Dr Michael Joseph Richardson

I am a Lecturer of Human Geography and have research interests in the following areas:

-Geographies of gender and masculinities

In my PhD research (2010-2013) I worked with men of Irish descent on post-industrial Tyneside, asking primarily what it means to be a man in contemporary society? I found that while this community is becoming 'less Irish' over time, identification with and belonging to Irish masculinities remain for some men.

I worked for the Scottish Government to research threatening behaviour and online social media, as new laws were passed in parliament regarding Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications (Scotland) Act 2012. Following this I was part of a commissioned research project Community Experiences of Sectarianism in Scotland (2014).

I have co-organised sessions at the Association of American Geographers (AAG) conference in New York (2012) on relational masculinities. This drew on research from the perspective of geographies of health, race and religion as well as across geographic scales. I am organising another two sessions at the AAG at next year's conference in San Francisco.

In 2011 I studied MTV's Geordie Shore and was asked to present at the Institute of Education, London on the sexualisation of North Eastern masculinities.

-Geographies of age and intergenerational relations

In bridging my research areas, I have published work on the intersections of masculinity with age and place, including what it means to be a young male researcher who researches men and masculinities.

In my earlier work I adopted an intergenerational approach to researching men's lives, researching both across and within families of Irish descent. I drew conclusions on generational change as I saw the men as sons, fathers and grandfathers.

-Researching creatively

As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, I developed a play based on my PhD research with the North East theatre group Cap-a-Pie, titled 'Under Us All'. This was a piece of verbatim theatre, coupled with artistic workshops, based on the narratives of three generations of men of Irish descent I had generated through my PhD research.

I was awarded a development grant by the Public Engagement team at Newcastle University to develop ideas around performing research. This work has since become centralised with further funding from the Newcastle Institute of Creative Arts Practice (NICAP).

I am interested in creative and participatory approaches to research.