Edmund Coleman-Fountain
Lecturer

Profile

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Sociology, having joined the department in 2023. I began studying Sociology at the University of Aberdeen (2000-2004) before completing my Master's and PhD at Newcastle University (2004-2011). Following my doctoral studies, I held post-doctoral positions at Newcastle University (2011-2013), and the University of York (2013-2016). I gained my first lecturing position at Northumbria University (2016-2023).

My research has been successfully funded by major bodies, including the British Academy, ESRC, and NIHR. I have published in various journals and edited collections and publised two monographs: Narrative Identity and Lesbian and Gay Youth (Palgrave, 2014) and Disabled Childhoods: Monitoring Differences and Emerging Identities (Routledge, 2016, co-authored with Janice McLaughlin and Emma Clavering).

My teaching is driven by my core research interests in disability, sexuality, gender, health, body and embodiment, and qualitative methods. I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate research students interested in exploring any of these themes through qualitative or creative methodological approaches.

Departmental roles

Impact and Knowledge Exchange Lead

Research

Overview

My core research interests lie at the intersections of Disability Studies and Genders and Sexualities. These two fields inform a focus on the everyday lives of LGBTQ+ and disabled people, particularly younger adults, and how they navigate social policies, services, and personal identities. My work seeks to develop critical insights into the impacts of policies, while amplifying the voices and perspectives of people themselves regarding their lives, identities, and what matters to them. This research has been supported by major funding bodies, including the ESRC, British Academy, and NIHR.

My scholarship is informed by critical insights from Disability Studies and Queer Studies, alongside broader sociological theory. Methodologically, my research is committed to ethical and innovative qualitative approaches that privilege participant voice. I have extensive experience in employing co-creation methods -working with participants to collectively shape research questions and outputs-  alongside narrative methods and visual methods for exploring facets of identity, lived experience, and social policy.

Projects

Current and Ongoing Research

Co-designing Inclusive Transitions Evidence (CITE): Funded by the Born in Bradford (BiB) Centre for Social Change, this 12-month impact project (Co-led with Dr Laura Fox, Department of Education) builds on my ESRC-funded study on disabled youth transitions. CITE aims to co-design an inclusive evidencing framework that ensures learning-disabled young people — particularly non-verbal or minimally verbal communicators — have a direct voice in research and policy affecting their lives. The project embeds communication-centred research tools directly into local policy evaluation and data gathering.  

Completed Projects

My completed research includes leading the NIHR SSCR-funded Gender, Sexuality and Personal Assistance Study (2020–2024), which used co-production principles to explore how gender, sexuality, and disability intersect within social care. For this I was also an NIHR SSCR Research Fellow (2020–2025).

As Co-Investigator on a major three-year ESRC-funded project on Disability and Youth Transitions, undertaken with colleagues at the Universities of Glasgow and Newcastle, I explored the longitudinal diversities, inequalities, and structural barriers disabled young people encounter when moving into adulthood, employment, or further training.

Additionally, pump-priming funding from the British Academy supported an international collaboration with the aim of investigating barriers and paths towards sexual autonomy for young disabled adults across Europe.

I also served as Co-Investigator on the NIHR RfPB-funded 'What About Me?' study, which provided qualitative insights into the lives of people with learning disabilities living on the edge of formal social care support.  

Publications

Selected publications

• Coleman-Fountain, E., Humphrey, H., Phillips, E., Rose-Ingall, B., & Toft, A. (2026). Explosion Time: Creative involvement in research with young, disabled and LGBTQ+ people. In L. Ladlow, & L. Way (Eds.), Creative and Participatory Research: Key Issues and Innovative Practices. Policy Press.
• McLaughlin, J., Coleman-Fountain, E., Cullingworth, J., Pearson, C., Shildrick, T., & Watson, N. (2026). Escaping (chrono)normative youth futures: Alternative imaginaries built in the communal spaces of disabled young people. The Sociological Review. 
• Coleman-Fountain, E., Falcetta, S., Hamilton, P., Tutton, R. J., Campos, R., Gilbourne, J., Molina Rossolino, P., & Murphy, P. (2025). Cultivating collaboration: Reflections on introducing Problem-Based Learning in the ‘wicked world’ of contemporary Higher Education. Sociology. Advance online publication. 
• Coleman-Fountain, E. (2025). Coming out in the twenty-first century. In R. Cover & C. Newman (Eds.), Elgar Encyclopedia of Queer Studies. Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Abbott, D., Coleman-Fountain, E., & Humphrey, H. (2025). Disabled People Negotiate Gender, Sexual Identity & Self-Directed Social Care Support in England: how does choice and control operate? Critical and Radical Social Work, 13(1), 112–128. 
• Humphrey, H., Coleman-Fountain, E., Abbott, D., & Toft, A. (2025). Fitting comfortably together: doing and imagining gender and sexuality in personal assistance. Feminism and Psychology, 35(2), 228-245. 
• Humphrey, H., & Coleman-Fountain, E. (2023). Creating Time for LGBT+ Disabled Youth: Co-production Outside Chrononormativity. Sociological Research Online. Advance online publication. 
• Humphrey, H., Slater, T., Coleman-Fountain, E., & Jones, C. (2023). Building a Community for Queer Disability Studies: Lessons from the Snail. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 12(1), 1–28.
• Humphrey, H., Slater, T., Coleman-Fountain, E., & Jones, C. (2023). Création d’une communauté réunissant les études queer sur le handicap : leçons tirées de l’escargot. Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, 12(2), 226–258.
• Humphrey, H., & Coleman-Fountain, E. (2023). Creating Time for LGBT+ Disabled Youth: Co-production Outside Chrononormativity. Sociological Research Online, 29(1), 233-242. 

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Investigating Social Problems
• Gender, Sexuality and Inequalities
• Health and Illness
• Body and Society
• Global Justice, Health and Wellbeing

My enthusiasm for qualitative research methodologies and collaborative research practices informs my teaching across the curriculum. At the undergraduate level, I realise this ethos through Investigating Social Problems, using Problem-Based Learning methods to foster student teamwork, active inquiry, and critical problem-solving — a pedagogical model our teaching team reflected on in a recent publication (Coleman-Fountain, E., Falcetta, S., Hamilton, P., Tutton, R. J., Campos, R., Gilbourne, J., Molina Rossolino, P., & Murphy, P. (2025). Cultivating collaboration: Reflections on introducing Problem-Based Learning in the ‘wicked world’ of contemporary Higher Education. Sociology. Advance online publication).

Alongside methodology, I embed my core research expertise at the intersections of Disability Studies, gender, sexuality, and embodiment across a range of specialist undergraduate modules, including Gender, Sexuality and Inequalities, Health and Illness, Body and Society, and Global Justice, Health and Wellbeing.

Postgraduate

• Introduction to Qualitative Methods and Data Analysis

At the postgraduate level, through the Introduction to Qualitative Methods and Data Analysis module, I teach narrative interviewing and the use of documents in research. 

External activities

Memberships

I am a long-standing member of the British Sociological Association (BSA).

Editorial duties

I serve as an Editor for the journal Sociological Research Online, which is a house journal of the BSA.