News

1 Feb 2024

Ilaria Michelis wins Journal of Gender Studies Janet Blackman Prize

We are delighted to announce that Ilaria Michelis, doctoral candidate in Sociology, has won the Journal of Gender Studies Janet Blackman Prize for her paper, Contesting gender: young women and feminist generations in gender-based violence services. The Prize celebrates scholarship on international feminist movements and trade unions/women in work.I…

23 Jan 2024

Dr Jusmeet S. Sihra joins the Dept of Sociology as a British Academy International Fellow

We are delighted to welcome Dr Jusmeet S. Sihra to the Department of Sociology as a British Academy International Fellow.  An urban and political sociologist with a deep interest in understanding caste-based inequalities rooted in space, whilst he is in Cambridge Dr Sihra will research the ways in which colonial and postcolonial state institutions …

30 Nov 2023

Polity Prize winners 2023

We’re delighted to announce the winners of this year’s Polity Prizes for academic excellence in Sociology, who all receive £100 worth of books from Polity Press.The Part 1 2023 Polity Prize winner is Brad Barrass from Magdalene College who was awarded the highest mark in the SOC1 exam.  Callum MacKenzie Finnigan from Pembroke College is the winner …

6 Oct 2023

Sandi Toksvig OBE awarded inaugural Q+ Fellowship

The LGBTQ+ research programme, based here at the Department of Sociology has awarded the inaugural Qantabrigian Fellowship to Sandi Toksvig, the prize-winning author, broadcaster, entertainer and founder of the Women’s Equality Party. The Q+ Fellowship enables distinguished Cambridge LGBTQ+ alumni to spend time at the University to conduct a resear…

28 Sep 2023

Black British Voices Project Report 2023 launched in Parliament

We are proud to announce the launch of the Black British Voices Project Report 2023 today, Thursday 28th September 2023, at the Houses of Parliament.  The project is a collaboration between Cambridge Sociology, the Voice newspaper and I-Cubed Consultancy. It is the largest ever research initiative conducted with Black British communities.The report…

31 Aug 2023

Professor Sarah Franklin awarded prestigious Royal Society Medal

The Department of Sociology is delighted that Professor Sarah Franklin has been awarded the Royal Society’s Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal and Lecture 2023 for research related to the social function of science. The first sociologist to have won this award, she has been recognised for her research into, and advocacy for, the social aspects of new rep…

23 May 2023

4 day working week video reignites debate about flexible working and achieves over 130,000 views

This film, created by the University of Cambridge's Film and Digital Media team, about Professor Brendan Burchell and Dr David Frayne's research, has helped to spread the word about their important work even further.Read more about this research on the world’s largest trial of a four-day working week.

9 May 2023

Professor Judith Butler in Cambridge

LgbtQ+@Cam, the Department of Sociology, and the Centre for Gender Studies were honoured to host Professor Judith Butler’s public lecture ‘Who is Afraid of Gender?’ at West Road Concert Hall in Cambridge on Wednesday 26th April.It was a remarkable and memorable evening. Introduced by Professor Sarah Franklin, Professor Butler’s lecture was a charac…

8 Mar 2023

Prof Manali Desai reacts to the FCDO’s new gender equality strategy

Prof Manali Desai, Head of the Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge was quoted in The Guardian on Wednesday 8 March, reacting to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s new strategy to advance gender equality around the world, launched on the same day that MPs announced plans to investigate the impact of UK aid cuts on women …

23 Feb 2023

New results from the world's largest trial of a four-day working week

A team of Cambridge social scientists led by Prof Brendan Burchell, Department of Sociology, have been conducting research on the world’s largest trial of a four-day working week. Last year, 61 organisations in the UK committed to a 20% reduction in working hours for all staff for six months.  With no fall in wages.  The findings suggest that a fou…

22 Nov 2022

Public Sociology and Racial Justice: Dept of Sociology Alumni Festival Event Recording

This Alumni Festival 2022 panel event explored how sociology can both inform and learn from global discussions of racism and racial justice. Watch the event recording to hear Professor Manali Desai, Head of the Department of Sociology, Professor Mónica Moreno-Figueroa, Professor Ali Meghji and Dr Rachell Sánchez Rivera discuss the long trajectory o…

23 Jun 2022

Photography Competition 2022

We are delighted to announce the results of this year’s photography competition on the theme, 'Sociology of Resistance'.Students were encouraged to be creative in their interpretation of the theme "Sociology of Resistance" and think about different ways that people "resist", by challenging institutions, power structures or social norms.You can find…

12 May 2022

Cambridge Sociology’s outstanding research recognised in the REF 2021

The results from the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF) have highlighted the outstanding quality and impact of Cambridge’s research in the field of Sociology. The Times Higher Education’s rankings of REF 2021 place Cambridge Sociology at #2 for research quality in UK higher education. 94% of Cambridge’s outputs submitted within the Sociolog…

17 Mar 2022

Dr Ella McPherson Wins 2022 Pilkington Teaching Prize

We're proud to announce that Dr Ella McPherson has been awarded the 2022 Pilkington Teaching Prize in recognition of her exceptional contribution to the Sociology Department and excellence in teaching.Dr Ella McPherson is an Associate Professor in the Sociology of New Media and Digital Technology and Director of Undergraduate Education at the Depar…

11 Jan 2022

Lebanon on life support: How politics made a nation sick

New multi-national research shows how a long series of politically-driven crises have created a failed state and a public health disaster in Lebanon.A new Research for Health inConflict (R4HC)study led by King’s College Londonand partners at the Universityof Cambridgeand the American University of Beirut, Lebanonshows how political decisions and cl…