American Studies

I grew up in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a small university town in the American South.  I earned my BA, MA, and PhD at the University of North Carolina, spending a year on exchange at Mansfield College, Oxford along the way.  I came to American Studies at Keele in 1996 and then moved to SPIRE.

My main interest is education politics and policy, which puts me in the happy position of studying what I do for a living.  I am currently working on a comparison of higher education between Europe and the United States.   I won the Keele Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2005, and was made a National Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy in 2009.

My main research interests are in public policy (particularly education) and American politics.  I have written about education reform in the U.S., particularly No Child Left Behind.  The experience of serving in university administrative posts has interested me in higher education policy.  I have been involved in various projects looking at topics that include promotion and rewards for staff, civic engagement and citizenship, assessment, undergraduate research, e-learning, and the curriculum.  My current research compares the higher education curriculum for universities in Europe and the United States.

• Mass Media
• American Politics
• Public Policy
• Political Analysis
• Citizenship
• Research Methods
• Education Policy

I have been active in university administration at Keele, co-authoring the University’s learning and teaching strategy, assessment strategy, and its new degree structure.  I am active in C-SAP, the politics subject centre of the Higher Education Academy, where I am a member of the politics reference group and specialist groups on both e-learning and assessment.

I am currently leading a project on the shape of the politics curriculum and its approach to assessment for C-SAP and the Political Studies Association.  I was the main author of an ESRC international benchmarking analysis of social science research methods in undergraduate degrees.  I have published articles and presented at conferences and workshops in the U.K. and internationally on the design and teaching of research methods in undergraduate degrees.

I speak to many high schools every year about going to university, American politics and the United States.  I am vice-chair of governors at my local primary school and was a governor at my local high school.  I am an elected parent representative on Staffordshire County Council’s Scrutiny Panel for Schools and Colleges.