Dr Sarah Richards

Sarah has supervised dissertations on the MA Childhood and has taught social policy and research related modules on postgraduate and undergraduate programmes including Childhood Studies, SENDS, Childhood and Family Studies.

PhD completions:

• Keith Hotchkiss, Perceptions of success within the NHS: ‘We’ve got a public who are convinced the NHS is absolutely bloody marvelous’

Sarah’s current PhD students include:

• Abbie Toner, thesis focus, Sibling Kinship Carers
• Sian Cook, thesis focus: The use of technology in bereavement
• Anna Max, thesis focus:  A critical comparative analysis of the accountability discourse in early years education in England and Finland
• Kate Sida-Nicholls, thesis focus: An ethnography of newly qualified teachers
• Michael Bird, thesis focus: Using Photovoice to explore the wellbeing of autistic home educated children

Sarah is currently leading a UKRI funded project exploring 1st generational stories in HE using qualitative and participatory methods aimed at capturing co-constructed experiential narratives.

Sarah’s recent research was a collaboration with Suffolk Libraries on a KEEP+ project exploring the library as a source of well-being and a location for social prescribing.

Sarah’s recent previous research includes a UKRI funded project exploring bereavement support for children in Suffolk’s primary schools and an unfunded research project entitled ‘Playing amongst the dead’, exploring young children’s perceptions of their play area in a graveyard

Publications

Books

Richards, S.,& Coombs, S. Researching Children and Childhoods (forthcoming) London: Bloomsbury

Richards, S., & Coombs, S. (2023) Critical Perspectives on Research with Children

Reflexivity, Methodology and Researcher Identity (edt) London: Bristol University Press

Vine, T. & Richards, S. (2023) Stories, Storytellers and Storytelling London: Palgrave Macmillan

Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S. & Weir, D. (2018) Ethnographic Encounters(edt) London: Palgrave

Richards, S., Clark, J., and Boggis, A., (2015) ‘Ethical Research with Children: Untold Narratives and Taboos’ Palgrave

Clark, J., and Richards, S. (2011) (eds) An introduction to Children, Young People and Social Policy London: Sage

Book chapters

Richards, S., & Coombs, S. (2023) ‘A Bump on the Head in the Graveyard: Palimpsests of Death, Selves, Care, and Touch’ in Richards, S., & Coombs, S. (2023) Critical Perspectives on Research with Children Reflexivity, Methodology and Researcher Identity (edt) London: Bristol University Press

Richards, S., & Coombs, S. (2023) ‘Introduction’ in Richards, S., & Coombs, S. (2023) Critical Perspectives on Research with Children Reflexivity, Methodology and Researcher Identity (edt) London: Bristol University Press

Vine, T. & Richards, S. (2023) ‘Introduction’ in Vine, T. & Richards, S. (2023) Stories, Storytellers and Storytelling (edt) London: Palgrave Macmillan

Richards, S. ‘Chóng ér fēi: Cultural Performances of Belonging’ in Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S. & Weir, D. (eds) (2018) Ethnographic Encounters London: Palgrave

Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S. & Weir, D (2018) ‘Introduction’ in Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S. & Weir, D. (eds) (2018) Ethnographic Encounters London: Palgrave

Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S. & Weir, D (2018) ‘Conclusion’ in Vine, T., Clark, J., Richards, S. & Weir, D. (eds) (2018) Ethnographic Encounters London: Palgrave

Richards, S. ‘Historical Policy and Provision’ in Boggis, A. (ed) Disabled Childhoods (2018) London: Palgrave Macmillan

Richards, S. and Clark, J. ‘Research with Disabled Children’ in Boggis, A. (ed) Disabled Childhoods (2018) London: Palgrave Macmillan

Clark, J. and Richards, S. (2017) The cherished conceits of research with children? Does seeking the voice of the agentic child in participatory methods deliver what it promises? Sociological Studies of Childhood and Youth, Vol. 22, Emerald Publishing (in association with the ASA)

Richards, S. (2013) ‘An introduction to Children and Social Policy’ in Taylor, J. Bond, E. and Woods, M. (Eds.) Early Childhood Studies an Holistic, Multidisciplinary Introduction (3rd edn) London: Hodder Arnold

Journal articles

Richards, S. (2020) ‘Everybody’s child: An exploration of images of children that shocked the world’ Genealogy https://www.mdpi.com/2313-5778/4/3/73/htm

Richards, S. and Clark J. (2018) ‘[Dis]ordered spaces? Managing the competing rights of children in the gendered space of the school toilet’ Journal of Reproductive Systems and Sexual Disorders 1 (5) OAJRSD.MS.ID.000122

Richards, S, (2018) ‘‘I’m more than just adopted’: Narratives of belonging in intercountry adoption’ in "Adoption Experiences and the Tracing and Narration of Family Genealogies" special edition edited by Derek Kirton Genealogy https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7937/d15763872a0101661fcae1cf620a0425074d.pdf?_ga=2.243249922.1674974618.1674233562-687945772.1674233562

