Dr Leighanne Higgins

Profile

I am interested in the area of consumer behaviour, and teach many of the CB courses here at LUMS marketing department. My conusmer research interests lie within two core areas: Markeptlace Accessibility and Sacred Consumption.

Marketplace Accessibility: I am interested in understanding and challenging the barriers to marketplace and commercial settings for those living with disability. I began work in this area in 2016 and have built extensive insight and expertise into the access inequalities facing the disabled community in retail, healthcare, transportation, and tourism & hospitality. Since 2019, I have been working on the collaborative and art-based project: The Marketplace and I: Commercial Experiences of Disability Explored through Art (M&I). This project invited members of the disabled community to create artworks that represent their commercial experiences. To date the M&I has been publicly exhibited five times and engaged with over 1200+ stakeholders including companies, policymakers, politicians, charities, and the public. These public exhibitions have uncovered visitors to experience reflective and empathetic emotions towards the artworks, causing them to reflect deeply on their preconceptions towards disability. As such, since Autumn 2022, we have been using the project to engage with Lancashire based companies, using the artworks and wider M&I project we have developed a novel and innovative accessibility training workshop that permits companies to engage with accessibility scoring, accessibility planning and accessibility strategy building.

Sacred Consumption: I am interested in the complex relationship between religious and marketplace structures. My current research projects investigate religious consumptive behaviours within the context of pilgrimage with a particular focus on emotive and affectiveconsumption experiences.