Contact
Biography
Dr Mel Jordan studies health, illness, justice, clinical settings, healthcare, harm, medical sociology, deviance-in-health, healthcare provision, medical law and ethics, justice-in-health, social and clinical science knowledge production, social theory, inclusion/lived-experience, criminology, methodology/method, social order/disorder/harmony, and subjugation/self-sovereignty.
Dr Mel Jordan is also increasingly bringing clinical understandings on microbiology, biomedical science, virology, biosecurity, infectious diseases, infection control, hospital acquired infections, and patient management/support into their work on health and justice.
Teaching Summary
Research and teaching interests:
Medical Sociology: Health, ill-health, healthcare, and harms in clinical (often also justice) settings;
Medical sociology and anthropology (esp. historical and current custodial settings); Healthcare provision and receipt experiences and environments (esp. penal/forensic sites); The sociology of illness and healthcare (esp. regarding offenders and recidivism link); Sociology of health professions/relationships (esp. prison staff-NHS prison staff relations).
Social Science Research: Method and methodology theory plus data collection/construction discussions; Epistemology debates re. quantitative and qualitative knowledge; Research with vulnerable participants and research ethics considerations.
Criminology: Theoretical criminology; Penology philosophy and practice; Sociology of deviance and criminological theories of deviance; Victimology; Crime and social dimensions; Sociology of prisons and incarceration; Prison culture(s); Ventriloquist populism, media, politics, and the criminal justice system; Sociological research in the justice system (e.g. ethnographic work in prisons); The criminal justice system workforce; Crimes of the powerful and white collar crime; Sex crime and approaches to sexual offenders; Offending behaviours and morality; Private prisons and immigration removal centres; Female prisoners; Vulnerable prisoners (e.g. sexual offenders); Policing, probation, and community sentences; Prison abolition and recidivism approaches; Liaison and diversion away from the criminal justice system; Reducing the cycle of re-offending and related community work; Institutionalisation theory and penal settings; Historical and current prison architecture; State corporal punishment and morality; The social and health profile of offenders; Crime and mental illness; Offender health: prevention, promotion, and treatment; Prison healthcare; Personality disordered offenders and offenders with learning/intellectual disability.
Selected Publications
MELANIE JORDAN, ED WRIGHT, AIMIE PURSER, ANDREW GRUNDY, EMMA JOYES, NICOLA WRIGHT, PAUL CRAWFORD and NICK MANNING, 2018. Capoeira for beginners: Self-benefit for, and
community action by, new Capoeiristas Journal: Sport, Education and Society. HAMILTON, IAN S., SCHNEIDER, JUSTINE, KANE, EDDIE and JORDAN, MELANIE, 2015. Employment of ex-prisoners with mental health problems, a realistic evaluation protocol BMC PSYCHIATRY. 15,
Future Research
See full publication list for past and present health and justice research work.
Past and present PGR students and their work:
Dr Edward J. Wright
PhD title: From Rookie to Rocky? On Modernity, Identity and White Collar Boxing.
Dr Ian Hamilton
PhD Title: Employment of Prisoners with Mental Health Problems. The PhD is looking at the effectiveness of Individual Placement and Support (IPS) for offenders with mental health problems.
Dr Emma Joyes
PhD Title: Creative Practice as Mutual Recovery explored within Forensic Mental Health.
Prof. Eddie Kane
Prof. Lynn Saunders
The thesis explores the experiences and expectations of people who have been convicted of sexual offences leaving prison and their return to the community. It also explores the approaches of Offender Managers in dealing with the risks and challenges of this group of ex-offenders.
Dr Anthony Salla
PhD title: A Critical Race Study on Non-Statutory Early Intervention Services for Young Racialised People
This research is funded by the ESRC. This study utilises Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a theoretical, methodological and analytical framework to explore the lived experience of young people, racialised as Black, in non-statutory mental health services.
Oscar O'Mara
Title of PhD project: Balancing security and rehabilitation in a prison environment ~ Theory and Practice
Supervisors: Dr Melanie Jordan and Dr Nicola Carr
This research is supported by HMPPS. It seeks to explore the balance and conflict between prison security and rehabilitation in theory and practice on the frontline of the prison service. The research will involve fieldwork in prison establishments and promote the voice of stakeholders and their experiences.
Mike Harmson
Thesis Abstract:
This thesis explores the digital and social media knowledge and training of police officers who investigate online Child Sexual Exploitation Material (CSEM) offending. The training and digital and social media knowledge of those who work within online sexual crime investigation n focused on police cybercrime investigation overall, including fraud, harassment and stalking. Findings suggest that online technology companies are now the primary responders to online CSEM offending, much younger children than previously known are at risk of sharing self-generated image content, and more children from Western backgrounds are at an increased risk of online live-stream sexual abuse. Finally,has been largely overlooked. When exploring online CSEM offending, current and existing literature has ofte online CSEM offenders are now offending across all spectrums of child sexual abuse, including, sexualised grooming, possession of indecent images, physical contact offending and online sexualised chat.
Stuart Carroll
PhD candidate in Social Policy focusing on public health and COVID-19 pandemic. Research title = Science and The State: The Role of Politics and Policy in the Procurement of Covid-19 Vaccines in the Coronavirus Pandemic
Sara Hyde
Sara Hyde worked in and around prisons for over a decade prior to starting her PhD at Nottingham. She has a MA in Theatre from QMUL, within which she specialised in theatre in criminal justice settings. Sara's PhD explores the experiences of prison healthcare staff regarding prisoner self-harm and suicide. Her research interests are: prison health, prison staff, deaths in custody, lived experience in prison research, women in prison, arts in criminal justice settings.
Internal Examiner examples: Dr Jack Tomlin; Dr Zoe Robinson.
External Examiner examples: UCL in 2023; Surrey in 2026.