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The University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7NZ, T +44 (0)1227 764000
Sociology MA, MPhil, PhD
This is a research programme within the Sociology subject area.
Key facts
- Subject area: Sociology
- Location: Canterbury
- School: School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research (SSPSSR)
- Duration: MA one year full-time or two years part-time, MPhil two years full-time or three years part-time, PhD registration three to four years full-time or five to six years part-time.
- Start: At any time but preferably in September.
- Fees: More info
- Entry requirements: A good honours degree or MA in Sociology or a related social science discipline. Please also check our general entry requirements (including English language requirements).
Outline
Research in Sociology at Kent covers a range of areas including social and critical theory, social movements, globalisation and everyday life, cities and space, media and technology, class, ‘race' and ethnicity, gender, work, visual sociology, the welfare state, risk and society, violence, NGOs and organisations, and social aspects of the body. We offer high-quality supervision across a wide range of areas and we work carefully to match you with a supervisor who suits your interests and ambitions. There are further details on the research activities and publications of individual members of staff and the School's research units on the School's website. In addition to regular meetings with individual supervisors, all research students take part in a research training programme.
Programme structure
For further information see the School site.
Funding
Every school at Kent offers one or two University postgraduate research scholarships, each available for three years, providing fees at the home/EU rate and a stipend up to £13,590 per annum (2011/12 rate).
Many schools offer scholarships in the form of Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTAs) whereby postgraduate research students receive financial support in return for teaching. The value of awards may vary, but often cover tuition fees at the home/EU rate and a substantial maintenance grant.
All postgraduate research students are eligible to apply for GTAs. See Graduate Teaching Assistantships.
The School has an excellent track record of being awarded ESRC studentship funding. We also offer a number of scholarships and awards for research students.
For further details of postgraduate funding, see Postgraduate funding.
Further information:
Resources and facilities
Library and computing facilities are excellent, and all research students are offered desk space shared offices, readily accessible at all hours.
Where appropriate, research students may also teach part-time within the School.
The School hosts a weekly research seminar with invited speakers, which all postgraduate students are welcome to attend. It also runs a workshop series, where postgraduate students present their work to each other and discuss issues related to their research and careers. There are also reading groups running in the School and across the University, where staff and students learn together in informal ways.
Further information:
Research areas
Academic staff at Kent share a number of interests, grouped here for your guidance. However, there is often a degree of overlap between groups and your research project does not have to fall neatly within any one of them. The School also has several research centres that bring together experts in the field, co-ordinate research, organise talks and offer opportunities for postgraduate students to get involved in discussions and research projects.
Globalisation
At Kent, research in this area includes the role of global civil society, critical analyses of terrorism and responses to it, globalisation and everyday life, migration, the role of communication technologies, and the global expansion of capitalism and responses to it in social movements.
Staff
Professor Frank Furedi, Dr Vince Miller, Professor Larry Ray, Professor Chris Rootes, Professor Miri Song.
The Individual and the Social
Within this area, staff have worked on the ‘culture of anxiety' and the ‘therapy culture', the impact on individual lives and experiences of masculinity, gender, race and ethnicity, parenthood and nationality. Other interests include the social context in which attributions of mental illness are made and managed, the meaning and construction of pain in late modernity, and the sociology of crime and deviance.
Staff
Dr Adam Burgess, Professor Frank Furedi, Dr Jennifer Fleetwood, Dr Ellie Lee, Dr Vince Miller, Professor Janet Sayers, Professor Chris Shilling, Professor Miri Song, Dr Iain Wilkinson.
Risk and Society
The critical analysis of risk and perceptions of risk have become central issues in the sociology of the ‘risk society' and this is a major focus of research activity in the School. Staff research includes work on health risks and their management, the implications of attitudes and behaviour concerning risk for the welfare state, the development of a culture of risk and anxiety, moral panics, risk and crime, risk and the life course, suffering and the perceptions of new communications technology.
Staff
Dr Adam Burgess, Professor Frank Furedi, Professor Keith Hayward, Professor Peter Taylor- Gooby, Professor Sarah Vickerstaff, Dr Jo Warner, Dr Iain Wilkinson.
Race, Ethnicity and Migration
The School has strong expertise in the area of race and ethnicity, and in the area of migration. Our work includes projects on mixed race, immigrant communities and refugees. Research at Kent has also addressed diasporas, undocumented migrants and the links between marriage and migration.
