Research output per year
Research output per year
United Kingdom
Accepting PhD Students
My research, teaching, and social work practice have focused on supporting marginalised people who have experienced violence. I am passionate about uplifting the perspectives of service users/survivors/lived experience experts and challenging the power inequalities in who is listened to in social research and social work practice. I am especially interested in Disability Studies, Mad Studies, and feminist research methods. My present research focus is on institutional violence and the pathologisation of youth in the USA 'troubled teen industry'. Prior to moving into academia, I worked with LGBTQ+ victims/survivors of domestic abuse and LGBTQ+ homeless youth.
My research focuses on the so-called 'troubled teen industry' in the USA. The troubled teen industry is a network of private residential youth reform programmes, including therapeutic boarding schools and wilderness therapy programmes. I have conducted mixed methods research on the retrospective accounts of former therapeutic boarding school students. My work has uncovered emotional, physical, and sexual abuse and neglect, as well as numerous human rights violations within the industry. My dedication to researching and raising awareness about this topic is underlined by my own history of having been a therapeutic boarding school student.
I have a background in teaching and course design at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In 2023, I was a Teaching Fellow in Social Work at the University of Edinburgh and in 2021-2022 I worked with CAPS Independent Advocacy and Queen Marget University to establish the world's first Mad Studies degree programme.
I am currently the lead on several social work courses:
PhD Social Work, MScR SW, PgCAP - University of Edinburgh
MA Social Work - University of Sussex
BA Sociology (Minor in Psychology) - McGill University
Professional registrations:
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Doctor of Social Science, Troubling the 'troubled teen' industry: Institutional violence, epistemic injustice, and psychiatrised youth, University of Edinburgh
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Golightley, S. (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or Presentation › Oral presentation
Golightley, S. (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or Presentation › Invited talk