New professors appointed at Leeds Metropolitan

Professor Michelle Briggs joins the School of Health and Community Studies and Professor Brendan Gough joins the School of Social, Psychological and Communication Sciences.

Ieuan Ellis, Dean of the Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, said both officially take up their positions today, Monday 1 October.

He commented: "These professorial appointments add further strength to the international and world leading expertise in our Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing which we launched in November 2011. I am delighted to have two such esteemed and experienced colleagues joining us and I look forward to welcoming them to our Faculty and to Leeds Metropolitan."

Professor Briggs joins Leeds Met from the University of Leeds where she has worked since 2003. She qualified as a nurse in 1990 and has worked clinically in orthopaedics and trauma intensive care in Nottingham and London before moving to Leeds to work in research and practice development. Professor Briggs' research has the overall aim of improving patients' experience and response to pain and she has successfully attracted a broad portfolio of funded research. She co-ordinated the UK Pain Education Survey of provision for pain management in undergraduate curricula for Leeds and is currently a member of a consensus group on Pain in the Secure Environment.

Professor Gough is a critical social psychologist and qualitative researcher interested in gender issues, especially concerning men and masculinities. He has worked at Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Leeds and most recently at Nottingham Trent University. He has published papers on gender identities and relations, mostly in the context of health and wellbeing such as alcohol consumption, smoking, diet, and aspects of men's health. His research has been funded by a variety of bodies, including the ESRC, NHS and the BPS. Dr Gough is co-founder and co-editor of the journal Qualitative Research in Psychology, and he edits the Critical Psychology section of the journal Social & Personality Psychology Compass. He has co-authored/edited three books in the areas of critical social psychology, reflexivity in qualitative research, and men's health.