Our people
More about the researchers, lecturers and honorary staff that make up our Sociology department.
Head of Sociology
Professor Vanessa May
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: belonging, self, temporality, ageing, families.
Deputy Head of Sociology
Dr Nadim Mirshak
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: authoritarianism, sociology of education, political sociology, state-civil society relations, social movements and alternative resistance.
Teaching and research staff within Sociology
Professor Claire Alexander
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: race/ethnicity and identity, youth/gangs, migration/diaspora, south Asians/Muslims in Britain.
Dr Jayne Astbury
Research Associate
Dr Andrew Balmer
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: secrecy, lying, lie detection, science and technology, dementia.
Dr Elisa Bellotti
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social network analysis, mixed methods, criminal networks, scientific networks, gender and social networks.
Professor Alice Bloch
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: intergenerational memory, family narratives of the Holocaust, forced migration, refugees, migration, undocumented migrants, second-generation refugees.
Professor Wendy Bottero
Professor of Sociology
Research specialisms: inequalities, subjectivity, social identities, social practices, pragmatism and social inquiry.
Professor Tine Buffel
Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology
Research specialisms: ageing and urbanism, social exclusion/inequality, neighbourhood and community, co-production and participatory research methods, age-friendly communities.
Mr Joshua Bunting joshua.bunting@manchester.ac.uk
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social movements, activism, historical sociology, oral history, social change.
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: race/ethnicity, class, citizenship, gender, nation.
Dr Seán Carey
Senior Research Fellow, Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity
Research specialisms: Ethnicity and identity, food and hospitality, East London, and ethnography.
Dr Garance Clément
Research Fellow
Research specialisms: Urban sociology, housing and housing inequalities, domestic space, everyday lives.
Professor Nick Crossley
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: social networks, culture, relational sociology, music, embodiment.
Professor Fiona Devine
Director of Alliance Manchester Business School and Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: social stratification and mobility, politics and participation, space mobility and lifestyles, gender, work and family.
Dr Patricia Doran
Research Associate
Research specialisms: ageing and urbanisation, social exclusion and inequality, health, lifecourse, age-friendly communities.
Dr Gemma Edwards
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social movements, protest, social networks, participation, historical sociology.
Dr Verdine Etoria verdine.etoria@manchester.ac.uk
Lecturer in Sociology
Professor Martin Everett
Chair in Network Analysis, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: social networks, analytical sociology, methodology, new media.
Dr Simin Fadaee
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social movements and activism, environmentalism and environmental politics, global south, inequality.
Professor Colette Fagan
Professor of Sociology and University of Manchester Vice-President for Research, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: gender, work and care; employment, job quality and working conditions; international comparative analysis.
Dr James Fletcher
Research Associate
Research specialisms: Gerontology, dementia, ageing, cognition, disability, mental health.
Dr Jaime Garcia Iglesias
Research Associate
Research specialisms:
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social movements, protest, neoliberalism, globalisation, corporations.
Professor Brian Heaphy
Professor of Sociology
Research specialisms: sexualities, gender, personal life, social change.
Professor Sue Heath
Professor in Sociology and Associate Dean for Postgraduate Research, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: housing, home, shared living, intergenerational relations, creative methods.
Dr Ivette Hernandez Santibañez
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social movements, urban politics, contestation to neoliberalism in Latin America.
Dr James Hodgson
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: sexualities, queer visual culture, social isolation and aloneness.
Dr Helen Holmes
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: materiality, everyday, sociology of consumption, temporality, creative methods.
Dr Torik Holmes
Research Associate
Dr Patricia Irizar
Simon Fellow
Research specialisms: Ethnic inequalities, mental health, health behaviours, mixed methods
Dr Remi Joseph-Salisbury
Reader in Sociology
Research specialisms: race/ethnicity, (anti-)racisms, mixedness, education, decoloniality.
Dr Dharmi Kapadia
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: race/ethnicity, mental illness, mental health services, stigma, advanced quantitative methods.
Professor Graeme Kirkpatrick
Professor of Social and Cultural Theory
Research specialisms: technology, aesthetics, culture, games, art.
Dr Luciana Lang
Research Associate
Professor Yaojun Li
Professor of Sociology
Research specialisms: social mobility and stratification, ethnic integration, socio-economic inequalities, international comparison, social capital.
Dr Jessica Mancuso (jessica.mancuso@manchester.ac.uk)
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: gender, sexuality, LGBTQ studies, feminism, visibility and identity.
Dr Peter McMylor
Senior Lecturer
Research specialisms: social theory, morality, ethics, sociology of intellectuals, marxism, sociology of religion, political religions, cultural identity, historical/comparative/civilizational sociology, economic sociology.
Dr Robert Meckin
Presidential Fellow
Biotechnology, automation, robotics, interdisciplinarity, responsible innovation, science and emerging technologies.
