Clare Holdsworth

Biography

I joined Keele in 2010 after over 15 years at the Universities of Liverpool and Manchester working in the Departments of Geography and the Centre for Census and Survey Research, respectively. My academic background is interdisciplinary: I read Human Sciences at Oxford, followed by an MA in Demography at the London School of Economics and a PhD in Geography at Liverpool.

Research and scholarship

My research interests focus on four main themes: temporality and everyday life; family and intimate mobilities; entrepreneurship, citizenship and volunteering; and alcohol consumption over the life course.  All four themes incorporate both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, particularly creative, biographical and longitudinal quantitative methods.

From 2018 to 2021 I was recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Major Research Fellowship on ‘The Social Life of Busyness in an Age of De-acceleration’. This culminated in my book The Social Life of Busyness (Emerald 2021) and an exhibition Threading Time (Chapters Café, Keele, 2021-22). My study of busyness explored how this temporal condition expresses a relational experience of time, especially the responsibilities we have for ourselves and other people.

My book Families and Intimate Mobilities, explores how families are constructed by and in turn generate mobilities and the social and cultural meanings of family mobility. I have published widely on students’ mobility and the relationship between students and local communities and how this impacts the student experience, including student volunteering. Research on alcohol consumption over the life course has considered the interplay between family practices, life course transitions and health outcomes.

I am currently Chair of the ESRC Expert Advisory Group on Data Infrastructure, Mkills and methods and have previously been a member of the ESRC Grant Assessment Panel (2014-18), and the ESRC Methods and Training Infrastructure Board (2008-12). I was Vice-Chair of the EU Cost Action INTERFASOL: Intergenerational Family Solidarity across Europe (2014-18). 

Current PhD Students:

Principal Supervisor:
James Whitehurst. Keele University ESRC NWSSDTP +3 studentship. It's Good to Talk? Listening and talking practices for well-being in young people with speech impediments.
Laura Brennan Gender, Migration and Intergenerational Mobility.
Emma Randall. Keele University ESRC NWSSDTP +3 studentship. The Nature Nurse: The practices of eco-therapy, wild interactions and wellbeing.

Co-Supervisor
Amardeep Legha. Keele University ESRC NWSSDTP +3 studentship. Longitudinal trajectories of work absence: bridging the gap between health and work.

Completions

Principal Supervisor:
Tamsin Fisher. Keele University ESRC NWSSDTP 1+3 studentship. Young people’s wellbeing and autotelic practices: a narrative and go-along inquiry of youth activities.  
Ben Duke. HEA Academy Doctoral Programme Articulating learning and employability through work experience.
Katherine Mycock. Keele University Faculty of Social Sciences Studentship Understanding the multiple [dis]connections of younger people and ‘nature’.
Helen O’Neil. Mother’s Identity and School Choice
Helena Pimlott-Wilson  ESRC 1+3  Open Competition Award Children’s perspectives of mothers’ employment.
Denise Hinton ESRC 1+3 Case Award with Welsh Assembly The geography of H.E. provision in Wales: mobility and the educational and career choices of Welsh students.
Elizabeth Davies. University of Liverpool Scholarship The Leaving of Liverpool.

Co-Supervisor
Alison Briggs. University of Manchester ESRC NWSSDTP 1+3 Studentship Families and Food Security.
Pauline Mackrell. Keele University Faculty of Social Science GTA. Migration, leisure and rurality.
Farida Henriette. Commonwealth Scholarship Family Practices in the Seychelles.
Bushra  Bisi. Health Literacy and Diabetic Management among South Asians.
Sarah Hall. ESRC 1+3  Open Competition Award Developing Moral Identities; Children, Consumption and Ethical Living
Ivo Wengraf Places and Practices of Automobilities: Case-Studies of British Car Use.
Bethan Evans Constructing Body-Space: Gender, Sport and Body Image in Adolescence. 

Teaching

• ESC-10035 Geographical Skills
• GEG-10013 Human Geographies
• GEG-10012 Practising Human Geography
• ESC-20004 Advanced Systematic Geography
• GEG-20016 Space, Time & Environment
• GEG-20009 Geographical Research Training
• GEG-20015 Space & Society
• GEG-20018 Concepts & Debates in Geography
• GEG-30006 Dissertation
• GEG-xxxxx Families and Community