Phiona Stanley
phiona stanley

Dr Phiona Stanley PhD, MEd, MA (hons), RSA Dip, SFHEA, FRGS.

Associate Professor

 0131 455 4405

  P.Stanley@napier.ac.uk

  

Biography

I'm an Associate Professor in the Business School and my area is Intercultural Communication. My work is all about mobilities and how people engage in 'intercultural' settings in the broadest sense: heterogeneous assemblages of humans, non-humans, and artefacts. This includes research and teaching on working abroad, intercultural education, and tourism, particularly outdoors sport/leisure/mobilities. Within this, I'm particularly interested in gender, embodiment, and other normative 'rules'. I'm also very interested in innovative ways of doing, writing, and teaching qualitative research methods, including narrative storytelling and evocative and creative writing within academic texts. My theoretical paradigm is critical, which is to say that I'm particularly focused on how power relations operate.

To date, I have published five books (three sole-authored monographs and two edited anthologies) and around forty-five peer-reviewed articles; I have also presented my research at many international conferences/symposia, invited guest lectures/keynotes, and public engagement events. Click on the 'outputs' and 'recognition' tabs if you want to know more about these.

I currently lead a big, first-year module that focuses on interculturality in business, sport, tourism, and other settings; it runs in both T1 and T2 on the Craiglockhart campus. In addition, I'm teaching and developing new core modules for our brand new suite of undergraduate degrees in intercultural business communication (IBC). Edinburgh Napier is the only Scottish university offering IBC at undergraduate level, so these are exciting times!

My background: Before coming to Edinburgh Napier in 2019, I worked as a Senior Lecturer at UNSW Sydney (2012-2018), where I mainly taught postgraduate courses. Prior to that, I was a Lecturer at the University of South Australia (2006-2011). I've supervised doctoral students to completion (see the 'postgrad' tab) and I've been an external PhD examiner for various universities in the UK, New Zealand, and Australia. I'm also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy/Advance HE (SFHEA) and I've won awards for my postgrad and undergrad teaching. Pre-PhD, I built a career in language education, working in the UK, Peru, Poland, Qatar, China, and Australia.

Professional working languages: English and Spanish.

School

News

Events

Esteem

Conference Organising Activity

  • Dark Tourism Research Symposium: Memory, Pilgrimage & the Digital Realm (co-convenor, with Craig Wight and Anne Schwan, 2022). /research-and-innovation/research-search/events/dark-tourism-research-symposium-memory-pilgrimage-and-the-digital-realm
  • Slow/alternative tourisms panel (chair). "Not costing the earth?". European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Malta (2020)
  • Messodology: Celebrating the messiness of qualitative enquiry (co-chair, conference segment), European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Edinburgh 2019
  • Gender and performativity (chaired conference panel). CEAD, Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Santiago, 2018.
  • Chair: Autoethnography across cultures (conference panel). International Congress on Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois (2017).

 

Editorial Activity

  • Book reviewer: Routledge Singapore
  • Book reviewer: Cambridge University Press
  • Book reviewer: Routledge, UK
  • Editorial Board, Journal of Autoethnography (since journal inception, 2020)

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External PhD Examiner: Dandan Zhu, University College London (2024). Thesis: Navigating Othering and Commodification of the Course in Teaching 鈥極ral English鈥: A Case Study of Foreign Teachers鈥 Positioning in Chinese Secondary Schools
  • External PhD Examiner: Rasoul Jafari, Deakin University (Australia, 2023). Thesis: Subnational ethnolinguistic diversity in the Iranian diaspora: A critical study of Iranian Azerbaijanis in Australia.
  • External PhD Examiner: Ahn Ngoc Quynh Phan, University of Auckland (New Zealand, 2022). Thesis: Moving though space, pausing in place: Vietnamese doctoral sojourners' transnational experiences of identity (re)negotiation, belonging, and home.
  • External PhD Examiner: Alison Williams, University of Warwick (UK, 2021). Thesis: A critical autoethnography of fostering transformative relationships in a neoliberal university.
  • External DPsych Examiner: Ryan Bittinger, University of Edinburgh (UK, 2020). Thesis: Homos in the woods: Queer shame and body shame in the context of trekking experiences.

