Department of Sociology

Webinar Series

We are launching a departmental webinar series for all to stay in touch, showcase our research, and bring students and staff together. In each webinar, one or two members of staff will talk about a recent research project and then open up the floor for questions and debate.

The webinars are on Thursday afternoons from 4-5 pm and held via Zoom.

‘Time and the Left Behind’

Thursday 28th of May 4-5 pm

Speaker: Dr Liza Schuster

Drawing on poetry and a set of interviews with Afghan women in Kabul, I describe the impact of male migration on the women left behind. The talk draws on research conducted in Afghanistan since 2012, including a study of what happens to those forcibly deported and to their families (2012-2013), and two related projects (2016-2018) with a team of five Afghan researchers, which analysed the place of migration in Afghan oral culture, and conducted interviews with families over eighteen months to explore their fears, hopes and plans for the future. Although the focus of this work was not waiting or being left behind, these were sub-themes that emerged both from the interviews and from the poetry we collected, and demonstrate the very gendered nature of the whole migration process.

28th May - Join Zoom Meeting

• Meeting ID: 922 9812 6892

‘Local Engagement: Gangs, Disproportionality and Prolific Offenders’

Thursday 4th of June, 4-5pm

Speaker: Dr Gary Armstrong

That we might best term the ‘criminological imagination’ asks of us to contemplate a variety of behaviours encompassed in notions of order and dispute and how such aspects of social life are responded to. The task of the Academy has always been to seek to explain and critique how society works; the outcome is theoretical perspectives. Such ideas can be abstract but might also draw on empirical research that seeks to consider the relevance of ideas to the conduct of everyday life. The desired outcome of this coming together is research that can inform policy and shape a greater understanding of phenomena. The research presented this week is the product of the empirical method being utilised at the request of a local government adjacent to City, University of London with the specific aim of assisting their various offices and agencies in addressing contemporary social problems.

4th June - Join Zoom Meeting

• Meeting ID: 942 5014 6531

'Occupations and job quality in the Covid-19'

Thursday 11th of June, 4-5 pm

Speaker: Dr Matt Barnes and Dr Eric Harrison

More information to follow.

11th June - Join Zoom Meeting

• Meeting ID: 925 7706 4422

Watch this video to learn more about the Department of Sociology's history, our courses and our Research focus.

The department offers a range of courses at undergraduate, postgraduate taught and research degree level.

See which course is right for you:

Studentships for 2020/21

SeNSS collaborative studentship competition

The Violence and Society Centre, in conjunction with the Department of Sociology at City, University of London, is offering a fully funded PhD studentship.

• Project: Patterns of victim-survivor utilisation of domestic violence support services
• Deadline: 1^st March 2021
• Supervisor: Prof. Sylvia Walby

The studentship offers the opportunity to join a research collaboration between the University and Women’s Aid Federation of England and invaluable experience working at the intersection between policy-relevant academic research and support services in the domestic violence sector.

The research explores patterns of utilisation of services for women experiencing domestic violence and the most effective configuration of domestic violence support services. This studentship would suit someone with an interest in pursuing a career in data analysis concerning violence and society, especially domestic violence and abuse, in either within academia or the third sector.

How to apply

Download the flier

SeNSS Studentships

The South East Network for Social Sciences (SeNSS) consortium of 10 leading UK universities offers fully funded doctoral studentships, post-doctoral fellowships and placements.

Find out more and apply for SeNSS Studentships.

SASS Studentships

The School of Arts and Social Sciences at City, University of London, is offering eight full-time, three-year doctoral studentships for 2020/21 entry. Applications are invited from exceptional UK, EU, and international graduates wishing to pursue cutting-edge research within any of the School's departments.

Find out more about the SASS studentships and apply online before 20th January 2020

The Department of Sociology celebrated an outstanding performance in the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014.
City is ranked as the 2nd strongest Sociology Department in London for research and our national research ranking rose seven places to joint-16th in the UK. 74% of City Sociology research was graded as world-leading (4*) or internationally excellent (3*), a huge increase from 45% in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE). This increase in the percentage of 4* and 3* research ranks the department as 12th in the UK for Research Power (Guardian analysis).

Sociology at City has an internationally recognised tradition of theoretically informed, empirical research that engages critically with defining societal transformations and policy challenges. In recent years, we have consolidated and developed our research profile around four cross-cutting themes: European Social Research and Analysis; Media, Communication and Society; Policy and Governance; and Structures of Inequality.

