I’m Dr Lee Gregory, Associate Professor in Social Policy and the University of Nottingham. As part of the project, I bring a research interest into issues of poverty, asset-based welfare and social security design which have shaped much of my research and teaching over my career to date.
Previously I have been a core member of the Centre for Savings Household Assets and Savings (CHASM) during my time at the University of Birmingham, involved in a range of research from credit unions, financial inclusion, and asset-building. Additionally, I have led the project conducting a review of social needs in the Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield, encompassing an interest with poverty and wider welfare issues and mixed methods research.
My research into LGBT+ identities is a more recent develop, primarily using queer theory to challenge assumptions within social policy practice (as well as assumptions within our discipline) but also drawing attention to LGBT+ issues in introductory texts – such as the updated version of Social Policy in Britain (5th Edition) due to be published mid-2022. I have also worked with Peter Matthews to hold a day conference funded by the Social Policy Association: The Equalities Act 10 years on: impact on LGBT+ citizens. Additionally, I am currently working with Samuel Mann (also on this project) to set up a new network of economic and social science researchers exploring LGBTQ+ lives: Queer Populations and Policies (QPaP).
I bring to the project theoretical interests from the perspective of queer theory but also theories of wellbeing, asset-based welfare and financialization and how many of these have sought to reframe welfare provision over recent decades. Interest in the principles and values of social security and the relationship these have with efforts to address poverty also inform how I look forward to exploring our data and the experience of LGBT+ people in making claims against the social security system, but also in understanding the relationship LGBT+ people have with assets and savings.