Co-Directors
Professor David McGillivray
Professor David McGillivray is Co-Director of CCSE and holds a Chair in Event and Digital Cultures. His research focuses on two areas; i) the contemporary significance of events and festivals (sporting & cultural) and, ii) the affordances of digital and social media in enabling (and constraining) participation in civic life. He has led several large practice/research projects including: Digital Commonwealth exploring themes of digital storytelling, digital citizenship, participatory cultures and community development in the context of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow; FESTSPACE, exploring the relationship between festivals, events and public space in Europe; EventRights, exploring the relationship between sport events and human rights; and Festivals Connect, exploring the role of events in promoting positive EDI outcomes. He is the co-editor of Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives (Routledge, 2017) and co-author of Event Policy: From Theory to Strategy (Routledge, 2012), Event Bidding: Politics, Persuasion and Resistance (Routledge, 2017) and Leveraging Disability Sport Events: Impacts, Promises and Possibilities (Routledge, 2018). He is currently Deputy Editor of the Event Management journal and sits on the Editorial Board of the Leisure Studies journal.
Professor Sandro Carnicelli
Professor Sandro Carnicelli is Deputy Director of CCSE and a Professor of Tourism and Leisure Studies. Sandro is a member of the ABRATUR (International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil). He currently serves on the Editorial Board of Leisure Studies Journal, and Journal of Adventure Education and Outdoor Learning and CABI Tourism Cases. He is an Associate Editor for Event Management Journal and is currently the Editor in Chief of the World Leisure Journal. Sandro in an Alumni of the Young Academy of Scotland/RSE and a member of the ESRC Peer Review Panel and the chair of the Renfrewshire Tourism Leadership Group.
Core members
Professor Gayle McPherson
Professor Gayle McPherson was Director of CCSE until 2025 and holds a Chair in Events and Cultural Policy. Her research interests revolve around the interventions of the local and national state and wider agencies in events and festivity of all types. She is particularly interested in sport and cultural events aiding inclusion for marginalised groups with a particular focus on disability rights. She has led the Centre since its inception and has been has led and contributed to many research grants and is currently conducting leading research on the Commonwealth Games 2026. She has acted as an expert advisor to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and British Council contributing to their International Development Strategy and Soft Power Council reports. She is the Director of Legacy and Community Engagement on the Board of Commonwealth Games Scotland. She sits on the British Council Scottish Advisory Board. She is the co-Chief Editor of Frontiers Journal for Sport and Active Living: Leisure, Tourism, Events and Sport (2020- present) and has co-authored books including Leveraging Disability Sport Events: Impacts, Promises and Possibilities (2018) and Event Policy: From Theory to Strategy (2012). She was also co-editor of Digital Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives (2017), Music Entrepreneurship (2015), Research Themes in Events (2013) and National Days: Constructing and Celebrating National Identity (2009).
Dr Masood Khodadadi
Dr Masood Khodadadi is a Reader in Tourism, Culture, and Society. His expertise encompasses cultural heritage, policy, and planning within tourism studies. With a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research profile, Masood has an extensive publication record in top-tier academic journals. He currently serves as the Associate Editor for the Ecotourism Section of the Journal of Frontiers in Sustainable Tourism and is a member of the editorial board of several prestigious journals. In addition, Masood is the Associate Lead (Output) for UWS’ UoA24 REF (Research Excellence Framework) 2029 submission. In this role, he supports the UOA Lead in managing the peer-review process and leads the selection and preparation of research outputs. His commitment extends to nurturing staff success, fostering research development, and championing the open access agenda at UWS. Drawing from over a decade of hands-on experience in the hospitality and tourism industry, he has contributed his expertise to organisations such as Gleneagles, Hilton, and the G1 Group. Additionally, Masood served as an invited expert judge on the second series of BBC’s Scotland’s Greatest Escape, further demonstrating his reputation and expertise within the tourism industry.