Staff
Dr Vince Miller, Professor Larry Ray, Professor Miri Song, Dr Charles Watters, Dr Lucy Williams.
The Analysis of Social Movements
Social and political changes have stimulated new forms of political participation and mobilisation, including waves of protest, new social movement organisations focused on old as well as new issues, new political parties, and global social movements. Staff interests include environmental movements, humanitarian NGOs, elite networks, and the ‘postmodern' politics of anti-communist movements in Eastern Europe.
Staff
Dr Jeremy Kendall, Professor Chris Pickvance, Professor Larry Ray, Professor Chris Rootes, Dr Iain Wilkinson.
Philanthropy, Humanitarianism and Social Justice
Staff in this cluster seek to understand the social forces and cultural interests that move people to take moral responsibility for responding to/caring for the needs of others; document and explain the institutional organisation of charitable behaviour and its social impacts; the socio-cultural dynamics of philanthropic behaviour and its effects on society; contemporary humanitarianism and its powers of influence over social policy and political process; and to understand the character of the social ties and cultural values that structure the interrelationships between humanitarian action, charitable endeavour and philanthropic intervention; as well as the bearing of government policies and governmental processes upon the charitable sector and philanthropic activity.
Staff
Dr Beth Breeze, Dr Kate Bradley, Dr Jeremy Kendall, Dr Balihar Sanghera, Dr Iain Wilkinson.
Sociology of the Body
Staff working in this cluster seek to understand the complex relationships between embodied subjects, and the social and cultural forms, relationships, institutions and structures that shape and are shaped by these actors. This includes research on clothing and fashion, the embodiment of age, and the body in health and social care. Thesis topics within this cluster have included female binge drinking, female body builders, tattooing and piercing, and the embodied sociology of private spaces.
Staff
Dr David Boothroyd, Dr Ellie Lee, Professor Chris Shilling, Professor Julia Twigg.
Crime, Control and Culture
Members of the crime, control and culture research cluster at the University of Kent are primarily involved in projects and research-centred activities connected with cultural criminology, for example in the areas of subcultures, drug use and intoxification, the night-time economy, the surveillance society, the photographic representation of crime, young people and crime, and the carnival of crime. In addition, work of a more traditional nature is also being undertaken, for example in the fields of international drug policy, the history of crime and punishment, and violence.
Staff
Dr Kate Bradley, Dr Phil Carney, Dr Caroline Chatwin, Professor Frank Furedi, Professor Chris Hale, Professor Keith Hayward, Dr Derek Kirton, Dr Anne Logan, Professor Ann Netten, Dr Kate O'Brien, Professor Larry Ray.
Sociological Theory and the Culture of Modernity
Staff working in this cluster of interests study issues such as classical social theory, the impact on social theory of the fall of communism, and the theoretical implications of the changing boundaries of social life. This has further entailed work on the integrity of auto/biography as a form of social information and its impact on diverse disciplines of feminist perspectives.
Staff
Dr Clare Birchall, Dr David Boothroyd, Professor Keith Hayward, Dr Vince Miller, Professor Larry Ray, Professor Janet Sayers, Professor Chris Shilling, Dr Iain Wilkinson.
Gender
Research at Kent addresses how gender is constructed and how it operates in a variety of social realms. Some of our recent projects have focused on gender in prisons, on women working as door staff in nightclubs and on how women are addressed in advice on pregnancy. Our research on social policy also includes a focus on gender, examining how men, women and families are affected by legislation and service provision.
Staff
Dr Jennifer Fleetwood, Dr Ellie Lee, Dr Anne Logan, Dr Kate O'Brien, Professor Janet Sayers, Professor Miri Song, Dr Jo Warner.
Media
Staff share a research interest in the social role of the media, how media are used and how they are changing. Research at Kent has included work on the role of the media in constructing social problems and moral panics, media and crime, new media, media and subcultures, and the role of media in representing space and identity.
Staff
Dr Clare Birchall, Dr David Boothroyd, Dr Adam Burgess, Dr Phil Carney, Professor Frank Furedi, Dr Jonathan Ilan, Dr Vince Miller.
Visual Sociology
Staff share an interest in the visual dimension of social life. How is life seen, how are images created, stored and used? In various research projects, we also explore the use of images in innovative forms of research design and in sharing our findings.
