![Safia Bailey](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/6955?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Overview
I am an ESRC-funded second year PhD candidate in Sociology. My project is exploring the seasonal social worlds of the swimming communities of England's River Thames, reflecting critically on the connections that swimmers forge to one-another, river, and more-than-human aquatic worlds. To dive into these worlds, I am using a range of mobile and sensory methods including walking, swim-along interviews and video technologies. My work is grounded in an ecofeminist perspective and is interested in the stories that swimmers and the Thames can share with us on care, connection and wellbeing in a more-than-human world.
Publication
2026
- Moles, K. and Bailey, S. 2026. Why we keep swimming in polluted waters – researchers. [Online].The Conversation Trust. (10.64628/AB.7fxnd73tu)Available at: https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.7fxnd73tu.
2025
- Bailey, S. 2025. A swim on the wild side: The multisensory benefits of ocean swimming. [Online].The Sociological Review: SAGE Publications. (10.51428/tsr.mpie7833)Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.51428/tsr.mpie7833.
Websites
- Moles, K. and Bailey, S. 2026. Why we keep swimming in polluted waters – researchers. [Online].The Conversation Trust. (10.64628/AB.7fxnd73tu)Available at: https://doi.org/10.64628/AB.7fxnd73tu.
- Bailey, S. 2025. A swim on the wild side: The multisensory benefits of ocean swimming. [Online].The Sociological Review: SAGE Publications. (10.51428/tsr.mpie7833)Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.51428/tsr.mpie7833.
Research
Thesis
A year of immersion into the River Thames: Diving into the seasonal social worlds of river swimming
I am currently conducting my PhD research into the swimming communities of England's longest river: the Thames. My research aims to explore the inclusions and exclusions of this community, the bodily entanglements that arise from immersion into wild waters, and ideas of ecological and human wellbeing. My research will journey over the course of one year to capture the seasonal variations of these social worlds, using mobile and sensory methods to, quite literally, dive in.
Funding sources
Economic and Social Research Council 1+3 Studentship
Teaching
I have taught on the Creative Methodologies module on the Social Science Research Methods Masters programme.
Biography
- MSc in Social Science Research Methods (Sociology) - First Class. Cardiff University.
- BA in Geography - First Class with Distinction. University of Cambridge.
Honours and awards
- Enriching Student Life Awards (2026) - shortlisted for PGR Graduate Tutor or Demonstrator of the Year.
- Downham Yeomans Scholarship (2022 and 2023) - awarded for performing in the top 25% of the cohort in undergraduate examinations.
- Sidney Sussex College Prize (2022 and 2023) - awarded for performing in the top 10% of the cohort in undergraduate examinations.
