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Overview

Dr Michelle Addison

Assistant Professor


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Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology  

Biography

I am interested in the criminalisation of social inequality and how this is (re)produced through structures of power and mechanisms of stigma. My research is broadly concerned with a key long-term vision of social justice for those facing the greatest social and health disadvantages in society. I focus on social harm and the experiences of people subjected to marginalisation, minoritisation, and multiple complex axes of inequality and oppression - particularly around gender, class and ‘criminalisation’. I have been Co-I, PI, and project lead on a range of research studies that have included working with people who use illicit drugs, detainees in police and prison custody, women in probation, street homeless, and policymakers and practitioners. I am on the board of UK Alliance ‘Is it a Crime to be Poor?’ which brings together voices across academia and the general public, policy and practice to discuss key issues about the criminalisation of poverty. I'm Strand co-lead for People and Knowledge Exchange, N8 Policing Research Partnership. I am an associate member of Fuse and involved with the School for Public Health Research - Health Inequalities Programme (HIP) to progress research in these areas. 

I was PI of a recently completed Wellcome Trust study examining health, stigma and social inequalities amongst people who use drugs. I am currently guest editing a special issue for the international journal IJERPH called 'Substance Use, Stigma and Social Harm' (Addison, McGovern and Proudfoot). I'm Co-I on an ESRC funded study (PI – Dr Gethin Rees; £569,494): ‘What is 'Equivalence' in Police Custody Healthcare?’, exploring how detainees are treated in the criminal justice system in comparison to a person at liberty.

As a first-generation student myself once at Durham University, I was inspired by discussions about (non)belonging, power and marginalisation. I have always been curious about ‘who gets to belong, and why?’. I was awarded funding by the ESRC Festival of Social Science as well as a Teaching Excellence Grant to explore the impact of ‘imposterism’ amongst students in Higher Education. Feeling ‘out of place’ in certain spaces and around certain people because of ‘who you are and where you’re from’ emerged as a painful everyday experience for some people. The unfairness and inequity of this means I am passionate about inclusivity in education, and this shapes my pedagogical approach to teaching. 

My publications are international and inter-disciplinary in focus. I am lead editor of Drugs, Identity and Stigma (Palgrave, 2022); Dr Kelly Stockdale and I are co-editors of Marginalised Voices in Criminology (Routledge, 2023). I'm lead editor of The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education and my monograph Social Games and Identity in the Higher Education Workplace: Playing with Gender, Class and Emotion (2016) was nominated for three awards, named in the Times Higher 'Book of the Year 2016 listings' and covered by the THES. I have published widely in international journals such as Addiction; Trauma, violence and abuse; Drugs, Education, Prevention and Policy (DEPP); Alcohol and Alcoholism; Women's Health; British Medical Journal Online; Sociological Research Online; Journal of International Women’s Studies; Journal of Public Health; International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health; Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and my research has been used variously by organisations such as: Home Office, Public Health England, Northumbria Police, NHS, and Changing Lives; more here

Esteem Indicators
Research Grants

Salway, S. (PI) et, al. Scott, S., Addison, M. (Co-I) (Jan 23 -Dec 23) Co-creating knowledge partnerships with minoritized & marginalised communities/groups; School for Public Health Research, NIHR,£240,684.00

Addison, M. (PI), Boliver, V., Meadhbh Murray, O. (Co-Is) (Jan 2023 – Dec 23) ‘How does imposter syndrome impact the academic learning and teaching experience of students at Durham University?’ Durham Centre for Academic Development, Durham Univsity - £4710

Rowe, M. (PI) (et, al.) Addison, M. (2022-2023) ‘The impact of Covid-19 measures on Criminal Exploitation and Serious Violence (CESV) in vulnerable communities, Newcastle-upon-Tyne', funded by Newcastle City Council and Northumbria Police; £52,000

Rees, G.(PI); McKinnon, I.; Finch, T.; Addison, M.; Bell, M. (2021-2024) What is 'Equivalence' in Police Custody Healthcare?, ESRC Open Call, £569,494.93

Alderson, H. (PI) et, al. Addison, M. (2020-2021) PROTECT COVID 19: Exploring lived experiences of the impact of intimate partner violence and abuse on children, affected family members and perpetrators during the COVID- 19 global pandemic. N8 Policing Research Partnership, £25,000

Addison, M. (PI) (2019-2022) ‘A pilot study exploring health inequalities amongst illicit substance users’, The Wellcome Trust, £52,300

Addison, M.; Taylor, Y.; and Breeze, M(2019) ESRC Festival of Ideas - Network Event, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

 Addison, M. (PI) and Stephens-Griffin, N. (2019-2020) The impact of Imposter Syndrome on students’ learning experience: A qualitative pilot study, Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund 

Stockdale, K. (PI), Kaner, E., Addison, M. (2018-2019) Exploring Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) use and its consequences within a prison setting, Funded by York St John University

