Matthew Maycock, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology at Monash University and was previously Baxter Fellow in the School of Education and Social Work, University of Dundee. I am currently the Director of the BCrim and BCrim Policing degrees, with Monash Criminology being the second largest criminology program in Australia with 4000+ undergraduates.

Areas of research focus

Everyday life and staff cultures within prison settings

As an ethnographer by training, I have a longstanding interest in everyday life in prison, with a focus on prison staff and prison cultures. This builds on my time working within the Scottish Prison Service, where I was involved in staff training, and has led to a range of studies, papers and books in this area. For over ten years, my research on every day life in prison has focused on ways of working in prison, and the influence of prison officer unions.

Gender within prison settings

Throughout various studies, I have consistently worked on gender issues with masculinity, within prison being a recuring focus. I am one of the editors of leading books for Palgrave in this area, with a focus on prison masculinities, and have published on aspects of the experiences of transgender people in prison settings.

Modern slavery and pathways to freedom

This longstanding focus of my research relates to my having been visiting and doing research in Nepal for over twenty years. This theme is focused on longitudinal change within one village in far-west Nepal, the village was established when a group of former bonded labourers were freed from the Kamaiya system of bonded labour.

I am keen to supervise students in any of the above areas.

Previous experience
Alongside my experience within academia, I have also worked within the UK civil service and voluntary sectors. I previously worked at the Scottish Prison Service undertaking research often on gender issues in prison as well as facilitating staff development across a range of areas. Before that I was an Investigator Scientist within the Settings and Organisations Team at SPHSU, University of Glasgow undertaking postdoctoral research in Scottish prisons. Prior this I worked in public health programming and campaigns on a range of projects focusing on improving the health of men and boys.

I undertook a PhD at the University of East Anglia that analysed modern slavery through the theoretical lens of masculinity, this was published as a monograph for Routledge in 2019. Subsequent to my initial PhD fieldwork, I have been going to the same fieldsite in far-west Nepal for thirteen years, in order to analyse change longitudinally in a community of former bonded labourers.

Teaching and educational leadership
Leadership at Monash University:

•    I am the Director for the BCrim and BCrim Policing degrees (2o24 - )
•    I was the Criminology HDR coordinator (2023 – 2024)

I have led on unit design, delivery and assessment for the following units:

Monash University

•    ATS2555 - Foundations in researching crime and justice
•    ATS3866 - Crimes of the powerful 
•    ATS2465 / 3465 Comparative criminal justice in practice (summer school at Monash Prato)
•    ATS3161 Prisons and Punishment

Editing and Publishing
I currently am one of the editors in chief of the International Journal of Prison Health, along with sitting on the editorial board of the Prison Service Journal and the Journal of Criminal Psychology. I have co-edited four books with a further two in preparation, I have written one monograph and published in leading criminology, gender and public health journals.