Alexander Bridger

6 Last checked 1 July 2020

I am a Senior Lecturer in Psychology, specialising in Critical Social Psychology and Qualitative Research Methods. I joined the University in September 2007 having held part time lectureships at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Open University. I obtained my degree in Psychology with Sociology (2001, University of Staffordshire), PCPD Teacher Training Qualification (2009, University of Huddersfield) and PhD in Psychogeography (2009, Manchester Metropolitan University). The focus of my PhD was about conceptualising how psychogeographical strategies could be developed for use in critical and qualitative psychological research. In that research, I analysed media representations of September 11th and the Aftermath (newspaper reports, political accounts and video footage) using discourse and semiological methods of analysis. I also analysed the material space of Ground Zero using psychogeographical techniques.

Whilst I was a PhD student at Manchester Metropolitan University I was involved with the Psychology Postgraduates Affairs Group (PsyPAG) as a British Psychological Society North West member. In that role I was involved in organising a national Postgraduate Psychology conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. As a senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield, I was one of the main organisers for the international psychogeographical conference and festival, titled ‘Territorities Re-Imagined International Perspectives' which was held at Manchester Metropolitan as well as numerous other public venues including the Urbis museum and the Green Room.

I feel very grateful to have been part of the Discourse Unit when it operated at Manchester Metropolitan University and what I have learnt from academic staff, researchers and other colleagues has informed my critical and political approach to teaching Psychology today. I continue to have strong associations to the Discourse Unit, as well as the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, the Centre for Applied Psychology Research (based at the University of Huddersfield) and the British Psychological Society where I am member of the Qualitative Methods in Psychology and Social Psychology sections.

As part of my 'public engagement' and critical-intellectual-activist work, I set up the Huddersfield Psychogeographical Network in order to explore the effects of neoliberal gentrification in towns and cities such as Huddersfield, Bradford and Manchester. I am also involved in other psychogeographical groups in the North of England including the Loiterers Resistance Movement and the Leeds Psychogeographical Group.

I am one of the main organisers for the annual 4th World Congress of Psychogeography at Heritage Quays in Huddersfield (http://4wcop.org) which includes counter-psychogeographical walks, talks and other activities.

• The theorisation and conceptual development of psychogeographical techniques to explore: the effects of neoliberal gentrification in towns and cities, LGBTQ issues, surveillance/privacy, digital flaneurie,  snf mental health.
• Critical social psychology and qualitative approaches, i.e. Foucault, Lacan, Debord and Barthes.

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