News

8 Jul 2025

Professor Manali Desai appointed new Head of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor Desai will succeed Professor Tim Harper, who has held the role since 2020, on 1 October 2025.A Professorial Fellow of Newnham College, Desai was Head of the Department of Sociology at Cambridge between 2020 and 2024. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where she specialised in comparative and …

21 Nov 2024

Dept of Sociology-led project wins prestigious ESRC prize

We’re delighted to share the news that The Digit Working Time Reduction Team, led by Professor Brendan Burchell, have won the prestigious Outstanding Business and Enterprise Impact prize at the 2024 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Celebrating Impact awards ceremony in London on 20 November 2024.The team investigated the UK’s largest tri…

14 Nov 2024

Support the future of Sociology: Cambridge Sociology Postgraduate Fund

A new initiative has been launched to foster the future of sociological research and education at the University of Cambridge.From Professor Anthony Giddens, whose influential work in social theory shaped contemporary sociology, to the late MP Jo Cox, our alumni have had an impact far beyond the university walls.Annually, our department welcomes a …

26 Sep 2024

We're hiring!

Join us!  We are currently advertising two prestigious positions within the Department of Sociology:Professor of SociologyThe Board of Electors to the Professorship of Sociology (1985) invite applications for this Professorship. Candidates will have an outstanding research record of international stature in Sociology and the vision, leadership expe…

26 Sep 2024

On Addiction: Insights from History, Ethnography and Critical Theory

Professor Darin Weinberg’s latest book, On Addiction: Insights from History, Ethnography and Critical Theory was published on 27th September 2024 by Duke University Press. In it he offers a new theorization of addiction in which he contends that addiction requires a supple theoretical framework that provides for movements into and out of self-contr…

12 Sep 2024

In celebration of Amílcar Cabral

Filipe Carreira da Silva presented his paper “Amílcar Cabral, Colonial Soil and the Politics of Insubmission” at  the International Symposium commemorating the centenary of Amilcar Cabral, in Praia, Cape Verde 9-12 September 2024.One of Africa's foremost anti-colonial leaders, the Symposium celebrates the centenary of Amílcar Cabral’s birth and his…

12 Sep 2024

Brendan Burchell’s team nominated for prestigious prize

We’re delighted that The Digit Working Time Reduction Team, led by Professor Brendan Burchell is among the finalists nominated for the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)’s Celebrating Impact Prize 2024. The prize recognises outstanding economic or societal impact achieved by ESRC-funded researchers. The Team’s work, in collaboration with a…

29 Aug 2024

Dr Robert Dorschel wins award

Congratulations to Dr Robert Dorschel who has received the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Annual Dissertation Award 2024. His winning PhD thesis is titled “The Social Codes of Tech Workers: On the Quest to be Middle-Class Wealthy and Morally Worthy”. Dr Dorschel completed his PhD in Sociology at the University of Cambridge in 2023. He i…

4 Jul 2024

CUQM SOC5 prize 2024 winner announced

Congratulations to Charlotte Blixen-Finecke who has won the Cambridge Undergraduate Quantitative Methods SOC5 prize for the highest mark in the 2024 SOC5 (statistics and methods) exam paper.Charlotte, pictured above, said, ‘Having recently finished my degree in Politics and Sociology (HSPS), I still look back at SOC5 as one of the most useful paper…

6 Jun 2024

Professor Brendan Burchell contributes to ground-breaking research on restless leg syndrome

An international team of researchers, including Brendan Burchell, Professor in Sociology, have discovered genetic clues to the cause of restless leg syndrome, a condition common among older adults. The discovery could help identify those individuals at greatest risk of the condition and point to potential ways to treat it.Professor Burchell said, ‘…

4 Jun 2024

New Publication: The Kazakh Spring by Diana T Kudaibergen

Congratulations to Diana Kudaibergen whose third book, The Kazakh Spring: Digital Activism and the Challenge to Dictatorship has just been published by Cambridge University Press. The book tells the story of regime-society relations and explains this dynamic in the context of the Kazakh Spring protests from 2019. Focussing on the interplay between …

29 May 2024

Dr Jess Miller gives evidence at House of Commons

Dr Jess Miller, PI of the Policing Trauma project, spoke at an evidence session of the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee on police wellbeing on Wednesday 22nd May.Dr Miller was asked about her research on mental health and wellbeing among police officers in specific relation to trauma and working conditions. You can find out more about the Co…

21 May 2024

Sociology students win Vice-Chancellor’s Social Impact Awards

We are delighted that Faustine Petron, a final-year Human, Social and Political Sciences student specialising in sociology and Mayumi Sato (pictured above), a PhD student here at the Dept of Sociology, both received awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement in contributing to society.The University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professo…

19 Mar 2024

AI and scholarship: a manifesto

Dr Ella McPherson and Prof Matei Candea have written a manifesto for AI and scholarship which cuts through the hype around generative AI to provide a framework that supports scholars and students in figuring out if, rather than how, generative AI contributes to their scholarship.This approach reminds us that what is at stake is nothing less than ou…

29 Feb 2024

Dr Matthew Sparkes provides evidence at parliamentary briefing

On Tuesday 27 February 2024, Dr Matthew Sparkes, Assistant Professor in Sociology, gave evidence at a parliamentary briefing on the new Mortgage Prisoner campaign. Mortgage prisoners are existing borrowers unable to switch their mortgages to a new deal, even if up-to-date with their payments. This is an important issue in the UK where short-term fi…