Richards, S. (2018) book review of Wall, J. (2017) ‘Children’s rights, today’s global challenge’ in Global Studies in Childhood

Richards, S. (2015) ‘HCIA Implementation and the Best Interests of the Child’ Report for Thematic Area 1 of the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy’ AFIN, No 78 Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness  

Spanish:

https://www.academia.edu/20259800/_2015.12_Richards_Sarah._Especial_International_Forum_on_Intercountry_Adoption_and_Global_Surrogacy_IV._La_Implementaci%C3%B3n_del_Convenio_de_La_Haya_sobre_Adopci%C3%B3n_Internacional_y_el_Inter%C3%A9s_Superior_de_la_Ni%C3%B1ez

Catalan:

https://www.academia.edu/20299049/_2015.12_Richards_Sarah._Especial_International_Forum_on_Intercountry_Adoption_and_Global_Surrogacy_IV._La_Implementaci%C3%B3_del_Conveni_de_La_Haia_sobre_Adopci%C3%B3_Internacional_i_l_Inter%C3%A8s_Superior_de_la_Inf%C3%A0ncia

English:

https://www.academia.edu/20299041/_2015.12_Richards_Sarah._International_Forum_on_Intercountry_Adoption_and_Global_Surrogacy_IV._The_Hague_Convention_on_Intercountry_Adoption_Implementation_and_the_Best_Interests_of_the_Child

Richards, S. ‘The Market in Babies Stories of Australian Adoption’ A Review in Australian Historical Studies (2015) http://www.tandfonline.com/rahs

Richards (2014) ‘HCIA Implementation and the Best Interests of the Child’ Report for Thematic Area 1 of the International Forum on Intercountry Adoption and Global Surrogacy (11-13 August 2014) available at; http://repub.eur.nl/col/9760#query=from:NaN;query=sort:auto;filter=series:9760;filter=all:;facet=type:;facet=public:;facet=open_access:;facet=issued_date:;facet=affiliation_label_partOf:;facet=host_series_label:

Richards, S. (2012) ‘What the map cuts up the story cuts across’: narratives of belonging in intercountry adoption’ in ‘Multiculturalism, identity and family placement by Phoenix, A., and Simmonds, J., (eds) in Adoption & Fostering vol 36 (2012) pp 104-112

Conference presentations

Suffolk Libraries social community support project at The Research and Knowledge Exchange Conference University of Suffolk 30 June 2022

Keynote address The future of participatory research with children at Childhood Conference at the Research Centre on Child Studies at the University of Minho, Portugal 7 December 2021

Keynote address Evaluating key concepts in research with children at LSE Case Researchers Workshop Online at London School of Economics September 2021

A bump on the Head in the Churchyard: The Emotional Labour of doing Research with Children July 20215th Biennial Children and Childhoods Online Conference at University of Suffolk paper accepted

Mythical creatures and playing amongst the dead Research and Public Engagement conference 13th March 2020 University of Suffolk (with Dr Sarah Coombs)

Mythical creatures and playing amongst the dead The 14th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal - Centre for the Study of Death and Society: University of Bath - September 4th -7th 2019 (with Dr Sarah Coombs)

‘I’m more than just adopted’: Narratives of belonging in intercountry adoption’ Paper accepted at ICAR 6 The 6th edition of the International Conference on Adoption Research on July 8-12, 2018, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada

‘Developing inclusive practices for Postgraduate programme development’  co-authored abstract for Creating Inclusive postgraduate cultures and communities 2018 UKCGE Annual Conference

Invited to present at Disability Studies and Intersectionality: Blurring the Boundaries Disabled Children’s Research Forum University of Suffolk 30 June 2017 (with Jessica Clark)

Talking about the ‘hard stuff’: Australian and British transracial adoptive families negotiating racial difference and issues about belonging co-authored presentation accepted for 5th International Conference on Adoption Research Auckland University January 2016

Stories of Death and Adoption Paper Accepted: The Storytelling Project. 7th Global Meeting. Dubrovnik Croatia. February 2015

Presentation by invitation to Institute of Education, University College London (April 2014) ‘Stories of paper and blood: Narratives of belonging in families with daughters adopted from China’ Presentation by invitation to Institute of Education, University College London (April 2014)

Sarah has recently acted as a consultant for Childhood Studies academic team at the Open University for two years to assist them develop online module material.

Sarah has previously collaborated with Suffolk CRUSE and Suffolk and Norfolk SCITT on a research project exploring bereavement support in schools.

Sarah ran a two-day development workshop on conducting participatory methods in research for the NSPCC.

 

Sarah is currently collaborating with the Research Centre on Child Studies at the University of Minho, Portugal as a special editor of their academic journal drawing on papers from the recent international conference on Childhood which Sarah was a co-host and organiser in September 2022

Sarah initiated and is co-founder of the international Conference on Storytelling held biennially at University of Suffolk

Sarah initiated and co-founded the biennial children and childhood conference programme in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022. The international nature of this conference ensures that over twenty countries are regularly represented on the delegates list.

 

Sarah is a member of the Social Policy Association and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.