Maisie Wilson

Profile

Biography

Maisie is a White Rose DTP funded PhD researcher in the Department of Sociology at the University of York. Their doctoral research explores how single-sex, community-based wellbeing charities do (or don't do) inclusion of gender-diverse folk.

Alongside their PhD, Maisie works as Welcoming and Inclusion Officer and LGBTQ+ Lead at Kyra Women’s Project, a women’s wellbeing charity in York. She is also a Director of York Together, which supports grassroots community groups across York with funding, practical support and help getting new projects off the ground.

Maisie’s Master’s dissertation on grieving trees was awarded the Postgraduate Dissertation Prize, while their undergraduate dissertation on female white-collar criminals received the York Business School Prize. They have also published research in Information, Communication & Society exploring ghost signs in York and the social histories they preserve.

When not researching or working in the community, Maisie can be found knitting or reading increasingly bleak dystopian fiction.

Additional roles

Welcoming and Inclusion Officer, Kyra Women’s Project LGBTQ+ Group Coordinator, Kyra Women’s Project Director, York Together

Research

Overview

Maisie’s research interests centre on gender diversity, LGBTQ+ inclusion, charities, and feminist research.

Their ESRC-funded PhD examines gender-diverse inclusion within single-sex, community-based wellbeing charities in the UK. Their research is particularly interested in the relationship between policy, organisational practice and lived experience: exploring what organisations say they do, how inclusion is understood and enacted by practitioners, and how it is experienced by gender-diverse people themselves.

Methodologically, Maisie uses qualitative and participatory approaches, including policy analysis, semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and co-participatory workshops. 

They are particularly interested in bringing different forms of qualitative evidence into conversation, taking lived experience seriously, and questioning some of the unearned power and privilege that comes with being a bona fide academic.

I’m always happy to hear from people interested in my research, working in similar areas, or just keen to have a conversation about any of the above, so please feel free to get in touch!

Publications

Selected publications

Mitman, T. and Wilson, M. (2026). ‘Revealing the Spirit of the City: Ghost Signs, Dérive, Digital Curation, and the City as Media Archive’. Information, Communication & Society