Rate My Professor Emma Wainwright

Professor Emma Wainwright is Professor of Education, Space and Society within the Department of Education at Brunel University London. A geographer by background, she studied Geography at the University of Aberdeen, where she was awarded an MA (Hons) Geography (1st Class). She completed a PGCE in Secondary Education (Geography and Modern Studies) at the University of Edinburgh and was awarded a scholarship by the University of St Andrews to undertake her PhD in Social and Historical Geography. She also holds a PGC in Higher Education from Brunel University London. Prior to joining Brunel, she worked as a Research Executive in the Social Research Institute at MORI (now part of Ipsos).

Emma has worked at Brunel for 23 years. She is co-lead of the Human Geography: Space, Place and Society research group and the Education, Identities and Society research group. Her research focuses on the geographies of education, training and welfare, with particular interests in higher education and student experience, social housing and resident wellbeing, family, parenting and home-school partnership, and embodiment, body work and emotional labour, often engaging low-income and marginalised groups. Her work has been funded by the ESRC, British Academy, City of London Corporation and other bodies, and she has collaborated with social housing providers including A2Dominion, Catalyst and L&Q. She was editor of the British Educational Research Journal from 2018 to 2023 and serves on its editorial board. In 2006 she was awarded the Newbigin Prize by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. She has received multiple Brunel awards for teaching and research impact.