Hayley was the project coordinator for the ChemicalYouth project, (ERC grant with Prof. Hardon as lead investigator, visit our website here) and a researcher for the project, where she was able to engage with and nurture her interests of substance use, harm reduction, and risk practices of young people. Her interest in applied and qualitative research has led her to carry out projects with young people who take drugs in several European cities, exploring peer-to-peer practices and risk behaviours at music festivals and clubs. Her various ethnographic fieldwork with young drug takers has directed her towards the article-based PhD trajectory. Alongside her PhD, she is the project coordinator of Prof. Hardon’s current ERC, Embodied Ecologies.

Expertise and research fields

• recreational drug use
• harm reduction
• young people
• festivals

Research methods

• Ethnography
• Fieldwork
• Qualitiatve interviewing

Current research projects

Tracing harm reduction from below via ethnographies of recreational drug use amongst young people in urban European cities.