Staff
Dr Phil Carney, Dr Dawn Lyon, Dr Vince Miller, Professor Tim Strangleman.
Work, Employment and Economic Life
Research examines key themes in the areas of Employment Relations, Human Resource Management, Organisational Behaviour and Leadership at both national and international levels. The group covers a wide range of research, including employment relationships, the role of social partners, the effects of skills, technology, and culture, on the world of work, employee engagement, and the role of leadership in determining organisational performance. The group includes researchers from a variety of academic backgrounds. It therefore works from a multidisciplinary perspective, utilising both historical and futuristic perspectives.
Staff
Faiza Ali, Dr Mark Gilman, Dr Patricia Lewis, Dr Samantha Lynch, Dr Jawad Syed, Professor Dennis Tourish, Professor Katie Truss, Dr Pamela Yeow.
Cross-national and European Social Policy
Cross-national study, both among staff and postgraduate students, is widespread throughout the School and relevant to all groupings. However, some of our research also takes cross-national comparison as its major focus. This includes analysing policy formation and its impact on individuals, families and social groups within different states and within a global context. Using the framework of different welfare regimes, academic staff research a wide range of topics, while postgraduate students conduct research projects in every part of the world. Many of these projects involve overseas students comparing their own country and European or UK services. Recent cross-national work has included projects examining home care services for older people, formal and informal social care systems, institutional change and the future of welfare reform, gender and family, globalisation, housing, and community activism.
Staff
Dr Jeremy Kendall, Dr Lavinia Mitton, Professor Chris Pickvance, Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby, Professor Sarah Vickerstaff.
Show all
|Staff research
Professor Mike Calnan: Professor of Medical Sociology
Diffusion and innovation in health care and technology; trust and health care; dignity and the provision of health and social care for older people.
Professor Frank Furedi: Professor of Sociology
The different manifestations of contemporary risk consciousness; the relationship between the diminishing of cultural authority and society's capacity to manage risk and change; the sociology of rumour and dissident knowledge; sociology of fear.
Professor Chris Hale: Professor of Criminology; Director of Kent Criminal Justice Centre; Head of School
Criminological research (the application of econometric techniques to various topics including the relationship of both crime and punishment to social and economic change and to the study of fear of crime).
Professor Keith Hayward: Professor of Criminology; Director of Studies for Criminology
Criminological theory (in particular, the relationship between consumer culture and crime); the various ways in which cultural dynamics intertwine with the practices of crime and crime control within contemporary society; cultural criminology.
Professor Ann Netten: Professor of Social Welfare
Economics of health and social care; costing services, informal care and regulation; care homes for older people; measuring outcomes of social care; economic evaluation of criminal justice.
Professor Larry Ray: Professor of Sociology
Sociological theory; postcommunism, social memory and the emergence of new Jewish cultures in Europe; globalisation; race; ethnicity; violence.
Professor Chris Rootes: Professor of Environmental Politics and Political Sociology
Environmental protest, environmental movements, the interactions between environmental campaigners and industry, government and governmental agencies; cross-nationally comparative research on protest, social movements and political participation; the formation and implementation of environmental policy, particularly in respect of climate change.
Professor Janet Sayers: Professor of Psychoanalytic Psychology
Psychoanalysis; gender; mental health; Freud; Picasso; British art critic Adrian Stokes.
Professor David Shemmings: Chair of Social Work; Deputy Head of School (Medway)
Adult attachment theory; safeguarding children and child protection; contemporary quantitative research methods.
Professor Chris Shilling: Professor of Sociology, Director of Graduate Studies (Research)
Adult attachment theory; safeguarding children and child protection; contemporary quantitative research methods.
Professor Miri Song: Professor of Sociology
Ethnic identity; race; racisms; immigrant adaptation; ‘mixed race'.
Professor Tim Strangleman: Professor of Sociology
Work identity and meaning; nostalgia; heritage; industrial decline; masculinity and age; historical sociology; oral histories; life histories; visual methods and approaches.
Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby: Professor of Social Policy
Risk; comparative cross-national work on European social policy; theoretical developments in social policy.
Professor Julia Twigg: Professor of Social Policy and Sociology
The body, and temporal and spatial ordering; age and ageing; disability; medicine and health care; food, diet and health; home care; public and private space; carework and the care workforce; the sociology of food.
