Nick De Viggiani
| Biography | Nick de Viggiani has taught Public Health at UWE Bristol for more than twenty years and in the 1990s at Liverpool John Moores University. His first degree was in Geography and he subsequently trained as a Registered General Nurse in London, then worked as a Health Promotion Specialist for HIV and Sexual Health in the Greater Manchester area. Nick undertook a PhD in the early 2000s using ethnography to investigate prison health and masculinity. He would describe himself as a social scientist with a keen interest in health and social inequality, human rights and social justice. Nick was programme leader for the MSc Public Health at UWE for more than ten years has supervised, examined and chaired final examinations for doctoral students for more than fifteen years. He is currently employed as a Professional Community Lead within the School of Health and Social Wellbeing and leads five subject groups within the School (Public Health, Environmental Health, Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, Children's Nursing & Social Work). Nick is also Academic Director for the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA), which is the international accrediting body for ASPHER for Public Health education. Nick has authored over seventy peer-reviewed publications within many high impact journals; these have included the British Medical Journal, Sociology of Health and Illness, Journal of Public Health, Critical Public Health, BMC Public Health, Public Health, Global Health Promotion, Health Promotion International, Eurohealth, the Journal of Medical Ethics, the Prison Service Journal, International Journal of Prisoner Health, Criminal Justice Studies, British Journal of Education, Society and Behavioural Science and Men and Masculinities. He is a co-editor and author for Research Methods for Public Health (Sage, 2019) and has published chapters within the Handbook of Salutogenesis (Springer, 2021) and New Perspectives on Prison Masculinities (Palgrave 2018). |
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| Research Interests | Nick has led funded research projects in the interdisciplinary field of Criminal Justice Public Health over a period of more than twenty years, with a research career focusing in three key areas: His PhD research employed ethnographic methods to explore prison masculinities as social determinants of health. He has continue to publish on masculinity as performance, embodiment and ideology within criminal justice populations. A key theme within this work is the notion of “toxic” or “unhealthy” masculinities that manifest socially, culturally and institutionally predisposing young males to offending and risk taking behaviours. His research and writing have contributed to the emerging discourse on public health within criminal justice settings, especially prisons, with particular focus on the health impact of imprisonment and reorientation of prison institutional and social environments to protect and improve health. Nick has a keen interest in research on the social harms of criminal justice systems, and the links between criminality, inequality and adverse childhood experiences. A third research theme has investigated the value and impact of participatory arts on health, identity and offending behaviour within criminal justice settings, particularly the potential of music making as a catalyst for health improvement, empowerment and behaviour change. This research has spanned adult and youth justice contexts, involving third sector organisations across custody and community settings. |
| Teaching and Learning | Programme Leader, MSc Public Health Teaching expertise: Qualitative Research; Public Health and Health Promotion theory and philosophy; Health Promotion practice; Dissertation and Research Project Skills; Prison and Offender Health; Research Governance and Ethics. Programme and curriculum development (and leadership) for Public Health, Environmental Health, Specialist Community Public Health Nursing and Social Work programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. |
| PhD Supervision Availability | Yes |
| PhD Topics | Health in relation to criminal justice, prisons, policing, youth justice. Health Promotion Public Health Qualitative Research (especially ethnography) Gender and Masculinities |