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Book prize nomination: An autoethnography of Fitting In (2022, Routledge) nominated for 2023 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry: Qualitative Book Award (University of Illinois)
  • Fellow of the Royal Geographical 麻豆社区
  • Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry.
  • 2020 Winner of Edinburgh Napier Students' Association (ENSA) Excellence Award: Best Lecturer/Tutor (Management)
  • Senior Fellow of Advance HE
  • Winner of "New Philosopher" Essay Prize ($1000) (2018)
  • Nominated by students and shortlisted for Vice Chancellor's Prize for Teaching Excellence (UNSW, Sydney; 2017)
  • Book prize nomination: Intercultural competence on the Gringo Trail? (2017, Routledge) nominated for 2017 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry: Qualitative Book Award (University of Illinois)
  • Winner of UNSW ECR Teaching Award (2014; Dean's Award, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences)
  • Book prize nomination: A Critical Ethnography of Westerners Teaching English in China (2013, Routledge) nominated for 2013 Best Monograph Prize (ECR category), Sydney Writers' Festival.
  • Winner of International Education Association of Australia "Outstanding Postgraduate Thesis" Award 2011
  • Winner of Monash University Mollie Holman Doctoral Medal 2010
  • Australian Postgraduate Award (PhD Scholarship) (2007-2010)

 

Invited Speaker

  • Autoethnography and Selfhood: University of Edinburgh Seminars: Autoethnographic Research Methods in the Social Sciences (2024)
  • Writing Autoethnography: University of Edinburgh Seminars: Autoethnographic Research Methods in the Social Sciences (2023)
  • On "making it" in academia and on writing about such things autoethnographically: Leeds Beckett University, PhD Seminars, School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management. (2023)
  • Author Spotlight: An Autoethnography of Fitting In: On Spinsterhood, Fatness and Backpacker Tourism (Invited keynote, 2022 International Symposium on Autoethnography and Narrative (ISAN), Florida/Online.
  • A trouble walks into a bar: Standup and therapy (Edinburgh Futures Institute, Firestarter Festival). Invited guest presentation (2021)
  • Netnography research methods lecture series (Pandemic shorts): PART ONE: https://youtu.be/FDrRuo5DKkU?si=7dgcskHySI1eDVX5 PART TWO: https://youtu.be/8i6H3Vvw0_4?si=y6B9mAibw-X6D1jy PART THREE: https://youtu.be/9j33KjrySVI?si=owIXu9xuOknkJUqT PART FOUR: https://youtu.be/QBjhLFYZD0g?si=kljBq9Fi55plldtz (2021)
  • Critical intercultural competence and the learning of Spanish on "The Gringo Trail". York St John University. Languages and Linguistics Colloquium Series (2021).
  • Unlikely hikers? Autoethnographies of unlikely human bodies in the outdoors. (Invited guest lecture at the Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry, University of Edinburgh, 2020)
  • Autoethnography as Activism (Opening plenary). British Autoethnography Conference, University of Bristol (2019)

 

Media Activity

  • Culture, interculturality, and the outdoors. "All Bodies Outside" (2023 podcast series. Host: Kansas State University. Interviewed by Dr Brian Peterson.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4czpN4ggodo
  • Winner of The Moth (Sydney) Story Slam (true stories, told live, no notes; 2018): https://youtu.be/0EY6xZBai50?si=ISp3KXNci4uUtN5T

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas: Badass Spinsters (Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, August 2023, about my research). https://youtu.be/uZ67ZYd4lsI?si=GHgvy9-2LUvP0cwo
  • Bright Club (2019): a stand-up comedy set about my intercultural research: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlBiIwGjJPo
  • Bright Club (2019): Standup comedy set about my gender research https://youtu.be/EaOr6Q0uDPg

 

Filter by

Date


80 results

Theorising Deep and Shallow Diversity: Critiquing The North Face鈥檚 Allyship in the Outdoors program

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Witte, A., & Stanley, P. (2025, August)
Theorising Deep and Shallow Diversity: Critiquing The North Face鈥檚 Allyship in the Outdoors program. Presented at Royal Geographical 麻豆社区 International Conference, Birmingham, UK
Recreational access to the outdoors is good for human bodyminds (Natural England, 2016a, 2016b). But for many reasons 鈥攃onceptually divisible into tangible and intangible cons...

Us and Them: Affective materialities and the binarizing effects of 鈥渟tudy abroad鈥

Book Chapter
Stanley, P. (2025)
Us and Them: Affective materialities and the binarizing effects of 鈥渟tudy abroad鈥. In A. Schwartz, D. Maga帽a, S. Loza, & D. Grammon (Eds.), Aqu铆 se habla: Centering the local and personal in Spanish language education. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111323237-012
In a previous research project (Stanley & Stevenson, 2017), I video-recorded a US-American teacher introducing the topic of study abroad in class. On the recording, she says: ...

