Dr Kerry Allen

Email: K.Allen@sheffield.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 (0) 114 222 3265

Current Roles

Research Associate, COMPOSITE Project

Areas of Expertise

Prior to joining IWP, Kerry worked as Business Benefits Co-ordinator for South Yorkshire Police, with responsibility for ensuring that all project and programme work across the force had clear business benefits and was aligned to South Yorkshire Police strategic objectives. This role involved developing a framework and strategy for benefits management for the force, and delivering workshops, presentations and liaison with Project Managers across the force to advise and guide on clear project planning and benefits management.

Alongside working for South Yorkshire Police, from 2006 to 2011 Kerry undertook a PhD in Sociology from the University of Nottingham, entitled ‘Poles Apart? Women Negotiating Femininity and Feminism in the Fitness Pole Dancing Class’.

Current Areas of Research

Kerry is a Research Associate working on the COMPOSITE Project (Comparative Police Studies in the EU), a research project funded over a period of four years out of the FP7 framework programme of the European Union, and involving researchers from Universities across ten European countries. COMPOSITE is looking into large scale change processes in police forces all over Europe and attempts to find out what factors contribute to the success or failure of these change processes. Through different work package streams, researchers are examining organisational structures, organisational identities and cultures, leadership styles, and processes. Kerry is working in particular on COMPOSITE Work Package 3, ‘Knowledge Sharing Capabilities and Best Practices in Police Organisations’, which is led by Dr Kamal Birdi from IWP, and which aims to build a picture of organisational knowledge sharing capability at the local, regional, national and European level. Overall the work package aims to facilitate better practice in knowledge sharing, contributing to evidence-based changes in police policy and practice by addressing current inefficiencies and best practices.

Kerry’s research interests include:

• Qualitative methods
• Feminist methodology
• Narrative research
• Sexualities
• Women and femininity
• Gender and feminist theory
• Sport, health and fitness
• Policing and law enforcement
• Project and programme management
• Business benefits management

Qualifications

PhD Sociology, University of Nottingham, 2011
MA Sociological Research Methods, University of Sheffield, 2006
MSc Sport Management, Sheffield Hallam University, 2005
BA (Hons) Sociology, University of Warwick, 2002