I have worked at the University of Sussex since 2007, first in the Centre for Continuing Education before joining the School of Media, Film and Music in 2013, now part of the Faculty of Media, Arts and Humanities. I am Professor in Cultural Studies with a specialism in Life Writing, Oral History and Audio/Visual Life Story-telling. I am interested in the particular application of these methods in women's history and gender studies, directing the Sisterhood and After: Women's Liberation Oral History Project and the Business of Women's Words with the British Library. I also work on cultural industry studies, with a focus on social, heritage and ethical enterprise. I direct the University's Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research. In 2022 I was appointed a Director of Research (Knowledge Exchange and Impact) for the School, continuing this work until 2025. I was a University of Sussex Research Impact Awards Winner in 2024.

Before that, I was Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Culture at the University of Exeter, 2000-2007, after beginning my lecturing career at Sussex 1999-2000. I have also been a Research Fellow at the Mass Observation Archive from 1997-1999, and Branch Secretary to Brighton Women’s Workers’ Educational Association, 1993-98. I studied English literature at the University of Cambridge and Women’s Studies at the University of York in the 1980s.