Walking 鈥渁lone鈥? Critical autoethnography, assemblage, and the paradoxical co-production of solo-hiker subjectivity

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stanley, P. (2025, August)
Walking 鈥渁lone鈥? Critical autoethnography, assemblage, and the paradoxical co-production of solo-hiker subjectivity. Presented at Royal Geographical 麻豆社区 International Conference, University of Birmingham
This autoethnographic performance text examines the paradoxical co-production of 鈥渁loneness鈥 in nature spaces charged with a politics of memory. The context is hiking 鈥渁lone鈥 ...

Object authenticity applied to imaginaries of racialized national culture: English-language-school sojourners in Australia

Journal Article
Stanley, P., & Wight, C. (online)
Object authenticity applied to imaginaries of racialized national culture: English-language-school sojourners in Australia. Language and Intercultural Communication, https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2025.2464577
This study examines the experiences of international sojourners attending English-language schools in Australia, exploring how these students' imaginaries shape their expectat...

Qualitative thinking and writing with whisky: Malt metaphors and island hopping

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stanley, P., & Clarke, D. (2025, January)
Qualitative thinking and writing with whisky: Malt metaphors and island hopping. Presented at 8th European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Edinburgh
The aim of this workshop is to radically situate the participants in the stories and senses of Scottish single malt whiskies, exploring meanings and metaphors that whisky sugg...

Munro bagging and the conquering logic of conquest: Why do we hike?

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stanley, P. (2025, January)
Munro bagging and the conquering logic of conquest: Why do we hike?. Paper presented at 8th European Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Edinburgh
This paper presents an autoethnographic narrative about the social constructedness of 鈥榥ature鈥 (e.g. Macfarlane, 2003) and the mobilities systems (Urry, 2007) that undergird a...

Assemblage and/as autoethnography: The paradoxical co-production of solo subjectivity on hiking trails

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stanley, P. (2024, May)
Assemblage and/as autoethnography: The paradoxical co-production of solo subjectivity on hiking trails. Paper presented at International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois, USA
This paper examines the complex production of 鈥渁loneness鈥 as subjectivity, considering lived experience and multimedia Instagram/Facebook texts. The context is hiking and camp...

Theorizing 鈥榗ultural authenticity鈥 in Australian youth tourism: English language schools, the Anglophone West, and holding a koala

Presentation / Conference Contribution
Stanley, P., & Wight, C. (2024, May)
Theorizing 鈥榗ultural authenticity鈥 in Australian youth tourism: English language schools, the Anglophone West, and holding a koala. Presented at International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA
This study considers cultural adaptation through tourism, focusing on language-travelers: hybrid education-tourism consumers whose voices remain relatively silent in tourism s...

Solo trails/trials for this unlikely hiker: Purpose, purity, and quest

Book Chapter
Stanley, P. (2024)
Solo trails/trials for this unlikely hiker: Purpose, purity, and quest. In A. Grant, & E. Lloyd-Parkes (Eds.), Meaningful Journeys: Autoethnographies of Quest and Identity Transformation. Abingdon & New York: Routledge
Alex Roddie (2021, p.25) sets himself a challenge: to hike Scotland鈥檚 Cape Wrath Trail alone, in winter, and without communications technology. And then, almost immediately, h...

Fat and fabulous bodies: Navigating body shape expectations, positivity and acceptance in outdoor leisure activities

Book Chapter
Stanley, P., Baker, M., & Carr, N. (in press)
Fat and fabulous bodies: Navigating body shape expectations, positivity and acceptance in outdoor leisure activities. In Whose Body Belongs? Exploring corporeal inclusion, equity and justice in outdoor leisure. Wallingford: CAB International Publishing

Current Post Grad projects

Non-Napier PhD or MSc by Research supervisions

  • Elham Zakeri (2019). PhD. "The role of agency in emerging academic identities of international doctoral students at an Australian university". (Main supervisor). UNSW Sydney, Australia.
  • Alice Cranney (2017). PhD. "Australian exchange students鈥 transnational identity negotiations and Spanish language learning: Becoming 鈥榗asi mexicana鈥?" (Main supervisor.) UNSW Sydney, Australia.
  • Jasper Kun Ting Hsieh (2016). PhD. "An auto/ethnography of overseas students鈥 identity movements". (Main supervisor.) UNSW Sydney, Australia.
  • Nanis Setyorini (2016). PhD. "Imaginaries, Desires, and Koneksi (Connections): English Language Proficiency for Indonesian Accountants". (Main supervisor.) UNSW Sydney, Australia.
  • Huong Nguyen (2017). PhD. "Novice English language teachers in Vietnamese secondary schools: resources and identity development". (Main supervisor.) UNSW Sydney, Australia.
  • Hannah Soong (2012). PhD. 'Fitting-in', 'looking-out', 'being-in-flux' : the lived experiences of transnational pre-service teachers. (Adjunct supervisor). University of South Australia.