Alyson began her academic career at The University of Hull where she obtained a Masters in Historical Research and a PhD on the subject of penal policy and prison disturbances in England 1850-1920. While completing her PhD at Hull University she taught on the Economic and Social History BA and then obtained a one-year fixed-term lectureship. She taught for a short period at Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln before obtaining a lectureship in criminology at the University of Bedfordshire. She then took up a post in the Department of English, History and Creative Writing at Edge hill University. She has been a Professor since 2014.  Throughout her career she has also held managerial positions, including Programme Leader of Criminology at the University of Bedfordshire and Acting Head of English, History and Creative Writing at Edge Hill University. She is currently Associate Head of History, Geography and Social Sciences with specific responsibility for research and for postgraduates in the department.

Alyson’s developed PhD thesis was published by Boydell as English Society and the Prison (2003). She has published numerous chapters and articles, including an article in 2018 in the Cultural & Social History, ‘The sad demise of z.D.H38 Ernest Collins, suicide, informers and the debate on the abolition of flogging’ and a chapter on 'The Bobbed-haired bandit and the Smash-and-Grab raider' in Nash and Kilday (eds) Fair and Unfair Trials in the British Isles, 1800-1940 (Bloomsbury, 2020). In March 2013, Palgrave Macmillan published her book, Inter-war Penal Policy and Crime in England: The Dartmoor Convict Prison Riot, 1932. Alyson is a critical friend for Social History and also sits on the editorial board of the Prison Service Journal. She has published five other books including edited collections.

Alyson’s other interests include heritage, especially prison tourism and prison museums, in Britain. As part of that work, she sat on the advisory panel of the major project, Lincoln Castle Revealed, through which in 2015 the Victorian men’s prison on the site of Lincoln Castle opened to the public for the first time. More recently, she developed an exhibition on the Dartmoor Prison riot of 1932 for the Dartmoor Prison Museum, Devon. Alyson has also contributed to programmes on Radio 4, for example, Rethinking Clink: History of Prison reform, and written multiple articles for the BBC History Magazine. In 2017 and 2024, she gave sessions for the History 7 Policy network to the Home Office about her research on Motor Bandits during the inter-war era and on the history of Dartmoor Prison. More recently she has co-founded the research group, Research Catalyst, which is developing positive relationships between academics, library and learning services within and beyond the institution. As part of that work a major schools and societies competition was held in 2023 called Think Creative Archive. As part of that work research is ongoing about those women who graduated from Edge Hill between 1885 and 1909. In 2024 Alyson's research underpinned a documentary, Britain Behind Bars, on Dartmoor Prison by Twenty Twenty media which aired on Channel 4 and she appeared on the programme alongside Rob Rinder.