Bambra C (PI), Kaner E, Whitehead M, Salway S, Addison M, Moffatt S, Carr S, Powell K, Barr B, Holland P, Taylor-Robinson D, Popay J, Hatton C, Orton L, Collins M, Johnson P. (2018-2019) Equal North 2: Taking forward the Due North research agenda. NIHR SPHR £91,793

McGovern, R (PI); Kaner, E.; Gilvarry, E.; Lingham, R.; Addison, M.; Geijer-Simpson; Alderson, H,; Minos, D. (2016-2017) 'Addressing the impact of parental substance misuse on children', Public Health England, £59,903.37

Addison M. (PI) Kaner E; Hogan, L.; McGovern R.; Crowe L.; McGovern, W.; McKinnon I. (2016-2017) Exploring Novel Psychoactive Substance (NPS) use and its consequences for police officers and substance users in the North East of England. Funded by N8 Policing Research Partnership, £24,674

Addison, M. (2010-2014) 1+3 ESRC Doctoral Funding, £72,875

Selected Impact & Media Coverage

New Fuse Blog - Stigma: Where's the Harm? Available here - Fuse open science blog by Dr Michelle Addison

Presented evidence on NPS use to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs: Custody-Community Transitions, 2018

Co-authored Policy Briefing: Understanding Pathways to Stimulant Use: User and non-user perspectives on which individual, social and environmental factors shape amphetamine type stimulant use over time, for the Department of Health and Social Care

Universal Credit study (PI M. Cheetham): Professor Phillip Alston’s UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human RightsThe Guardian; The Huffington Post; The Independent; Research presented to House of Commons Work and Pensions select committee

Fuse Blog: 'Please mind the health gap: turning complex equations into a call for action' Heather Brown and Michelle Addison 

Northern Power Women Podcast: 'Health Inequalities' sponsored by Northern Health Science Alliance (NHSA)

Fuse Blog: 'Novel Psychoactive Substances: “Cheap drug, better buzz for your money”'

The Palgrave Handbook of Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education: BSA Network Magazine (2020)

Social Games and Identity research: THES Book of the Year list 2016Times Higher Education Supplement

Research interests

  • Mechanisms of stigma
  • Criminalisation of Poverty / crimes of poverty
  • ‘Crimes’ of the powerless / powerful
  • Marginalisation
  • Intersectionality, Zemiology / Social Harm, Bourdieu, cultural class framework
  • Lived experiences of people who use illicit drugs
  • Social & Health Inequalities

Research groups

  • Criminal Justice, Social Harm and Inequalities

Publications

Authored book

Chapter in book

  • Breeze, M., Addison, M. & Taylor, Y. (2022). Situating Imposter Syndrome In Higher Education. In Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education Handbook. Addison, M. Breeze, M. & Taylor, Y. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • McGovern, W. Addison, M. & McGovern R (2022). Negotiating “self-stigma” and an “Addicted Identity” in Traditional 12 Step Self-Help Groups. In Drugs, Identity and Stigma. Addison, M. McGovern, W. & McGovern, R. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Addison, M. & Stephens-Griffin, N. (2022). The Canary in the Coalmine: The impact of Imposter Syndrome on students’ learning experience at University. In Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education Handbook. Addison, M. Breeze, M. & Taylor, Y. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Stockdale, K. Addison, M. & Ramm, G. (2022). ‘Navigating Custodial Environments: Novel Psychoactive Substance Users Experiences of Stigma’. In Drugs, Identity and Stigma. Addison, M. McGovern, W. & McGovern, R. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Breeze, M. Taylor, Y. & Addison, M (2022). Imposter Agony Aunts: Ambivalent Feminist Advice. In Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education Handbook. Addison, M. Breeze, M. & Taylor, Y. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Taylor, Y. & Addison, M. (2014). Placing Research: City Publics and the Public Sociologist. In The Entrepreneurial University. Public Engagements, Intersecting Impacts. Taylor, Y. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 242 - 260.
  • Addison, M. (2012). Knowing your way within and across classed spaces: The (re)making and (un)doing of identities of value within higher education in the UK. In Educational Diversity: the subject of difference and different subjects. Taylor, Y. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. 236-256.
  • Taylor, Y. & Addison, M. (2010). (Re)constituting the past, (re)branding the present and (re)imagining the future: women’s spatial negotiation of gender and class. In Young People, Class and Place. Macdonald, R. Shildrick, T. & Blackman, S. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Addison, M. (2010). Unpaid Labour. In The Multimedia Encyclopaedia of Women in Today’s World. Strange, Z., Strange, M., Oyster, K. C. & Sloan, J. E. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

Edited book

  • Stockdale, K. & Addison, M. (2023). Marginalised Voices in Criminology. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Addison, M. Breeze, M. & Taylor, Y. (2022). Imposter Syndrome in Higher Education Handbook. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Addison, M. McGovern, W. & McGovern, R. (2022). Drugs, Identity and Stigma. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Taylor, Y. & Addison, M. (2013). Queer Presences and Absences. Houndsmill, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal Article

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

  • Addison,M. (2022). Stigma: Where's the Harm? available at: http://fuseopenscienceblog.blogspot.com/.

Supervision students