Gill Buck

Gill Buck is Associate Professor of Social Work at the University of Chester and Principal Investigator for a UKRI-funded study on lived experience in criminal justice. Her work centers on participatory approaches to prison reform, peer mentoring, and coproduced services for criminalized individuals.

Education includes:

• Ph.D., Keele University
• Masters in Social Work, University of Liverpool
• BA Literature, Liverpool John Moores University

Research advances justice reform through photovoice projects and autoethnographic collaborations with experts-by-experience, examining peer support efficacy in suicide prevention and substance recovery. She co-developed a five-paradigm framework for analyzing penal voluntary sector activities.

Publications highlight tensions between professionalization and politicization in peer mentoring, advocating for trauma-informed, relationship-based alternatives to punitive systems. Current UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship explores lived-experience leadership across UK/Ireland justice systems.

Teaching includes modules on youth justice, research methods, and suicide first aid, incorporating 'learning together' workshops for people with convictions.