I graduated with a BA in Geography from University of Leicester in 1984 and a PhD (Leicester) in 1988.  After working in Bristol and City University London on the 1970 Birth Cohort Study, I joined the Department of Geography at Portsmouth as a Lecturer in 1993. Between 1999-2016, I was the Departmental Lead for Teaching, Curriculum and Quality Enhancement. My current departmental role is REF Coordinator.

I have been Principle Lecturer since 2006 and currently act as External Examiner for BA Human Geography at Leeds Beckett University and MSc Human Geography by Research at the University of Reading.

Key Interests: Conditions of labouring in the creative economy; Self-employment, portfolio and fractured work; Spaces, places and practice of micro-entrepreneurship; Gender, self-employment and work-life balance; Motherhood, parenting and work.

An economic geographer with interests in work/labour, particularly entrepreneurship and self-employment in the creative industries. I am especially concerned with the intersection of the economic and the social at the level of the working pratices of individuals and households.  My most recent published research has investigated the phenomena of small-scale entrepreneurship carried out (and started up) within the context of family life, parenting and work-life balance. This group, sometimes called ‘mumpreneurs’, are typically professional mothers who have made the decision to manage this work-life balance through small business start-ups (Ekinsmyth 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015).

In previous research I have explored the work of freelancers in London's magazine publishing industry examined through the lenses of 'employment risk' and 'project-organisation'.

In new research I am examining the role of place in creative entrepreneurship.