Abigail Locke

Biography

I joined Keele University in October 2020 as Professor of Critical Social and Health Psychology and Head of School.  Prior to Keele, I was Associate Dean of Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Head of Department at Psychology at the University of Bradford. 

I earnt my degree and PhD in Psychology from Loughborough University where I was part of the internationally renowned Discourse and Rhetoric Group (https://darg.lboro.ac.uk).

I have held lectureships at Coventry, Derby and Loughborough before achieving my Readership in 2010 from the University of Huddersfield and my Chair in 2016 from the University of Bradford. I held a Visiting Professorship in Social and Health Psychology at the University of Derby (2013-2018).  I am a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. I hold a Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy and am a Recognised Supervisor by the UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE). I am a level 5 qualified Coach and coach across the university.

My research focuses on health, parenting identities, gender and communication and I have published widely in these areas. I approach my research from a critical health psychology perspective whereby I consider wider contextual influences on health behaviours. 

I am a qualitative methodological expert, most notably in the discursive methodologies where I’ve published on Critical Discursive Psychology (CDP) and the uses of discursive methods in health psychology and parenting research. 

My international engagement includes previously serving as Secretary, International Representative and Executive Committee member of the International Society for Critical Health Psychology (ISCHP). I sit on the Executive Committee of the European Association for Qualitative Research in Psychology (EQUiP) and am co-President Elect. Nationally, I am a former Trustee of the British Psychological Society as well as holding various Chair and committee roles.

Research and scholarship

I am a critical social and health psychologist with a strong research focus around parenting identities, gender and health. Whilst coming from a psychological perspective, this research is highly interdisciplinary and I work across social, health and life sciences.

I am a qualitative methods specialist using a combination of qualitative approaches (including reflexive thematic analysis, Critical Discursive Psychology, Discourse Analysis) and data collection methods (media representations, documentary analysis, interviews & focus groups, naturalistic ‘real world’ settings), and from a broadly critical psychological approach. I have written specifically on Critical Discursive Psychology (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21642850.2020.1792307).

Parenting Experiences & Identities

I have considered discursive and experiential accounts of motherhood, fatherhood and social constructions of ‘good parenting’. I have considered maternal identities in a range of different experiences of pregnancy and early motherhood, including birth stories, the timing of pregnancy and infant feeding experiences, as well as ‘displaying’ motherhood on social media.  I am particularly interested in the advice that is given to new parents and have considered this in terms of health advice during pregnancy, infant feeding advice and infant sleeping practices.

I am particularly interested when decisions are made as to ‘who cares?’ and have researched the experiences of ‘stay-at-home-dads’, that is, fathers who have taken on the primary caregiving role for their children.”

Teaching

My teaching is focused on my specialist areas of discursive methods, parenting and critical psychology work’

Supervision

I have been involved in postgraduate supervision since the beginning of my career in the areas of psychology and critical social science. I supervise in the areas social psychology, health psychology, social work and social policy, health sciences using a variety of qualitative methodologies (discourse analysis, critical discursive psychology, thematic analysis, IPA, constructionist grounded theory).  

I am an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner on doctoral work and have supervised many students to PGR completions and have over 30 external PhD examinations, including a number of international requests. 

I am a Recognised Research Supervisor, UK Council for Graduate Education.

I am open to new supervisions in the areas of reproduction and parenting, contemporary parenting cultures, parenting advice, maternal and paternal identities, and gendered identities.  Please do get in touch if you would like to discuss any of these areas further.

I am currently involved in the following supervisions in the School at doctoral level:  

• Rebecca Jones 
• Annabel Roberts
• Ingrid Makazhu