Staff profile

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

• Editorial Board (2022-present): The British Journal of Criminology 
• Associate Editor (2022-present): International Journal of Police Science and Management
• Strand co-lead for People and Knowledge Exchange (2023 - present), N8 Policing Research Partnership
• Invited Grant Application Reviewer: The Wellcome Trust, (2021 – present)
• Invited Peer Reviewer: The Medical Research Council (2022 - present)
• Invited Peer Reviewer: Research for Patient Benefit Social Care Competition, (NIHR, 2018 – present)
• Invited Commissioning Panel member for the Policy Research Programme (PRP), Department of Health and Social Care, (2018 – present); and NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group, (2021 – present)
• Guest Editor of IJERPH Special Issue: 'Substance Use, Stigma and Social Harm' (Addison, McGovern, Proudfoot)
• Board Member of ‘Is it a Crime to be Poor?’ – a UK Alliance of academic, policymakers and practitioners
• Journal Peer Reviewer: The British Journal of Criminology; Gender and Education; Drugs, Education, Prevention & Policy; Journal of Public Health; British Medical Journal; International Journal of Police Science and Management; Equality, Diversity and Inclusion; Addiction; International Journal of Drug Policy; Social Science and Medicine; European Journal of Public Health; Social Forces; Journal for Cultural Research
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Member of British Society of Criminology (BSC)
• Member of the European Society of Criminology (ESC)
• Associate Member of Fuse - the Centre for Translational Research in Public Health

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 Rights; The 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 2016; Times Higher Education Supplement; 

• 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

• Criminal Justice, Social Harm and Inequalities

Authored book

• Addison, M. (2016). Social games and identity in the higher education workplace: Playing with gender, class and emotion.

