People

Michael Richardson

Background

Michael has wide-ranging research interests and has worked on issues of masculinities and performance for over a decade. In 2012 he commissioned a piece of verbatim theatre based on interview transcripts from his PhD studies (Richardson 2015; Richardson and Lawrence 2016) which was performed across the North East of England as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science. Through this work, Michael was awarded an Engagement Grant from Newcastle University to help establish the Performing Research training programme. 10 years later, Michael has returned to performance and through his work with the North East Young Dads and Lads Project has co-authored the script, Father Unknown. This benefited from R & D time at Northern Stage, with support from the Performance Research Network. As a feminist human geographer Michael is driven by questions of social justice. In all of his work he works closely with communities, often through creative methods, and has built long lasting relationships with community partners as co-creators of research. Michael is currently undertaking an Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Sabbatical at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. He is exploring how institutions can help community groups move beyond threshold crossing through a lens of radical hospitality. His work with the North East Young Dads and Lads Project offers a case study to this work, and centres on questions of social and environmental justice.

Roles and Responsibilities

Michael is a member of the Social Justice Advisory Group at Newcastle University.

Michael is Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion for Geography (2020-Present) and is a member of the School of GPS Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team.

He was Director of the ESRC Northern Ireland and North East Doctoral Training Partnership (NINEDTP) Children, Youth and Families thematic pathway (from 2016-2019).

He is also a trustee of the North East Young Dads and Lads Project (2018-Present).

Qualifications

PhD Human Geography, Newcastle University, 2015

MA Human Geography Research, Merit, Newcastle University, 2010

BA Hons Geography, 2:1, Newcastle University, 2009

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/gps/staff/profile/michaelrichardson.html