Karen is Associate Professor in Media in the College of English and Media at Birmingham City University (BCU). Karen is also co-lead of the Centre for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Arts (CEDIA) a research cluster in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Media at BCU.

Karen’s research interests include issues around diversity and inequalities in craft work and the wider creative industries, and cultural workers’ use of social media. She is currently working on an Academy of Medical Sciences/British Academy UK-AU Networking Grant project looking at socially engaged craft and sustainability, in collaboration with Dr Rimi Khan from National University of Singapore, and Dr Grace McQuilten from RMIT in Melbourne.

Previously, Karen led the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project Craft Expertise, in collaboration with Crafts Council, which revealed the extent of racism and microaggressions in the UK craft sector and produced various toolkits and reports for Crafts Council advising on practice and actions for inclusivity in craft.

Karen is author of two books: Craft as a Creative Industry (Routledge, 2024); The Politics of Expertise in Cultural Labour: Arts, Work and Inequalities (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020) and co-editor of Craft Entrepreneurship (with Annette Naudin, Rowman and Littlefield, 2020).