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

• Addison, M. (2023). Framing Stigma as an Avoidable Social Harm that Widens Inequality. The Sociological Review 71(2): 296-314.
• Alderson, H. Barrett, S., Addison, M., Burns, S., Cooling, V., Hackett, S., Kaner, E., McGovern, W., Smart, D. & McGovern, R. (2022). Parental intimate partner violence and abuse during the COVID-19 pandemic - learning from remote and hybrid working to influence future support. Women's Health 18.
• Adams, E., Spencer, L., Addison, M., McGovern, W., Alderson, H., Adley, M., McGovern, R., Gilvarry, E., Kaner, E. & O'Donnell, A. (2022). Substance use, health, and adverse life events among different amphetamine type stimulant users in North East England: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19(12): 6996.
• McGovern, R., Newham, J. J. Addison, M., Hickman, M. & Kaner, E. (2022). The effectiveness of psychosocial interventions at reducing the frequency of alcohol and drug use in parents: findings of a Cochrane review and meta-analyses. Addiction 117(10): 2571-2582.
• Spencer, L, Addison, M, Alderson, H, McGovern, W McGovern, R, Kaner, E & O'Donnell, A (2021). 'The drugs did for me what I couldn’t do for myself’ A qualitative exploration of the relationship between mental health and amphetamine-type stimulant (ATS) use. Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment 15.
• Addison, M., Kaner, E., Spencer, L., McGovern, W., McGovern, R., Gilvarry, E. & O’Donnell, A. (2021). Exploring pathways into and out of amphetamine type stimulant use at critical turning points: a qualitative interview study. Health Sociology Review 30(2): 111-126.
• McGovern, W., Addison, M. & McGovern, R. (2021). An exploration of the psycho-social benefits of providing sponsorship and supporting others in traditional 12 step, self-help groups. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 18(5): 1-13.
• McGovern, R., Newham, J.J., Addison, M.T., Hickman, M. & Kaner, E.F.S. (2021). Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for reducing parental substance misuse. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2021(3).
• Martens, M.-S., Zurhold, H., Rosenkranz, M., O'donnell, A., Addison, M., Spencer, L., McGovern, W., Gabrhelík, R., Petruželka, B., Rowicka, M., Liebregts, N., Degkwitz, P., Kaner, E. & Verthein, U. (2020). Using life course charts to assess and compare trajectories of amphetamine type stimulant consumption in different user groups: A cross-sectional study. Harm Reduction Journal 17(1).
• McGovern, R., Crowe, L., Addison, M., Hickman, M., Kidger, J., McColl, E., Newbury-Birch, D. & Kaner, E. (2020). Containment and care? A qualitative interview study exploring police custody staff views about delivering brief alcohol interventions to heavy drinking arrestees. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy 27(6): 436-444.
• McGovern, R., Gilvarry, E., Addison, M., Alderson, H., Geijer-Simpson, E., Lingam, R., Smart, D. & Kaner, E. (2020). The Association Between Adverse Child Health, Psychological, Educational and Social Outcomes, and Nondependent Parental Substance: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. Trauma, Violence, and Abuse 21(3): 470-483.
• O'Donnell, A., Addison, M., Spencer, L., Zurhold, H., Rosenkranz, M., McGovern, R., Gilvarry, E., Martens, M.-S., Verthein, U. & Kaner, E. (2019). Which individual, social and environmental influences shape key phases in the amphetamine type stimulant use trajectory? A systematic narrative review and thematic synthesis of the qualitative literature. Addiction 114(1): 24-47.
• Addison, M., Kaner, E., Johnstone, P., Hillier-Brown, F., Moffatt, S., Russell, S., Barr, B., Holland, P., Salway, S., Whitehead, M. & Bambra, C (2019). Equal North: How can we reduce health inequalities in the North of England? A prioritisation exercise with researchers, policymakers and practitioners. Journal of Public Health 41(4): 652–664
• Cheetham, M., Moffatt, S., Addison, M. & Wiseman, A. (2019). Impact of Universal Credit in North East England: A qualitative study of claimants and support staff. BMJ Open 9(7).
• Rosenkranz, M., O'Donnell, A., Verthein, U., Zurhold, H., Addison, M., Liebregts, N., Rowicka, M., Barták, M., Petruželka, B., Kaner, E.F. & Martens, M.-S. (2019). Understanding pathways to stimulant use: a mixed-methods examination of the individual, social and cultural factors shaping illicit stimulant use across Europe (ATTUNE): study protocol. BMJ open 9(8): e029476.
• Addison, M., Mcgovern, R., Angus, C., Becker, F., Brennan, A., Brown, H., Coulton, S., Crowe, L., Gilvarry, E., Hickman, M., Howel, D., Mccoll, E., Muirhead, C., Newbury-Birch, D., Waqas, M. & Kaner, E. (2018). Alcohol screening and brief intervention in police custody suites: Pilot Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial (AcCePT). Alcohol and Alcoholism 53(5): 548-559.
• Addison, M., Stockdale, K., McGovern, R., McGovern, W., McKinnon, I., Crowe, L., Hogan, L. & Kaner, E. (2018). Exploring the intersections between novel psychoactive substances (NPS) and other substance use in a police custody suite setting in the north east of England. Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy 25(4): 313-319.
• Addison, M. (2017). Overcoming Arlie Hochschild's concepts of the ‘real’ and ‘false’ self by drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concept of habitus. Emotion, Space and Society 23: 9-15.
• Mcgovern, R., Addison, M.T., Newham, J.J., Hickman, M. & Kaner, E.F. (2017). Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for reducing parental substance misuse. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2017(10).
• Addison, M. & Victoria, G.M. (2015). Talking the talk and fitting in: Troubling the practices of speaking ‘what you are worth’ in higher education in the UK. Sociological Research Online 20(2).
• Addison, M. & Roy, S. (2011). Winning and short-listed entries from the 2009 feminist and women's studies association annual student essay competition. Journal of International Women's Studies 12(2): 1-2.
• Taylor, Y. & Addison, M. (2011). Placing research: 'City publics' and the 'public sociologist'. Sociological Research Online 16(4).
• Taylor, Y. & Addison, M. (2009). (Re)constituting the past, (re)branding the present and (re)imagining the future: women's spatial negotiation of gender and class. Journal of Youth Studies 12(5): 563-578.
• Taylor, Y. & Addison, M. (2009). Introduction: Winning and short-listed entries from the 2007 feminist and women's studies association annual student essay competition. Journal of International Women's Studies 11(3): 1-3.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

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