Carly is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department for People and Organisations, and formerly led the Department of Sport and Event Management. She holds a PhD in Social Science, awarded by the University of Exeter in 2007.

Carly's research interests are interdisciplinary and evolving but can be taken as understanding and developing people in context.

Carly started her career in sports and health sciences as a narrative researcher interested in embodiment, identity formation and biographical disruption (illness) in sporting lives. Her study of lives continued into sports management and sports coaching contexts. She has published on violence, gender and coaching in women’s gymnastics, co-authoring the Routledge book 'Women's Artistic Gymnastics: Socio-cultural perspectives, and transgender people’s community experience of swimming.

More recently, Carly has turned to management, coaching and the development of people in a broader sense, combining her interdisciplinary interests in sociology, psychology and management. She is a qualified and practising executive coach, which she brings to her research projects and leadership positions. She also develops and delivers coaching CPD.

Carly's research reflects breadth, diverse experience, and interdisciplinary exploration. She believes in habits of mind that dance across disciplines and enable the connection of new ideas across contexts. Her career thus far reflects her theoretical interests that work preferences and life preferences do not stay the same because we do not stay the same.

Carly is a British Sociological Association, Auto/biography Study Group Co-convener and Editor of Auto/Biography Review.

Research

Carly currently leads the European-funded Interreg 2Seas project Speed-You-Up on the personal development of at-risk NEET young people across England, The Netherlands, Belgium, and France. It seeks to improve employment and social outcomes for over 800 at-risk young people in coastal communities via entrepreneurship. Carly evaluates the project’s impact on young people and their communities and leads the feasibility study. She is a thought leader for coaching and its theoretical underpinnings as an approach to working with young people, having developed and delivered coaching CPD as part of SPEED-You-UP.

Carly has developed a stakeholder network with businesses, local policymakers, welfare organisations, and schools to embed and sustain the project in new coastal regions and create sustainable communities. SPEED-You-UP helps young people to live better and is a catalyst for growth, boosting skills and advancing the region.

Carly also co-leads a National Institute of Health and Medical Research and NHS Arc Wessex-funded studentship to encourage behaviour change in women with pelvic floor dysfunction towards pelvic floor exercises. Carly is a thought leader on the project in understanding women's embodied lives in a cultural context where pelvic floor dysfunction is particularly taboo, and the silent struggles and management of bodies in private are common. Working with the Squeezy app, we develop digital nudges to effect pelvic floor exercise adherence and management, ultimately helping women live better.

Carly's professional practice is in leadership and coaching. She holds a professional certificate in Executive Coaching from Henley Business School and is studying for an MSc in Coaching and Behavioural Change. She is interested in academic leadership's socio-emotional and relational aspects and is driven by helping others with personal challenges, growth, and self-awareness. Carly is a Leadership Mentor on the Women in Sport High-Performance Pathway (WISH) and a personal tutor on The Senior Leadership Apprenticeship programme. Carly also sits on the Board of Directors for Bournemouth University Community Business.

Publications

Grants

Outreach & engagement

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