The following paper has been accepted for publication in the journal Cultural Studies --> Critical Methodologies. I will share the link once it has been published but here is the abstract: Haecceity of becoming-mother: A diffractive analysis of babywearing through a global pandemic   Abstract   This paper problematises notions of good/bad mothering by putting to work Deleuze and Guattari’s haecceity (2004). Focusing on babywearing, it presents an autoethnography of my experiences of becoming-mother during the Covid-19 pandemic. Using diffractive analysis (Barad, 2014) I analyse the entanglement of my experiences of babywearing, research diaries, images/selfies, the regulations introduced during the pandemic, and the ‘global cultural script’ (Kerrane et al, 2021, 1154) of being a good mother. It works towards a position of (k)not knowing (Osgood, 2019), being open to the unknown. Under the lens of haecceity becoming-mother is ‘thisness’ – a middle, knotting, and unknotting, ever emer

I produced a write up of the funded project for the Leisure Studies Association who made the work possible through their grant scheme. I have been a member of the LSA for about 10 years now and served on the committee. I am really proud to have been awarded a small grant from them to expand this work and I encourage any scholars working on leisure related topics to join! Though walking with a baby as a mother may seem mundane, it is an emotionally and logistically complex practice (Clement and Waitt, 2018) further compounded during the lockdown restrictions in Manchester, UK through 2020/2021. This project, inspired by time-geography (Hägerstrand, 1982) as method, examined how diagramming in comic book form (Carruthers Thomas, 2018) might facilitate a more substantive understanding of walking as a distinctive, spatiotemporal experience of mothering. Feminist geographers argue that applications of time-geography do not account for embodied gendered power relations in space (Rose, 1993)

I was delighted to assist Blaze Trails with the production of this report which presents the findings from their 2021 user survey. It was a relatively small scale study but it is the first user survey they have undertaken as an organisation so was really important for them to start evidencing the amazing work that they do in communities up and down the country. Whilst the benefits for mental and physical health of walking might seem obvious there are many challenges that (predominantly here) women face in getting out with their babies. This emerged in the survey and is something that Blaze Trails are considering. It is also something that I want to explore more in my own work. If you cannot get out on a walk then those benefits are out of reach. In my own work, I am interested specially in how urban spaces can become more accessible.  The major take away from this report however is about connection. I was keen to draw out that this connection was more-than-human! It was about places a

As a way of an introduction I thought I would share the background to this work briefly.  In May 2020 I found myself at home (Manchester, UK) with a new baby…that’s right I am one of the many women who experienced maternity leave during the Covid-19 lockdowns. In Manchester, UK the lockdowns were pretty restrictive. I couldn’t go inside with my baby to meet other mums (or even family) so I decided to start a walking group.  I have written quite a bit about walking from dog walking to processional walking (refs at end) so it was a natural thing for me to pick this up when I returned to work. After interviewing women who had walked with me or walked with other walking groups I started working with Caroline Boyd from Boy Oh Boy designs thanks to some funding from my own institution and the Leisure Studies Association . This work can be found on the publications page. There is much to say about different aspects of this work and I will do individual posts about the various themes in due c