Dr Michael Skey, Lecturer in Media & Culture, Loughborough University

Michael was awarded his PhD in October 2008 from the Department of Media & Communications at the LSE and since then has taught sociology at University of Leicester and UEL and Media & Cultural Studies at University of Kingston. His research interests are in the areas of national identity and globalisation, discourse theory, media events and rituals, sport and the sociology of everyday life. Michael has published work on mass rituals, ethnic majorities, theories of nationalism and cosmopolitan identities and his monograph, entitled ‘National Belonging and Everyday Life‘ (published in 2011 by Palgrave) was joint winner of the 2012 BSA/Phillip Abrams Memorial Prize.

Dr Chris Stone, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Liverpool Hope University

Chris Stone is a post-doctoral research associate at Liverpool Hope University where his main role is leading a research agenda focused on understanding and evaluating Everton Football Club’s engagement with various stakeholders and communities.

Prior to that, he was Lead Researcher at Football Unites, Racism Divides (FURD), an anti-racist youth and community organisation based in Sheffield, England, and previously worked at Sheffield Hallam University as a lecturer within the field of Sport and Cultural Studies.

Research interests are focused around football, fandom, the aesthetics of the ordinary and research methods that seek to find pragmatic solutions amongst the fluid and fragmentary life-worlds of disenfranchised individuals and groups whilst also raising understanding and furthering knowledge across disciplinary boundaries. These themes are explored in his PhD, ‘Car Stickers and Coffee Mugs: A study of football and everyday life’ and previous projects including the ‘Football and its Communities’ project commissioned by the Football Foundation and most recently, ‘Football – A shared sense of belonging?’, which examined the role of football in the lives of refugees and asylum seekers living in Britain.

Dr Anita Mangan, Lecturer, Keele Management School, Keele University

Anita completed her PhD (Keele University) in 2007 and holds a BA from University College Dublin (UCD) and Masters degrees from both the University of Exeter and UCD. She worked as a lecturer in UCD, and also held research associate positions in Cardiff Business School and UCD. Prior to entering academia, Anita spent several years working in the financial services sector and in telecommunications in New York, London and Ireland.

Dr Olu Jenzen, Lecturer in Media & Cultural Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Brighton

Olu Jenzen lectures in media studies with research interests across critical theory, contemporary media, literature and popular culture, notably in the fields of feminist and queer theory. Her research work focuses on the politics of aesthetic form, cultures of trauma, the representation of gender and sexuality in film, literature and popular culture and social aspects of non-normative epistemologies. She is a member of the University’s LGBTQ Lives Research Hub steering group and a founding member of the Brighton and Sussex Sexualities Research Network (BSSN).