Dr Craig Owen

Craig is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology. His areas of interest include critical social psychology, critical health psychology, sociology of sport, gender studies and qualitative research methods.

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Background

Craig's research and teaching lie in the areas of critical social psychology, critical health psychology, sociology of sport, gender studies, and qualitative research methods.

Craig's current research explores the performance of gender in self-help texts, television shows, social media and advertising billboards. He is a member of the ARU Centre for Societies and Groups.

Research interests

Craig’s PhD focused on the performance of masculinities in capoeira and Latin and ballroom dance classes, and he is currently collaborating on four new research projects that explore: billboard representations of ‘plus-size’ models; representations of masculinity in the Cobra Kai television series; sex self-help books for men; parenting manuals for raising feminist boys, and how ostomates portray themselves on Tik Tok.

Areas of research supervision

Craig welcomes applications from students who wish to pursue PhD projects that explore performances of gender using qualitative methods.

Teaching

• Sex, Gender and Sexuality; Self and Society; Essential Research Methods

Qualifications

• PhD Psychology, University of Bath
• MSc Sociology of Sport, Loughborough University
• BSc Sport Science and Social Science, Loughborough University

Memberships, editorial boards

• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Editorial board member of The Journal of Men’s Studies

Selected recent publications

Owen, C., Campbell, C. (in press). Lads, medical experts and carers: How men talk about penis concerns in online forums. In LaFrance, M., Deslauriers, J. & Tremblay, G. (eds.) The Forgotten Realities of Men. University of British Columbia Press.

Campbell, C., Owen, C., O’Prey, J., 2023. Erasure of Labour: A Critical Analysis of Appetite Suppressant Product Marketing by Flat Tummy Co. Feminist Media Studies.

Davenport, C.,Lambie, J., Owen, C., Swami, V. 2022. Fathers' experience of depression during the perinatal period: a qualitative systematic review. JBI Evidence Synthesis.

Owen, C., Harman, V., 2022. Marketing Dance to Boys and Men: New, Complex and Dynamic Practices of Masculinities. In Risner, D. & Watson, R. (eds.) In Press. Masculinity, Intersectionality, and Identity: Why Boys (Don’t) Dance. Palgrave.

Owen, C. (2022). Addressing lad culture: Is there a ‘light side’ and a ‘dark side’ to lad culture? Sociology Review.

Wong, Y. N., Harman, V., Owen, C., 2021. Analysing Media Reactions to Male/Male Dance Partnerships on British Reality TV Shows: Inclusive Masculinity in Strictly Come Dancing and Dancing On Ice. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure.

Owen, C. (2020). How do we defeat the ‘dark side’? Analysing a call to tackle lad culture at a UK university. British Educational Research Journal.

Brown, N., Campbell, C., Owen, C., Omrani, A., 2020. How do girls’ magazines talk about breasts? Feminism & Psychology.

Owen, C., Riley, S., 2020. A poststructuralist-informed inclusive masculinity theory (PS-IMT): Developing IMT to account for complexities in masculinities, using learning to dance Latin and ballroom as an example. Journal of Gender Studies.

Owen, C., Riley, S., 2020. Dance Diversity on YouTube: How Participatory Culture Encourages Inclusive Masculinities. In Magrath, R., Cleland, J., Anderson, E. (eds.), 2020. Palgrave Handbook of Sport and Masculinity (London: Palgrave).

Owen, C., De Martini Ugolotti, N., 2019. “Pra Homem, Menino e Mulher”?: Problematizing the Gender Inclusivity Discourse in Capoeira. International Review for the Sociology of Sport.

Owen, C., Campbell, C., 2017. How do men’s magazines talk about penises? Journal of Health Psychology.

Recent presentations and conferences

Owen, C. & Campbell, C. (2023). Lads, medical experts and carers: How men talk about penis concerns in men’s magazines and online forums. Men's Health: Strategy, Policy and Practice. Mens and Boys Coalition, Manchester.

Owen, C. (2023). Lads, medical experts and carers: How men talk about penis concerns in online forums. ISCHP 13th Biennial conference. University of O'Higgins, Chile.

Owen, C. (2023) Diverse but shallow, unrealistic but enticing: Exploring how women make sense of billboard images of female plus-size models. ISCHP 13th Biennial conference. University of O'Higgins, Chile.

Owen, C., Brown, N. Campbell, C. (2019). How girls’ magazines talk about breasts. ISCHP 11^th Biennial conference, Bratislava.

Owen, C. & N. de Martini Ugolotti (2019). Using Methodological Bricolage and Visual Methods to Explore Embodied Identities in Sport and Physical Culture. Sport and Leisure Cultures Research Group. University of Brighton.

Owen, C. & De Martini Ugolotti, N. (2018). ‘Pra homem, menino e mulher’? Problematizing the gender inclusivity discourse in capoeira. European Association for Sociology of Sport, 15^thAnnual Conference, Bordeaux.

Owen, C. (2018). How do mens' magazines talk about penises? Gender and Sexuality Research Network, University of Reading.

Owen, C. (2018). “Fred, I’m not going to force you to have a pseudonym”: Reflecting on an ethical co-performance event. 4^th Annual Qualitative Research Symposium, University of Bath.

Owen, C. (2017). Embrace the Mess! Visualising Methodological Bricolage as a Japanese Wish Tree. Employing and Applying Pluralistic Qualitative Research. Middlesex University.

Owen, C. & Campbell, C. (2017). How do men’s magazines talk about penises? ISCHP 10^thBiennial conference, Loughborough University.

Owen, C. (2016) Masculine identities and the performance of ‘awesome moves’ in capoeira classes. Martial Arts Studies Conference 2016, Cardiff University.

Owen, C. & N. de Martini Ugolotti (2016) Problematizing the Discourses and Practices of Gender Inclusivity in Capoeira'. Gender and Inequalities in Sport Conference, Milton Keynes.

Media experience

Blog posts

Owen, C., Channon, A. & Jennings, G. (07/09/2018). Cobra Kai: Karate Kid spin-off is a social parable for our times. The Conversation.

International Society of Critical Health Psychology (03/02/2018) How do men’s magazine talk about penises?

Press coverage

MEL Magazine (11/01/2018) What All Our Dick Coverage Says About Us, According to a Researcher Who Studies Men’s Publications That Talk About Dicks.

Die Welt (14/12/2017) Ganz Geknickt/Quite Bent.

Research workshops

A Theoretical and Hands-on Introduction to Foucauldian Discourse Analysis (2018) [YouTube video]

A Hands-on Introduction to Thematic Analysis (2017) [YouTube video]