Research output per year
Research output per year
Accepting PhD Students
PhD projects
Projects in the area of: safeguarding, child and adult welfare and children’s rights; lived experiences of (child/adult) abuse/maltreatment/violence (especially physical and emotional/psychological violence, gender-based violence and harassment, eating disorders, overtraining and injury); ethics and integrity in sport; gender, sexuality and equality/equity in sport; youth sport policy implementation and evaluation; narrative methodologies and pedagogies; ethnographic research.
Research activity per year
Melanie is Assistant Director of the Centre for Safeguarding and Child Protection in Sport (CPSS) at Edge Hill Univeristy and Senior Lecturer in Child Protection in Sport. Her research and teaching focuses on safeguarding and child protection issues, athlete welfare, gender-based violence, and children's rights in sport.
She is the UK country lead and a member of the steering committee for the 2019-2021 Erasmus+ funded project ‘Child Abuse in Sport: European Statistics' (CASES) - the first project to estimate the prevalence of child abuse in sport across six EU countries. She served as UK national lead and steering committee member on the 2016-2017 European Commission-funded project 'Gender-Based Violence in Sport' and has worked on funded consultancy with key sport stakeholders and safeguarding and child protection charities.
Melanie is an expert research member of the Pool of European Experts on Sexual Violence in Sport (part of the Council of Europe and European Union Pro Safe Sport+ project), and a member of the NSPCC Sport England Child Protection in Sport Unit Research Evidence and Advisory Group, and the UK Coaching Safeguarding Talented and Elite Children Expert Group. She is also an invited expert member of the Research Chair in Security and Integrity in Sport at Laval University, Quebec, Canada.
Melanie works with national sports and coaching organisations, charities and sport and safeguarding groups and has delivered training and continuing professional development workshops to sport policymakers, coaches, athletes and charitable organisations from the UK, China, Japan and Ghana. Her work has been supported by the European Commission Education, Audio-visual and Culture Executive Agency, the Sport England/ NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit, the Japanese government, Sport England, and the NWG Network.
As well as scientific publications in world-leading journals, Melanie is editor of three books: ‘The Routledge Handbook of Athlete Welfare’ (Routledge, 2020), ‘Safeguarding, Child Protection and Abuse in Sport: International Perspectives in Research, Policy and Practice’ (Routledge, 2015), and ‘Bullying and the Abuse of Power’ (Inter-Disciplinary Press, 2010). She is regularly called on to speak in the national and international media on safeguarding, child protection, and violence prevention issues in sport, and is an expert reviewer for academic journals, Routledge sport book proposals, and the International Olympic Committee and Economic and Social Research Council grant applications.
Melanie's internals roles within Edge Hill University include acting as a supervisor and examiner of MRes and PhD candidates, chairing Posgraduate Research Student vivas, serving as the Social Sciences department International Co-ordinator for study abroad schemes, and sitting on the institutional Social Sciences Research Ethcis Committee.
Safeguarding, child protection and abuse in sport
Welfare and well-being of adult and child athletes
Lived experiences of violence, abuse and maltreatment in sport
Interpersonal violence in sport
Gender-based violence in sport
Sexual harassment in sport
Children's rights in sport
Ethics and integrity in sport
Youth sport policy implementation and evaluation
Narrative methodology and pedagogy
Ethnographic research
Research ethics
Sensitive research
Melanie introduced some of the first teaching modules on athlete welfare, child protection and children's rights in sport nationwide in her current and prevous institutions. She currently teaches modules on a range of sociology and sociology of sport themes and is a supervisor to MRes and PhD students working in the area of safeguarding and child protection in sport and physical activity.
Academic Practice, PGCert, York St John University
Award Date: 16 Jul 2010
Sociology of Sport, PhD, Leeds Beckett University
2006 → 2009
Award Date: 9 May 2009
Sociology of Sport, MA, Leeds Beckett University
2004 → 2005
Award Date: 16 Jul 2005
Modern Languages, BA, University of Sheffield
Award Date: 27 Jun 1998
Ambassador, Freedom from Abuse (charity)
Jun 2020 → …Expert research member, Université Laval
1 Oct 2019 → …Member of the UK Coaching Safeguarding Talented and Elite Children Expert Group
2018 → …Expert member of the Pool of European Experts on Sexual Violence in Sport
2017 → …Associate editor, International Journal of Sport and Health
Jun 2014 → Jun 2015Associate editor, International Journal of Sport and Society
Jun 2014 → Jun 2016Associate editor, Sports Pedagogy and Physical Education
Jun 2014 → Jun 2015Member of the editorial board of the Irish Journal of Sociology
2014 → 2019Member of the Sport England/ NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit Research Evidence and Advisory Group
2009 → …Editorial advisory board member, 'Network' - the British Sociological Association's member publication
Sep 2008 → Jul 2015Research output: Book/Report › Book › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
1/09/20 → 31/08/21
Project: Research
HARTILL, M., Rulofs, B., LANG, M., Vertommen, T., Martin, M., Allroggen, M. & Kampen, J.
1/01/19 → 31/12/21
Project: Research
31/07/20 → 1/05/21
Project: Consultancy
LANG, M., Mergaert, L., Arnaut, C. & Vertommen, T.
1/10/16 → 1/10/17
Project: Research
MELANIE LANG (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
MELANIE LANG (Keynote speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
MELANIE LANG (Keynote speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
MELANIE LANG (Honorary)
Activity: Visiting & honorary position types › External honorary positions
MELANIE LANG (Organiser)
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organising a conference, workshop, ...