Joseph Patrick McAulay

Joseph is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies. He is currently is part of the Pathways to effective resolution of complaints about NHS care project with Professor Linda Mulcahy where he examines how patients navigate complaints systems in the UK healthcare system.

Joseph was recently awarded a competitive Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship which he will begin in November 2023. This fellowship will fund a three year project titled "Dangerous Spectacles: Conspiracy Theories, Crime, and the Law" which will examin the relationship between conspiracy theories and law breaking in the United Kingdom through a critical analysis of two online conspiracist sub-cultures.

Before this he completed a DPhil in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the Centre for Criminology at the University of Oxford . His project examined how Queer men navigate and make sense of Intimate Partner Violence from a male romantic and seuxal partner using a narrative framework. His project was supervised by Professor Carolyn Hoyle and  funded by a 1 + 3 Economic and Social Research Council studentship as part of the Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership. 

He has previously worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Oxford's Law Faculty, and a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Roehampton where he lectured in Global Disorder and Contemporary Issues in Criminology.  

In addition to his Dphil studies and teaching, Joseph has worked on a number of different research projects including for the University of Edinburgh and the University of Oxford's Pro Bono Publico free law research clinic as a research assistant. He was a member of the Cameroon Conflict Research Group which researches and reports on the ongoing civil conflict and humanitarian crisis occurring within Cameroon and has contributed to both of its recent publications. 

Prior to beginning his DPhil, Joseph completed an MSc in Criminology & Criminal Justice at the Centre for Criminology in Oxford, achieving a grade of Distinction.  Between 2013-2017 he studied Law at the University of Edinburgh where he achieved First Class Honours. He was also awarded the McClintock Prize in Criminology for achieving the highest mark in a criminological subject of the entire honours year group. 

Joseph's general research interests lie in Cultural and Narrative Criminology. He is interested in the ways in which harm is subjectively experienced by individuals and communities, and seeks to link these experiences to the wider social changes caused by Late Modernity. Joseph also maintains an interest in the impact of Globalisation on crime and disorder, with a particular focus on the study of conspiracy theories as a form of criminological harm.