conference held at the University of Ulster, Londonderry/Derry) and had three chapters published (one jointly with Professor Nigel Lowe) in the books following the three World Conferences. He also gave papers at domestic conferences. He was a national reporter for the European Union funded project led by the Asser Institute, Netherlands on enforcement of matrimonial orders. Finally, he was the academic member of the Cheshire Family Justice Council. 

Merritt Moseley

Merritt Moseley was Professor and Department Head of Literature at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. He is the author of critical books on David Lodge, Kingsley Amis, Julian Barnes and Michael Frayn and has edited four volumes of the Dictionary of Literary Biography: British Novelists Since 1960, and, most recently, the DLB volume on Booker Prize Winners. Current projects are books on Pat Barker and Jonathan Coe. He has on two occasions been Visiting Professor in the Department of English at the University of Chester, which he regards as his second academic home.

Christopher Partridge

Christopher Partridge was formerly Professor of Contemporary Religion at the University of Chester and is now Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University. His research and writing focuses on alternative spiritual currents, countercultures, and popular music. He is the author of The Lyre of Orpheus: Popular Music, the Sacred and the Profane (2013), Dub in Babylon: Understanding the Evolution and Significance of Dub Reggae in Jamaica and Britain from King Tubby to Post-punk (2010), and The Re-Enchantment of the West: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture and Occulture, 2 vols (2004, 2005). He is also the editor of several books, including Anthems of Apocalypse (2012), Guide to New Religions (2004) and UFO Religions (2003), and co-editor of Religions in the Modern World: Traditions and Transformations (2009), The Lure of the Dark Side: Satan and Western Demonology in Popular Culture (2009), and Holy Terror: Understanding Religion and Violence in Popular Culture (2010). He is also co-editor of the series Studies in Popular Music (Equinox) and Studies in Religion and Popular Music (Bloomsbury).

John Renshaw

John Renshaw is Emeritus Professor of Fine Art and former Head of the Department of Art and Design at the University of Chester. He has been a Visiting Tutor at Manchester Metropolitan University's Department of Textiles & Fashion (Drawing) and at the Royal Academy Schools, London (Painting). He has also taught in secondary schools and colleges of further education and, during 1986-87, was awarded a Teacher Fellowship in Art Education, jointly organised by the Department of Education and Science, Chester College (as it then was) and Cheshire Education Services. In April 2003, he was an invited visiting artist at Plattsburgh State University, New York. His research interests concern pedagogy in relation to fine art practice, particularly drawing. He is also a practising artist, whose work has been exhibited in the UK, Italy, Hong Kong, Canada and the USA.

Roger Swift

Roger Swift is Professor Emeritus of Victorian Studies in the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Chester, where he was Director of the Graduate School and Director of the Centre for Victorian Studies until his retirement in 2007. His numerous publications include The Irish in the Victorian City (co-ed., Croom Helm, 1985), Victorian Chester (Liverpool University Press, 1996), The Irish in Victorian Britain (co-ed., Four Courts Press, 1999),Gladstone Centenary Essays (co-ed., Liverpool University Press, 2000), Irish Migrants in Britain, 1815-1914 (Cork U.P., 2002), Problems and Perspectives in Irish History since 1800 (co-ed., Four Courts Press, 2003), Irish Identities in Victorian Britain (co-ed., Routledge, 2011), and William Gladstone: New Studies and Perspectives (co-ed., Ashgate, 2012). Professor Swift was elected a Fellow of Gladstone's Library (formerly St Deiniol's) in 2009.

Anthony C. Thiselton

Canon Emeritus Professor Anthony C. Thiselton, Emeritus Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Nottingham and Canon Theologian of Leicester Cathedral and Southwell Minster, was Research Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Chester from 2003 to 2008. His major publications include The Two Horizons (Paternoster Press, 1980); New Horizons in Hermeneutics (Zondervan, 1992); Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self (T & T Clark, 1995);The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Eerdmans, 2000); and A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion (Oneworld, 2002); Joint Editor with Craig G Bartholomew and Joel Green, Reading Luke: Interpretation, Reflection, Formation (Paternoster Press, 2005); Thiselton on Hermeneutics: The Collected Works and New Essays of Anthony Thiselton (Eerdmans, 2006); First Corinthians: A Shorter Exegetical and Pastoral Commentary(Eerdmans, 2006); The Hermeneutics of Doctrine (Eerdmans, 2007) nominated for the Michael Ramsay Prize; Hermeneutics; An Introduction (Eerdmans, 2009 and Colloquium, 2011, Russian translation); 2009 The Living Paul: An Introduction (SPCK, 2009, Christian Literature Crusade, 2011, Korean translation);  1 and 2 Thessalonians through the Centuries (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011); Life after Death: A New Approach to the Last Things (Eerdmans, 2011); and The Holy Spirit: in Biblical Teaching, Through the Centuries, and Today (Eerdmans, 2013).

Alan Wall

Alan Wall is Professor of Writing and Literature and Programme Leader of Combined Honours Creative Writing in the Department of English. He joined the University of Chester in 2004 and holds an MA from the University of Oxford. Alan has published six novels, three books of poetry, and a book of short stories, including his latest novel, Sylvie's Riddle, parts of which are set in Chester. His works have been translated into nine languages and published in 11 countries, and have won numerous prizes. He was appointed Royal Literary Fund Project Fellow in 2007/2008 to write Writing: A Guide Book, and his book Writing Fiction was published by Collins in May 2007.