Dr Kalyan Bhandari
Dr Kalyan Bhandari is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Events and Tourism. His research interests are in the sociology of leisure and tourism, tourism at heritage sites, governments and tourism public policies, the environment, and regional development. He completed his PhD on Scottish tourism at the University of Glasgow. Kalyan has published papers on tourism, leisure and identity in reputed journals like Annals of Tourism Research; Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space; Leisure Studies; and Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism. He has published two books: Tourism and National Identity: Heritage and Nationhood in Scotland (Channel View Publications) and Tourism and Nationalism in Nepal (Routledge). Kalyan is currently investigating a British Academy/Leverhulme Trust-funded project on the Covenanting memorials in the southwest of Scotland. Kalyan sits on the editorial board of the British Sociological Association’s flagship journal Sociology (Sage).
Dr Jenny Flinn
Dr Jenny Flinn is an expert in event management education, having played a fundamental role in developing the subject area across Scotland and the UK. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between industry and Higher Education by integrating industry into the curriculum, undertaking consultancy work, and the design and delivery of industry focused courses. She has extensive experience in teaching and learning at both undergraduate and postgraduate level and a strong track record in developing, delivering, and leading academic programmes. Her teaching spans a broad spectrum, from delivering Foundation Academy courses for school pupils, to leading commercial CPD modules for industry practitioners. Jenny serves as Vice Chair of the Association for Events Management Education and is a member of the Skills and Talent working group of UKEVENTS, contributing to national conversations around skills development and educational standards in the sector. She also plays an active role in supervising and assessing PhD students and regularly reviews for regularly review for a range of academic journals and sits on the Editorial Advisory Board of Event Management.
Dr Adam Talbot
Dr Adam Talbot joined UWS in 2022 as a Lecturer in Events Management previously been a Lecturer in Sport and Event Management at Coventry University and Lecturer in Sport Development at Abertay University. His research focusses on the impacts of events on host communities, particularly the deleterious impacts of sport mega-events, while also exploring the reaction to these impacts by host communities. He has conducted extensive field research in Rio de Janeiro, exploring activism and resistance to the Olympic Games, particularly focussing on the spatial politics of resistance to favela evictions. This work forms the basis of his recent monograph Resisting Olympic Evictions, published by Manchester University Press. His research focus has since expanded to the burgeoning transnational movement against the Olympic Games and mega-events more broadly, as well as policies and strategies to safeguard human rights at sport mega-events. He is on the editorial board of the Leisure Studies and Event Management journals, and is currently Research & Enterprise Officer for the Leisure Studies Association.
Dr Briony Sharp
Dr Briony Sharp is a Lecturer and Programme Leader in Marketing, Innovation, Tourism, and Events. She teaches across both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes and contributes to initiatives like the Foundation Academy for high school pupils. Briony’s research primarily employs qualitative methods to explore the social impacts of events, focusing on governance, volunteering, and critical event studies. Her doctoral research investigated the social legacies of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, and she is currently involved in a project related to the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games, funded by Spirit of 2012. Her ongoing research interests include the contribution of leisure and events to well-being, event legacy, and sustainability. Her recent publications include co-editing Creative Research Methods for Critical Event Studies (2024), Transforming Leisure in the Pandemic (2022), and Accessibility, Inclusion, and Diversity in Critical Events Studies (2018). Briony is actively involved in the academic community, serving as Treasurer on the Executive Board of the Leisure Studies Association and as the Social Media Editor for the Journal of Policy Research in Tourism, Leisure and Events.
Dr Liz Carlin
Dr Liz Carlin is a Lecturer in Sport Coaching & Development with over 10 years’ experience in education and 20 years’ experience in working with people with a disability in sport. She has an expertise in inclusion with a particular interest in research with people with a disability and people living with dementia. She has worked with organisations including Special Olympics Europe Eurasia (McConkey et al, 2019) and Alzheimer Scotland, (MacRae, Macrae & Carlin, 2020). Liz has also worked on research with Professor’s McPherson & McGillivray on both Project Echo and the OSS project Understanding Disability Sport in Scotland. She has experience in conducting programme evaluations and mixed methods research whilst conducting an Evaluation of the Clinical Champions Physical Activity Training Programme for Public Health England. (Carlin et al., 2020; Carlin et al., 2021; Whelan et al., 2021)
Dr David Meir
Dr David Meir is a Lecturer in Sport & Physical Education in the School of Health and Life Sciences. He teaches on the BSc Sport Coaching & Development degree at the UWS Ayr Campus where he delivers the physical education modules. He has been lecturing in further and higher education for 23 years. His research publications originally focused on critical pedagogy, sport for development, community sport, participatory research methodologies, inclusive practice, and physical education policy. His most recent research has (1) explored further the role of education with sport for development and (2) analysed current sport and physical activity policy in Scotland.
