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My research examines the interactions between housing and life course dynamics in the Global North, focusing particularly on contemporary Britain. I am especially interested in:
- Migration and residential mobility
- The housing and neighbourhood transitions people make as they pass through life
- In understanding the ways in which housing dynamics matter for social and spatial inequalities.
Much of my recent research on these topics is summarised in my book Housing and Life Course Dynamics, published in 2023 by Policy Press.
- More about Dr Coulter
I graduated from the University of St Andrews in 2009 with an MA Hons (1st class) in Geography, before staying on at St Andrews to complete a doctorate in 2013. My thesis used longitudinal data from the British Household Panel Survey to examine whether people who want to move home subsequently go on to do so.
After finishing my doctorate, I was appointed as a Research Associate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Cambridge. Between 2015 and 2017 I was also a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Cambridge. I joined UCL Geography as a lecturer in 2017 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022.
In addition to research and teaching, I currently edit the journal Housing Studies and sit on the International Editorial Advisory Committee of the International Journal of Housing Policy. I am a member of the ESRC’s Peer Review College, frequently referee for a variety of academic journals (which you can find on my Publons profile) and have completed reviews for international funding agencies including the European Research Council (ERC) as well as the national research councils of Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Poland. I currently serve as Topic Champion for Housing for Understanding Society, one of the world’s largest household panel surveys funded by the ESRC and a consortium of UK government departments. I also co-convene the European Network for Housing Research’s Housing, Migration and Family Dynamics Working Group.
Within UCL, I serve as Deputy Graduate Tutor in the Department of Geography and co-lead the UBEL Doctoral Training Partnership’s Human Geography and Sustainability pathway. I also sit on the UCL Social Data Institute (SODA)’s Steering Group.
- Teaching
I teach on the following modules:
- The Practice of Geography (GEOG0016)
- Methods in Human Geography (GEOG0018) (Co-Convenor)
- Urban Geography (GEOG0028)
- Urban Policy (GEOG0149)
- Social Science Research: Methodologies and Methods (GEOG0155) (Convenor)
Each year I also supervise several BA/BSc and MSc dissertations across our taught programmes.
- Publications
To view Dr Coulter's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:
- Research Interests
My research into housing and life course dynamics straddles the intersections between population, economic, urban and quantitative geography. The overarching aims of my work are to better understand how, when and why people move through different household structures, dwellings and neighbourhoods over the life course. Most of this research involves analysing rich longitudinal datasets using a range of methods.
More broadly, I am also interested in how these life course processes interact with the dynamics of housing systems in ways that help to reshape social and spatial inequalities.
- Impact
A series of Briefing Papers summarising work from my ESRC Future Research Leaders project are available on the archived project website. Evidence from this project was cited in the 2019 report of the House of Lords Select Committee on Intergenerational Fairness and Provision. Over recent years, I have also had a number of one-on-one KE meetings with a range of Policy Fellows affiliated to the Cambridge Centre for Science and Policy (including several political special advisers, senior civil servants and housing experts from the non-profit and business communities). Briefing Notes from my ESRC SDAI project’s research are also available.
I have in recent years co-organised a range of knowledge exchange events including:
- International Policy Workshop on Housing and Family Transitions in the Life Course at the University of St Andrews (May 2017).
- Policy workshop in London focused on young people (September 2017)
- Online workshop on Consumer Data Insights for Housing Policy (June 2021)
In 2014 my work on residential mobility was featured in Cambridge Research Horizons and my work has also been covered in ESRC Society Now magazine. I have recently podcasted about my latest book at the New Books Network and for Understanding Society’s Insights series.
In March 2017 I was invited to speak to schoolteachers about my work on Living Apart Together Relationships at the OCR Sociology Subject Forum in Cambridge. At UCL I have continued this work by participating in Fawcett scheme seminars with London teachers. In November 2019 I participated in an ESRC Festival of Social Science event at City and Islington College engaging young people with housing issues.
- Research Students
Current students
- Yufeng Wu (primary supervisor): Dynamics of return migration intention and behaviour in China
- Zhiwei Huang (secondary supervisor): A continued predicament: Social exclusion of rural migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta region, China
I welcome enquiries from prospective students interested in working on topics aligned with my research interests. These include, but are not limited to:
- Housing, neighbourhoods and urban geography
- Migration and residential mobility
- Family life course dynamics
- Longitudinal analysis
- Research grants, prizes and awards
My research into housing and life course dynamics has been supported by over £500,000 in funding from the ESRC’s Future Research Leaders (2014-17) and Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (2020-21) schemes.
I have been a Co-Investigator on a UCL Grand Challenges small grants project on Arts, Place and Wellbeing (2019-20, Principal Investigator Karen Mak).