Staff from the Department of Sociology talk about their research

Here is a list of the academic staff who work in the Department of Sociology. You can find out more about each member of staff, including their latest publications and their contact details by following the links below.

See all academic staff profiles here

Academic staff profiles

Dr Stephanie Baker Lecturer in Sociology
Dr Matthew Barnes Lecturer in Sociology 
Dr Marco Bastos Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications
Dr Gemma Birkett Senior Lecturer in Criminology 
Dr Sarah Burton Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow
Dr Sarah Butt Research Fellow
Professor Jean Chalaby Professor of International Communication
Dr Rachel Cohen Head of the Department
Dr Salima Douhou Research Fellow
Professor Rory Fitzgerald Professor of Practice in Survey Research
Dr Alessandra Gaia Research Fellow
Dr Ana Gaio Senior Lecturer
Dr Vanessa Gash Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Professor Rosalind Clair Gill Professor of Cultural and Social Analysis
Professor Christopher Greer Dean
Dr Eric Harrison Senior Lecturer in Sociology (0.5) and Deputy Director, Governance and Science Communication of the European Social Survey (0.5)
Dr Katrin Hohl Senior Lecturer in Criminology
Dr Yinxuan Huang, Research Fellow
Dr Jonathan Ilan Senior Lecturer in Criminology
Professor Petros Iosifidis Professor in Media and Communication Policy
Professor Jo Littler Professor of Social Analysis and Cultural Politics 
Dr Carolina Matos Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Media
Dr Jenny Mbaye Lecturer in CCI
Professor Eugene McLaughlin Professor of Criminology
Dr Dan Mercea Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Dr Carrie Myers Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology
Professor Andy Pratt Professor of Cultural Economy and Director, Centre for Culture and the Creative Industries
Professor Christopher Rojek Professor of Sociology
Dr Lorna Ryan Senior Research Fellow
Dr Michael Saker Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications
Mr Luca Salini Research Assistant
Dr Marisol Sandoval Gomez Snr Lecturer in Culture, Policy and Management
Dr Liza Schuster Reader in Sociology
Ms Elena Sommer Research Assistant
Dr Denise Stanley-Chard, Lecturer in Culture and Creative Industries
Dr Sally Stares Lecturer in Sociology
Professor Simon Susen Professor of Sociology
Dr Emmeline Taylor Senior Lecturer in Criminology
Dr Gerbrand Tholen Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Dr Ana Villar-Casas Research Fellow
Professor Sylvia Walby OBE Professor of Sociology
Dr Diana Yeh Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Culture and the Creative Industries

Honorary Research Staff and Visiting Lecturers

Professor John Coveney, Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Delaram Ghanimifard, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Chris Holly, Visiting Lecturer
Professor John Howkins, Visiting Professor
Dr Patty Kostkova, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Kerry Lee, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Geof Rayner, Honorary Research Fellow
Dr Kate Stewart, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Oddveig Storstad , Visiting Scholar
Dr Alex Williams, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Matina Zestanaki, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Martha Van Der Bly, Honorary Visiting Fellow
Dr Sandya Bhattacharya Sue Brown, Visiting Lecturer
Athina Caraba,Visiting Lecturer
Piero Corcillo, Visiting Lecturer
Jon Eilenberg, Visiting Lecturer
Ioanna Gouseti, Visiting Lecturer
Deborah Humphry, Visiting Lecturer
Patrick Igulot, Visiting Lecturer
Eric Lybeck, Visiting Lecturer
Carina Mansey, Visiting Lecturer
Naomi Oosterman, Visiting Lecturer
Professor Papathanassopoulos Stylianos, Visiting Professor
Holly Powell-Jones, Visiting Lecturer
Professor Ali Rattansi, Honorary Visiting professor
Laura Thompson, Visiting Lecturer
Paul Watt, Visiting Lecturer
Alex Williams, Visiting Lecturer
Dr Annette-Carina van der Zaag, Visiting Lecturer
Stamatia Zestanaki, Visiting Lecturer

Q-Step is a £19.5 million programme designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science training. Over a five-year period from 2013, 15 universities across the UK are delivering specialist undergraduate programmes, including new courses, work placements and pathways to postgraduate study.

Expertise and resources will be shared across the higher education sector through an accompanying support programme, which will also forge links with schools and employers.

City Q-Step Centre will be working with the following undergraduate courses in the departments of Sociology and International Politics: Criminology, Sociology, Criminology and Sociology, Media and Sociology, Sociology with Psychology and (from 2015/16) International Politics, International Political Economy and International Politics and Sociology.

Find out more about City Q-Step Centre