Dr Krisztina Mekli
Research Associate
Professor Andrew Miles
Professor of Sociology
Research specialisms: social class, cultural participation and policy, social mobility, inequalities, mixed methods research.
Professor James Nazroo
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: inequality, race/ethnicity, ageing, health, mental health.
Dr Richie Nimmo
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: animals and human-animal relations, Actor-Network Theory (ANT), posthumanism and biopolitics, environmental sociology, historical and archive methods.
Dr Petra Nordqvist
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: gender, sexuality, kinship, family relationalities, reproductive donation.
Professor Christopher Phillipson
Professor of Sociology and Social Gerontology
Research specialisms: ageing societies, age-friendly cities, work and retirement, urban sociology, social policy.
Dr Elisa Pieri
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: security and biopolitics, pandemics, Science and Technology Studies (STS), urban sociology, media and discourse.
Professor Hilary Pilkington
Professor of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: youth, social activism, extremism, post-socialist societies, comparative qualitative research methods.
Professor Debora Price
Professor of Social Gerontology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: ageing and ageing societies, pensions and finance over the lifecourse, poverty and inequality in later life, gender, couples and families across the lifecourse.
Dr Paul Simpson (paul.simpson-2@manchester.ac.uk)
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: ageing sexualities, masculinities, sensory methods.
Dr Amit Singh
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow 'Race, class and mobility: learning to labour in London, Morecambe and Manchester'
Research specialisms: race, class, habitus, conviviality, inequalities, sports, pubs, education and culture.
Professor Nicholas Thoburn
Professor of Sociology
Research specialisms: publishing and the book, Marx, Marxism and Communism, social housing and architecture, social and political theory, material text.
Professor Penny Tinkler
Professor of Sociology and History
Research specialisms: gender history, girlhood, life-course, creative and photographic methods, memory.
Dr Meghan Tinsley
Senior Lecturer
Research specialisms: race/ethnicity, nationalism, postcolonial theory, collective memory, cultural production.
Dr Maisie Tomlinson
Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: human-animal relations, animal subjectivity, “anthropomorphism”, posthumanism, sensory methodologies and multi-species ethnography.
Lecturer
Research specialisms: consumption, sustainability, practices, social theory, culture.
Dr Joann Wilkinson
Senior Tutor
Professor Sophie Woodward
Professor in Sociology
Research specialisms: materiality, gender, consumption, fashion, creative methods.
Dr Sophie Yarker
Research Fellow, Manchester Urban Ageing Research Group
Research specialisms: ageing in place, communities and identities.
Dr Luke Yates
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Research specialisms: social movements, protest, consumption, practices, sharing.
Dr Neta Yodovich neta.yodovich@manchester.ac.uk
Research Associate, Dating app connections project
Research specialisms: Researching relationships, identity, belonging, gender, feminism and pop culture.
Professor Gary Younge
Professor in Sociology, Honorary Fellow of the British Academy, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: social movements (especially the civil rights movement), inequality, race, immigration, identity and politics.
Honorary staff
Dr Gaelle Aeby
Honorary Research Fellow
Prof Janeen Baxter
Honorary Hallsworth Visiting Professor
Prof Philip Cerny
Emeritus Professor
Dr Resto Cruz
Honorary Research Associate
Dr Ulrike Ehgartner
Honorary Research Associate
Professor Dame Janet Finch
Honorary Professor, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Dr Leah Gilman
Honorary Research Fellow
Research specialisms: family and personal life, reproductive technologies, sociology of donation.
Prof Peter Halfpenny
Emeritus Professor
Dr Bethan Harries
Honorary Research Fellow
Prof Clare Holdsworth
Honorary Professor
Dr Paul Kelemen
Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Keekok Lee
Honorary Research Fellow (Sociology)
Dr Laurence Lessard-Phillips
Honorary Research Fellow (Sociology)
Professor Jennifer Mason
Emerita Professor of Sociology, Fellow of The British Academy
Research specialisms: personal life, affinities, socio-atmospherics, qualitative methods, mixed methods.
Professor David Morgan
Emeritus Professor of Sociology
View David Morgan's memorial page.
Dr Helen Norman
Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Tugba Aydin Ozturk
Honorary Research Fellow
Research specialisms: sociology of music, media, culture and technology, social networks and social capital, semiology, gender, music and art policy.
Dr James Rhodes
Honorary Research Fellow
Professor William Sharrock
Professor of Sociology
Research specialisms: choice, rules, analytic sociology, experimental philosophy, computerised visualisations in astrophysics research.
Professor Carol Smart
Professor Emerita, Morgan Centre, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Dr Djordje Sredanovic
Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Bram Vanhoutte
Honorary Research Fellow
Professor Alan Warde
Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences
Research specialisms: consumption, food and eating, culture, stratification, sustainability.
Prof Mark Western
Honorary Hallsworth Visiting Professor