Dr Helen Bowes-Catton

Professional biography

Having caught the social sciences 'bug' during my A Levels in the early 1990s, I went on to study Sociology and Hispanic Studies at Liverpool University, before moving to Keele to train as a secondary school teacher. For the following seventeen years, I taught the social sciences in schools and colleges while completing my MSc in Social Research Methods and my PhD in Psychology at the Open University.

I joined the OU as an Associate Lecturer in 2010, and later worked as a consultant author in the Psychology Department. In January 2015 I joined the OU full-time as a Lecturer in Social Psychology. I am currently Lecturer in Social Research Methods in the Graduate School, where I am responsible for the provision of core skills and methods training for doctoral students across the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.

Research interests

Issues of identity, subjectivity and intersectional social justice are at the heart of my research work. I am currently publishing outputs from a ten-year research project on bisexual people's spatialised experiences of subjectivity. Sited at the intersection of micro-sociology, critical social psychology and cultural geography, this work contributes to the field of sexuality studies by using creative methods (such as Lego and Plasticine modelling and photo-diaries) and hermeneutic phenomenological analysis to develop an experiential approach to bisexual subjectivity, and to present a critical analysis of the ways in which it is constituted in different social spaces.

I am passionately interested in critical pedagogy and issues of social justice in education, particularly the obstacles faced by first-generation HE students and part-time postgraduates, and am currently undertaking scholarship research in this area.

Supervision

I’m currently supervising work on bisexuality, monogamy and wellbeing, fat people's experiences of weight stigma in therapy, and fathers' perinatal mental health.

I'm interested in supervising qualitative projects with a social justice focus, particularly those using creative, visual or discursive methodologies.

Topics I’m interested in supervising include;

• sexualities, subjectivities and space (especially bi+ and trans)

• classed and racialised, and disability inclusion/exclusion in social and political movements (especially, although not exclusively, movements around sexuality and ‘alternative’ lifestyles and practices, and their potential impact on wellbeing)

• critical pedagogy (especially LGBT+ inclusion)

• inclusive SRE (sex and relationships education) in schools and colleges

• social nudity and wellbeing

• the social politics of naturism

Teaching interests

In the School of Psychology, I was Module Team Chair on Social Psychology: Critical Perspectives on Self and Others (DD307). I was a consultant author on Living Psychological Issues (DD210), contributed to Advancing Social Psychology (DD317), and have also taught Introducing the Social Sciences (DD102) and its predecessor module (DD131).

I am currently based in the OU Graduate School, where I am Academic Lead for PGR Training. My post involves working with colleagues from across the university and our DTP partner institutions to scope, design, curate and oversee the delivery of social science research methods and transferable skills training.