Thoughts and Ideas
This section is a space for me to consider issues within society and contemporary culture.
Here, I’ll introduce and further develop ideas I like to work with, explain and expand on issues that stem from previous projects, as well as consider immersive research and developing practices.
Study a PhD with Dr. Christopher R. Matthews
I specialise in conducting and supervising immersive research, but I’m keen to discuss various projects and research methods with prospective students as well.
StromCast interview: Why do we do the stupid things we do?
Here’s a fun podcast I did with Rick Foster from Strom Sports Nutrition. Rick and I have had a bunch of conversations about this sort of stuff in the past so the podcast is pretty informal, and sometimes the language gets a little bit ‘lively’ especially when I start telling stories about gym culture.
Study skills with Dr. Alex Channon: The Importance of books, essay writing and engagement
This is the first study skills chat with my good friend Dr. Alex Channon from the University of Brighton. We talk about the importance of reading books (not simply papers), key elements of essay writing and the correlation between student success and engagement/attendance.
Starting to think about immersive research
In this video, I discuss some foundational issues that can help you get started thinking about immersive research.
“What are YOU going to do?” Becoming genuinely student-centred
Over the 10 years or so I have been teaching in higher education, I’ve developed a variety of positive ways to engage students and help them develop personally and academically. While this is an ongoing process there are key events that have been important. In this article I describe one of these moments, which helps me to ensure that a genuinely student-centred approach stays at the heart of my teaching and learning.
We need to talk about the worst bits of the ‘best fights’
“What a fight for the fans here in Houston… An absolute classic… The stock of both women goes up with that performance tonight”. That was UFC commentator Jon Anik’s description of the fight between Angela Hill and Jessica Andrade at the recent UFC fight night 104.
It was great to watch these two perform in such a powerful and skilful manner, creating what Jack Slack has called the best strawweight bout to date. And to top it all off with great shows of respect and appreciation for one another at the end of the fight was excellent.
Love Fighting Hate Violence: Engaging people in academic projects with emotion
Emotional language is often avoided in academic research, writing or teaching. In conforming to this academic norm, scholars hope to demonstrate that their research is isolated from personal attachments and the biases these might involve.
While this can be considered an important element of the scientific method, it does not capture the realities of human life more broadly. In this article I discuss this in relation to an anti-violence project that a colleague and I co-founded.
Why do people explain learned behaviours using ideas connected to sex hormones?
This article is based on some extracts from one of my first academic papers. It uses key academic ideas to explain why people rely on often overly simplistic ideas about sex hormones as explanations for socially learned behaviours.
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