Elaine Welsh

Before joining Buckinghamshire New University in 2008, I was a lecturer in sociology at the University of Warwick. Before that I did a post-doctoral research post in social policy at the University of Oxford, which focused on an exploration of the role fathers play in family life from the perspectives of different family members.

I studied for my PhD at Oxford Brookes University where I researched women’s experiences of political office. My interest in gender and society has continued throughout my career and has become part of my teaching at BNU, I also teach on a range of other modules across the social sciences.

My current research ‘Resilience in an Ageing Society’ explores understandings of ‘resilience’ from the perspective of older people. In the fieldwork for this research older people were asked, for example, what sort of things or people have helped them through difficult times in their lives? The findings suggest that one thing that builds resilience for the people in our research is the network of friends and family that sustain and nourish them through life. This research, and earlier research, has been presented at academic conferences and published in academic journals.

One of the things I am proudest of at BNU is my Academic Skills programme which has been embedded into one of the core, first year social science modules. This skills programme gives students the opportunity to reflect and improve on their approach to academic work which helps them flourish in their studies.

View my Research Repository here.

• Senior Lecturer