Professor Sarah Vickerstaff: Professor of Work and Employment
The relationship between paid work and the life course; the employability of older workers; the apprentice model of vocational training and intermediate skills acquisition and the transition from school to work.
Dr Derek Kirton: Reader in Social Policy and Social Work
Child welfare policy and practice, and especially the areas of adoption and foster care; remuneration for foster carers; the later life experiences of people growing up in the care system.
Dr Charles Watters: Reader in Mental Health
Migration, health and social care; refugee children; educational programmes for refugees; mental health and social care services for migrants in Europe; migration and development; socio-political contexts of care; identity and policies of integration; migration and social capital; internally displaced people.
Dr David Boothroyd: Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies
Cultural theory; cultural metaphysics and European thought (psychoanalysis, phenomenology; libidinal materialism, deconstruction) applied to drugs and drug cultures, everyday life, TV, film and new media and new technologies, ethics and hospitality; cultures of the extreme.
Dr Jeremy Kendall: Senior Lecturer in Social Policy
The voluntary sector in the UK; the welfare mix, particularly the motivations and behaviours of providers of care for older people in the UK; British social policy in general; the European dimension of public policy, particularly social policy, towards organised civil society.
Dr Jo Warner: Senior Lecturer in Social Work
Risk; mental health; social work; documentary analysis; gender.
Dr Iain Wilkinson: Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Social theory; sociology of risk; sociology of health; sociology of mass media; the ways people experience and respond to their knowledge of risk, crisis and disaster.
Dr Clare Birchall: Lecturer in Cultural Studies
Cultural studies, poststructuralist theory; popular knowledges, especially conspiracy theory and gossip; cultures of secrecy and revelation; youth media.
Dr Kate Bradley: Lecturer in Social History and Social Policy
History of social policy; charities; youth crime, justice and welfare.
Dr Phil Carney: Lecturer in Criminology
Media representations of crime and punishment; photographic theory; contemporary social and cultural theory; poststructuralist philosophy.
Dr Caroline Chatwin: Lecturer in Criminology
Patterns of illegal drug abuse; drug markets; criminological theory.
Dr Jennifer Fleetwood: Lecturer in Criminology
Women in the international drug trade, feminist theory and sociological perspectives on gender; criminological theories about gender and offending; globalisation and crime; organised crime; critical criminology and cultural criminology.
Dr. Jonathan Ilan: Lecturer in Criminology
Ethnography; youth crime, justice and policing; urban sociology and cultural criminology.
Dr Lavinia Mitton: Lecturer in Social Policy
Government tax and social security policies, and how they affect people, in particular with respect to the family and income inequality; the history of social policy and long-term change in economic and social conditions.
Dr Kate O'Brien: Lecturer in Criminology
Youth and crime; informal economies (particularly drug markets); violence and the night-time economy; gender, crime and social control; the spatial and cultural aspects of crime and social control; ethnographic methods.
Dr Lucy Williams: Lecturer in Mental Health
Social networks and social support systems of refugees, asylum seekers and other minority groups; strategies and tactics of migration, integration, assimilation and identity formation; cross-border marriage migration and family reunification; user-involvement and the management of voluntary organisations.
Dr Dawn Lyon: Lecturer in Sociology
Sociology of work; migration; visual sociology; gender relations; comparative cultural sociology (especially France and Italy).
Dr Anne Logan: Senior Lecturer; Director of Studies, Criminal Justice Studies (Medway campus)
History of feminism; history of criminal justice; gender, voluntary work and professionalism.
Dr Ellie Lee: Reader in Social Policy
Health policy, in particular reproductive health and parent-child relations; contraception; abortion; assisted conception; ‘designer babies'; maternal mental health; infant feeding.
Dr Adam Burgess: Reader in Sociology
Contemporary understanding of risk in Western societies; the impact of health risks and neuroses upon individuals and society; the spread of generic risk assessment and management to every walk of professional life; precaution and the study of rumours and urban legends.
Dr Vince Miller: Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Theories of urban social change and fragmentation; the information society, media and new media; social theory of space.
Dr Balihar Sanghera: Senior Lecturer in Sociology; Director of Studies for Social Sciences
Ethics, moral economy and sentiments; political economy; philanthropy; post-soviet Kyrgyzstan.
Further information: