Fin Cullen

Academic qualifications

MA (Hons), MA, PG Cert (Youth & Community); PhD

Professional qualifications

PG Cert (JNC) Youth & Community Work (Brunel University, 2001)

Profile

Fin studied sociology and film at the University of Glasgow, before gaining a MA Culture, Globalisation & the City from Goldsmith College, London. She subsequently received her PhD on young women’s smoking and drinking cultures at Educational Studies Dept, Goldsmiths College. 

Fin is also a qualified youth & community worker and has worked in youth and community settings across the UK for over 14 years. Fin remains involved in front line youth work practice in a London borough. Her practitioner experience to date includes: work within youth homelessness provision, development and delivery of alcohol/drugs education in university, schools and youth work settings; managing and coordinating generic, mobile and detached youth work provision.

Teaching responsibilities

Currently course team member on BA in Youth & Community work and BA Youth & Community Studies; MA Youth & Community Work; Social Policy (BA Module); Informal Education (BA Module); Drugs & Young People (BA Module); Research methods (BA/MA module); Working with Communities (MA module); Principles & Practice of Youth Work (MA Module); Placement Officer; Personal and year tutor (MA); Joint PhD supervisor.

Previous teaching has included: History of Youth Work (PG Cert); Sex & Drugs Education (PGCE).

Research interests

Previously, as a researcher Fin has worked on research projects concerned with community views of health, evaluations of childcare and community services, developing user participation in services, equalities work within schools and capacity building within youth services. Her prior academic work has used poststructuralist theoretical work to explore young women’s friendships, and researching heteronormativity within young people’s social worlds and school cultures. Her current and future work intends to develop further theoretical analysis of contemporary youth work and education policy and practice. Fin is also interested in the intersections and interactions of young women’s subjectivities and media cultures.

Research interests include

• drugs and alcohol issues
• sex and relationship education
• youth work & community work practice
• feminist youth work
• ethnography
• sexuality and gender
• social geographies
• youth subcultures
• youth policy
• visual, virtual and participatory methods
• narrative and identity
• youth and visual cultures

Research centres

• Centre for Youth Work Studies (CYWS)

Professional activities or recognition

• Editorial Board, Gender and Education
• Co-Convenor of Sexualities SIG (BERA)
• Executive Member/Newsletter editor, Gender and Education Association
• Member: British Educational Research Association, British Sociological Association
• Organiser of Brunel ‘Youth Cultures’ Seminar Series

Publications

Journal Papers

(2013) Cullen, F., From DIY to teen pregnancy: new pathologies, melancholia and feminist practice in contemporary English youth work1, Pedagogy, Culture and Society

(2011) Cullen, F., ‘The only time I feel girly is when I go out’: Drinking stories, Teenage girls, and respectable femininities, International Journal of Adolescence and Youth Volume 16, (2) : 119- 138

(2010) Cullen, F., ‘Two's up and poncing fags’: young women's smoking practices, reciprocity and friendship, Gender and Education 22 (5) : 491- 504

(2009) Cullen, F. and Sandy, L., Lesbian Cinderella and other stories: telling tales and researching sexualities equalities in primary school, Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning 9 (2) : 141- 154

Conference Papers

(2009) Cullen, F., Failing youth: the contemporary gendering of youth work in England, DCSF Gender Agenda Symposium, Gender and Education Association Conference

(2008) Cullen, F., The MTV knowing child: challenging heteronormativity in primary school, BERA Sexualities SIG

(2008) Cullen, F., Picturing innocence? Innocent pictures?: Representation and the use of self-directed photography in studies of children and young people’s cultural worlds, ESRC Qualiti, Advancing the Use of Visual Methods in Children’s Research Semin

Book Chapters

(2009) Cullen, F., Seeking a queer(ying) pedagogic praxis: Adventures in the classroom and participatory action research. In: DePalma, R. and Atkinson, E. eds. Interrogating heteronormativity in primary schools. Trentham Books Ltd -

Books

(2011) Bradford, S. and Cullen, F., Research Methods for Youth Work.