Creative Research Methods

Academic | Performer | Musician | Public Speaker | War Veteran

Exploring memory, identity, and the lasting echoes of war.

Seven Days Down South: A War Story

A doctoral dissertation in two parts:

• Part One is a film documenting my return to the Falkland Islands, 25 years after the war. Through photographs, video, audio, and artefacts, it explores how trauma and memory are inscribed in people and places.
• Part Two provides a critical academic lens, contextualizing the film within broader discussions around PTSD, ethics, and creative methodologies. It challenges traditional narratives of veteran identity and the psychological cost of conflict.

More than a research project, Seven Days Down South is both a personal act of emancipation and a deeper meditation on remembrance, loss, and the social legacy of war.

▶️ Watch the film series on YouTube

 

 

 

Fitting the Flatness

First submitted in 2005 and revisited two decades later, this piece is a non-traditional research narrative brought to life through PowerPoint. It’s part self-performance, part memory work—woven from critical texts, photos, poetry, and music.

Structured around “Fyttes,” in homage to Middle English poetic form, the piece considers identity through the lens of absence, rhythm, and reflection. At its heart is a reflection on what it means to fit: into roles, expectations, and stories we outgrow or reclaim.

🎞️ Link to film (insert when ready)

 

 

 

Unshedding the Masks

“Has my journey from Royal Marine to counsellor enabled me to embrace my experience of war—and ultimately accept it?”

This dissertation is an ethno-autobiographical investigation of that very question. Drawing from media coverage of the Falklands, radio transcripts on PTSD, psychiatric reports, song lyrics, and diary entries, the work navigates themes of masculinity, emotional survival, and truth-seeking.

It interrogates the idea of the “false self,” explores the shifting role of the veteran in public discourse and invites the possibility that some questions don’t need to be answered, only carried on an existential journey of self-awareness.

📄 Link to PDF (insert when ready)