Professor Sarah Franklin, Head of Department, welcomes staff and students (back) to the University and shares changes for the term ahead.
The Department of Sociology is pleased to extend a very warm welcome back to all staff and students at the beginning of this Michaelmas Term. This September we are welcoming the largest ever intake of more than 60 new postgraduate students to our department. Post-graduate education is a major area of expansion for us, and we are co-launching the new interdisciplinary Health, Medicine and Society MPhil, as well as our three newly restructured MPhil strands in Sociology. The substantial increase in postgraduate applications is but one marker of Sociology’s rapid growth: once again we have attained the highest per capita research income in the School, and thus the addition to our teaching staff of an increasing number of talented post-doctoral scholars, who play an increasingly vital role in all of our activities.
As always, the beginning of a new term brings both departures and arrivals, and we are sad to say farewell to our longstanding colleague Professor Larry King, who has taken up a new post in the US at UMass Amherst. Joining our teaching staff this term are Dr Teije Donker from the University of Bergen, Dr Tiffany Page from Goldsmiths, University of London, and Dr Robert Pralat from the Reproductive Sociology Research Group (ReproSoc). Staff on leave this term include Dr Hazem Kandil, Dr Brendan Burchell, and Dr Mwenza Blell – who we are pleased to announce has a beautiful new daughter!
This term we also say goodbye to Professor Patrick Baert and welcome Professor Sarah Franklin, as the new Head of Department. Over the past three-years, Professor Baert has led the department through a series of significant changes, expanding the financial and physical size of the department, and increasing our global reputation and outreach. Over the 2017/18 academic year, Professor Baert will be taking a sabbatical to concentrate on his social theory focused academic research.
Professor Franklin, who currently directs the Reproductive Sociology Research group (ReproSoc), takes up the post of Head of Department on 1 October 2017. Over the next three years Professor Franklin’s efforts will be strongly focussed on the Department’s preparations for the next Research Evaluation exercise in 2020. She will also oversee the long-awaited expansion and refurbishment of Sociology’s home in the Old Cavendish building on Free School Lane, and the move to temporary quarters in Mill Lane in the interim. Having secured a major infrastructure grant from the School, Professor Franklin will also be leading the development of a new LGBTQ+@Cam programme across the University, representing an important new high-profile role for Sociology in this important area.
As usual, Sociology staff are involved in many different events and activities, so watch our newsletter for announcements of talks and lectures, such as those that are part of the Festival of Ideas. A major event sponsored by Sociology this term is the launch of a new annual lecture series honouring former student Jo Cox MP, who was tragically murdered whilst working in her constituency in 2015. The Inaugural Jo Cox Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Kevin Watkins, CEO of Save the Children on 20th October at Murray Edwards College (5:30pm).
As ever, our bi-weekly sociology seminars offer an occasion to join in discussion with leading scholars from our own department and around the world. Be sure to join us for these seminars, at which we also regularly announce other activities led by Cambridge sociologists across the university.
With best wishes for a stimulating and productive term from everyone on the Sociology staff!
