The Sociology Department will be supporting applications to the next round of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships Scheme, which aims to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers.

There is a single-stage internal selection process, with applicants invited to submit expressions of interest to the department by 12 noon on Thursday, 1st December 2022.

Queries about the scheme or process should be sent to Professor Nick Gane (Director of Research) at N.Gane@warwick.ac.uk

Congratulations to Dr Khursheed Wadia whose book - jointly authored with Daniele Joly - won the PSA's WJM Mackenzie prize for "The best book in political science" for 2017-18.

The Toxic News e-magazine was conceived as a result of the European Research Commission funded project Toxic Expertise hosted by the Sociology Department. The project examines competing claims about the health effects of pollution, focusing on the global petrochemical industry.

In this edition Diane SicotteLink opens in a new window writes on the toxic relationship between fracking and plastics; Troy D Abel, Jonah White and Stacy ClausonLink opens in a new window examine environmental injustice in South Seattle; Sarah Marie Wiebe, Jen Bagelman and Laurence Butet-RochLink opens in a new window explore the experience of indigenous peoples at the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reserve in Canada's 'Chemical Valley'; Sophia JaworskiLink opens in a new window suggests we move beyond environmental injustices associated with proximity of industry towards interrogating the toxicity of everyday landscapes. Finally Angelo Raffaele IppolitoLink opens in a new window explores the moral struggles of a community in Taranto, Southern Italy, faced with industrial pollution from the largest steel mill in Europe.

Sociology undergraduate Lanaire Aderemi will be presenting her research at this year's British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR). Her paper is titled 'The Biafran War: the politics of remembering, misremembering and forgetting' Click here to read her research abstract.

This year's conference will be held in Cardiff on 15 & 16 April and further information can be found at: https://www.bcur.org/

Stella Chatzitheochari's research on barriers to higher education for young people with disabilities in England has been featured in the Guardian newspaper today.

• Read Frances Ryan's Guardian article, 'A few more Oxbridge places for disadvantaged children is just tinkering'
• Hear about the research in more detail in the University's press release, '

  New insights into disabled young people who 'succeed but don't proceed' at school'

• Check out the policy briefing, 'CHILDHOOD DISABILITY & EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT THE IMPACT OF PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS AND BULLYING'
• Read the article by Stella Chatzitheochari and Lucinda Platt in the British Journal of Sociology, 'Disability differentials in educational attainment in England: primary and secondary effects'

Colleagues from Sociology will be part of the upcoming programme of activities at the Tate Modern.

The University has worked with the Tate to create the Warwick Tate Exchange, which will explore the theme of The Production of Truth, Justice and History. The initiative is a collaboration between departments across the Social Sciences and the Arts and Humanities.

Hannah, Akwugo, Ana, and Goldie will be organising activities to explore through participative art practice their research into aspects of the Warwick Tate Exchange theme.

• Check out the programme and book your free place

Two colleagues from the department have been awarded funding from Warwick Ventures to apply their research and innovation to benefit wider society.

• Application of multifactorial survey experiments in development research: Dr Ulf Liebe, Sociology and Q-step
• International legal strategy to address human right’s violations in Indian – administered Kashmir: Dr Goldie Osuri, Sociology

Congratulations to Ulf and Goldie!

Welcome the new Head of Department

We welcome Virinder Kalra as the new HoD, and thank the outgoing HoD John Solomos for all his hard work and support.

BSA/BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed Prize for Ethnography

We are delighted to announce that Maria do Mar Pereira's most recent book Power, Knowledge and Feminist Scholarship: an Ethnography of Academia was shortlisted for the BSA / BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed Prize for Ethnography.

Tune into to Radio 4 to hear a discussion of her book a special edition of Thinking Allowed (aired Wednesday 11 April 2018) at 16.00.

BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize

Lucy Mayblin has been announced as the winner of the BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize 2018 for her book, Asylum After Empire: Colonial legacies in the Politics of Asylum Seeking 

The BSA Philip Abrams Memorial Prize is for the best first and sole-authored book within the discipline of Sociology.

BSA Distinguished Service Award

John Solomos has been given this year’s Distinguished Service to British Sociology Award, an award made each year by the British Sociological Association to an outstanding individual who has contributed greatly to the discipline.

Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences

Emeritus Professor Elizabeth Dowler has been elected a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, nominated by the Social Policy Association.

The department is delighted to announce that Dr Hannah Jones has been awarded an ESRC IAA grant for a collaborative project entitled 'Immigration Otherwise: Co-Production and Participative Engagement'. The project is a collaboration with Dr Yasmin Gunaratnam at Goldsmiths, University of London and theatre company ActREAL. They will be working with schools in Oxford and Coventry to explore the implications of immigration control on young peoples’ lives.

The image is the cover of a collaboratively-authored book by Hannah, Yasmin and six others, on which the theatre work will be based.

Keep an eye on our Research Impact page for more information.

A workshop titled ‘Chaos and Crisis: Can Prison Be Better Than This?’ took place on Wednesday 17th of January 2018 at the University of Warwick. This event was co-organised by the Howard League for Penal Reform, Safe Ground, and the Department of Sociology and the Criminal Justice Centre at Warwick. It was supported by an ESRC Impact Acceleration Account fund that seeks to raise public engagement on current issues inside English and Welsh prisons. The workshop was designed to be an interactive, day-long encounter that brought together a range of prison practitioners and employees, former prisoners, criminal justice charities and NGOs, media, researchers, campaigners and others interested in issues of criminal justice. An impressive range of panelists, all having substantial experience and knowledge of prisons attended.

• Find out more and watch videos from the event...