Dr Chloe Maclean
Dr Chloe Maclean joined UWS in 2020 as a Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Education and Social Sciences. She teaches across the BA Social Sciences, and MA Applied Social Sciences courses, and specialises in gendered embodiment in sport and physical activity contexts. Her research explores how gendered power relations are shaped through embodied experiences within sport and physical activity practices. She employs innovative qualitative methods such as sensory ethnography and visual methods to amplify participant voices. Her current projects include studies on embodied experiences of menstruation in sport and gender-based violence.
Dr Andrew Bailey
Dr Andrew Bailey joined UWS in July 2023 as a Lecturer in Sports Management within the School of Health and Life Sciences. Since joining UWS, Andrew has represented the university and CCSE internationally on several occasions for research, teaching, and research dissemination. Andrew’s research primarily uses qualitative research approaches, with a particular interest in photo-elicitation methods. Current research projects employing photo-elicitation methods include UEFA funded research exploring the barriers and enablers of female off-pitch volunteering within grassroots football; Realist Insights into Disability and Inclusion: Barriers and Enablers to Sport Participation; and Exploring the attachment Rangers Football Club supporters hold towards Ibrox Stadium. As well as photo-elicitation methods, Andrew is an expert in realist evaluation, which is particularly useful for evaluating the impact of programmes and events.
Dr Caglar Bideci
Dr Caglar Bideci is a dedicated researcher and lecturer with a strong academic background, over a decade of professional sector experience, and a high-quality teaching portfolio spanning three continents. His expertise lies at the intersection of marketing, tourism, and sustainable development, with a commitment to integrating research and teaching to drive meaningful contributions to both industry and academia.
His early research on underwater experience design for scuba diving was conducted on experimental artificial reefs, demonstrating how scientific curiosity can link sustainability, tourism, and behavioural research. His work with immersive technologies illustrates how interdisciplinary approaches—combining marketing, psychology, and digital innovation—can create new pathways in both academic research and industry practice.
Since joining the University of the West of Scotland (UWS), London, in September 2023 as a Lecturer in Marketing, Dr Bideci has been actively involved in leading funded research projects, engaging in pedagogical scholarship, and enriching academic discourse through training events, international conferences, and workshops. His research interests include: Marketing & Tourism; Consumer Experience & Design; Customer Engagement; Digital Marketing; Experiential Consumption; Gender Issues in Marketing & Tourism.
His scholarly contributions span tourism management, sustainable experience design, market research, and the use of immersive technologies, with publications in leading journals such as Tourism Geographies, Tourism Management Perspectives, The TQM Journal, and Qualitative Market Research.
Dr Michael Sup
Dr Michael Sup is a Lecturer in Sport Coaching & Development whose research interests centre on sport for development and peace (SDP), volunteerism, community sport, and critical pedagogies. His doctoral research employed a phenomenological approach to examine the lived experiences of volunteers involved in a sport-for-development programme in El Salvador. This work explored volunteer motivations, power relations, cultural encounters, and the ethical complexities of international development practice. Michael’s research adopts critical theoretical perspectives to question dominant assumptions that position sport as an inherently positive or universal tool for social change. His work highlights the transformative but often contradictory nature of SDP initiatives, with particular attention to issues of privilege, dependency, and voice within volunteer-led interventions. Methodologically, he has a strong interest in qualitative and interpretive approaches that foreground lived experience, reflexivity, and participant meaning-making.
His broader teaching and research interests include community and youth sport, experiential learning, social justice in sport, coach education, and critical approaches to sport policy and practice. Michael is particularly interested in how reflective practice and volunteer education can support more equitable, contextually grounded approaches to sport-based social interventions.