About Jason Wragg

"The journey itself is home." — Matsuo Basho

Dr. Jason Wragg's passion for motorcycles emerged at seventeen, when he obtained his license and began exploring the world on two wheels. This was not the beginning of his story, but rather a significant chapter that would influence his future path. His riding experience has since spanned numerous styles—from superbikes to touring machines, adventure travel to café racers—each offering distinct perspectives on the relationship between traveller, machine, and environment.

His path has taken him through various terrains, both geographical and professional. Military service provided early foundations in discipline and leadership while introducing him to diverse cultures and environments. These experiences later evolved into expedition leadership across multiple continents, including North America, Iceland, Botswana, and South Africa. Throughout these journeys, Dr. Wragg developed a particular interest in liminal spaces—the transitional zones where transformation becomes possible.

This fascination eventually led him to academia, though his approach remains grounded in experiential learning. As Course Lead and Senior Lecturer for the BA (Hons) Leadership Through Outdoor Adventure programme at the University of Lancashire, Dr. Wragg challenges traditional classroom boundaries by immersing students in environments that foster genuine growth and understanding. His educational philosophy centres on the belief that meaningful learning occurs at the intersection of theory and lived experience.

Dr. Wragg has developed a robust supervision practice, guiding research projects across all academic levels from undergraduate dissertations to doctoral theses. In these mentoring relationships, he serves as both guide and fellow explorer, helping students navigate their intellectual landscapes while continuing to develop his own research interests.

His doctoral research examined the phenomenology of adventure travel, with particular focus on how solo motorcycle journeys function as modern forms of pilgrimage. This work pioneered innovative methodological approaches, employing comics as both analytical tools and presentation media to capture embodied experiences that traditional academic writing often fails to express. The research methodology interwove phenomenology, ethnography, narrative inquiry, autoethnography, and autophenomenology—creating a framework that honours the multidimensional nature of human experience.

Currently, Dr. Wragg is engaged in research projects investigating the lived experience of travel, with emphasis on solo journeys and overlanding expeditions. These studies examine the mental health and wellbeing benefits that emerge from solitary travel experiences, exploring how encounters with unfamiliar landscapes foster resilience, clarity, and renewed perspective. This research extends beyond academic inquiry to address fundamental aspects of human experience and wellbeing.

Dr. Wragg's work consistently explores the spaces between established categories—between academic research and personal adventure, between mapped territories and unknown regions, between present identity and future possibility. His research interests encompass motorcycle travel, adventure tourism, pilgrimage, creative methodologies, visual storytelling, and philosophical approaches to understanding adventure.

Stories of Elsewhere represents the ongoing nature of this academic and personal journey, offering insights that emerge from both rigorous research and lived experience. Dr. Wragg approaches storytelling as an inherently collaborative process that develops through dialogue between researcher and subject, writer and reader, traveler and landscape.

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