Research areas and staff specialisms

The Department of Social Policy and Criminology invites applications for research students in the following areas. Please visit the individual staff profiles for further information on research interests.

Children, families and relationships

Supervised by Dr Alison Andrew, Dr Megan Doolittle, Dr Janet Fink, Dr Jacqui Gabb and Dr Jane McCarthy

Welfare, governance and social change

Supervised by Prof John Clarke, Ms Mary Langan, Dr Sarah Neal, Dr Sharon Pinkney, Dr Beth Widdowson and Prof Nicola Yeates

Cities, communities and urban culture

Supervised by Prof Allan Cochrane, Dr Gerry Mooney, Dr Sarah Neal and Dr Deborah Talbot

Punishment, youth justice corporate crimes and social harm, and critical criminology

Supervised by Dr Deborah Drake, Mr Ross Fergusson, Dr Abigail Rowe, Dr Deborah Talbot, Dr Louise Westmarland and Prof Steve Tombs

Policing

Supervised by Dr Louise Westmarland and Dr Deborah Talbot

Recent PhD topics

Policy, Popular Culture and Personal Experiences - Searching for a Structure of Feeling Relating to Parenting

Revisiting Community Policing in Ukraine: Lessons for Police Reform

Negotiating Disempowerment: Social support and coping in women's prisons

School Choice and Constructing the Active Citizen: Representations an negotiations of active, responsible parenting

Problem-Solving and Partnership: A study of the role of Neighbourhood Action Groups in neighbourhood policing

Spectacular Political Experiments: The constitution, mediation and performance of public participation

A Home of Their Own: A case study of an ethnically diverse community placement of people seeking asylum

Current PhD students

Please visit the current PhD students profiles for further information on our current PhD research.

Apply for a PhD

Visit our main PhD research pages

Find the Faculty of Social Sciences on Facebook