Staff profile

LLM, LLB (Hons)

Michael is a PhD candidate at Durham Law School. They completed their LLB(Hons) at Northumbria University in Newcastle in 2016 and an LLM in Legal and Political Theory from University of York in 2021. Michael joined Durham Law School as a part time tutor in 2022 and as a PhD in 2024. He has taught at the undergraduate level on UK Constitutional Law and Family Law modules.

Michael's research interests include LGBTQ Law, Human Rights Law, Public Law, Law and Culture, and Legal Theory. Their PhD, supervised by Professor Helen Fenwick and Professor Andy Hayward, looks at queer non-monogamies in the United States and the relationship between non-monogamy and queer identities/experiences. Michael's project examines the legal reasoning justifying same-sex marriage from Obergefell v Hodges by consider which queer people the judgment dignifies and which get left behind. They propose that same-sex marriage has not sufficiently addressed LGBTQ 'equality' by ignoring a central feature for many queer people, non-monogamy, and suggests that law can address this 'other-ing' of those queer non-monogamous people by instead recognizing non-monogamous marriages.