Professor Heather Piper is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Education and Social Research Institute at Manchester Metropolitan University, following an earlier career in social work, with wide experience of children, families and mental health. Her research and publications span a range of contested educational and social issues, including violence, touch, identity and citizenship. Recent co-authored books share ‘risk’ as a central concern - Don’t touch! The educational story of a panic (with Ian Stronach), and Researching Sex and Lies in the Classroom: Allegations of Sexual Misconduct in Schools (with Pat Sikes). Her work is characterised by a critical and contrarian approach, drawing on a broad-based and eclectic intellectual territory in sociology, philosophy and social policy, as well as her own professional experience.