Leading social scientist working on migration and citizenship unanimously elected by the University’s Board of Electors.
We are delighted to announce that Professor Michaela Benson has been appointed to the Chair of Sociology. She will join the Department as Professor of Sociology from 1 October 2026.
Currently Professor in Public Sociology at Lancaster University, she is internationally renowned for her contributions to Migration Studies and Urban Sociology, through her research leadership of the fields of Brexit and Migration, Lifestyle Migration, Class, Space and Place and Self-build Housing.
Her research has international reach and significance, widely cited and has informed policy discussions in the UK and EU. She has received several awards and recognitions for her research, including being conferred as a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (2025).
Professor Benson, said: "I am delighted to be taking up the Professorship of Sociology (1985) and to be joining a department renowned for its bold approach to sociology. I particularly look forward to working with colleagues and students to develop new initiatives that build on its reputation for vibrant, globally connected, and intellectually rigorous research. Above all, I see this role as an opportunity to foster the project of thinking together about where sociology can and should go next.”
Professor Benson has been awarded funding by ESRC for her projects on self-build housing; Brexit and British citizens in the EU; and Rebordering Britain and Britons after Brexit (MIGZEN). She has published several academic monographs including The British in Rural France (2011), and Lifestyle Migration and Colonial Traces in Malaysia and Panama (co-authored with Karen O’Reilly, 2018).
Beyond academia, her research has informed political understandings and policy-making; the work of civil society organisations; and underpinned her collaborations with ThinkTanks, and cultural industry partners. Since 2022, she has been the Chief Executive of The Sociological Review, a charitable foundation focused on sociological education and the public value of sociology.
The Professorship of Sociology (1985) is one of the leading positions in Sociology in the world. Previous holders Sarah Franklin, Goran Therborn, Bryan Turner, Anthony Giddens and John Barnes have all been world-class academics with wide influence in Sociology and in the social sciences and humanities more broadly.