Dr Lynne Copson

Professional biography

My principal research interests lie in theories of crime, harm and justice; the relationship between conventional and critical criminology and the emerging perspective of zemiology (or a ‘social harm approach’); and utopianism. My current research focuses on unearthing the concepts of harm and justice underpinning the conventional criminal justice system in contrast to those implicit within critical criminological and zemiological theories, particularly in terms of their respective policy implications for realising justice and ‘the good society’. I am also interested in the concept of 'public criminology' or 'public sociology' and the sociology of contemporary knowledge production. 

PhD Supervision

I currently supervise a number of PhD students, working across various areas of research.  I particularly welcome applications from prospective PhD candidates interested in zemiology or the study of social harm; utopianism; public criminology/social research; and any area of criminological theory.

I have previously taught across a wide-range of subject areas and disciplines, including political theory; social theory; sociology; criminological theory; criminal justice; and gender and crime. At the University of Edinburgh, I was course organiser for both undergraduate and postgraduate courses exploring gender, crime and criminal justice.

In addition to this, I am interested in developing transferable skills and research skills through teaching. During my appointment at the University of Edinburgh, I was an associate of the Institute for Academic Develpment, University of Edinburgh, having undertaken a short-term secondment therein 2012 to investigate the possibilities of developing credit-bearing pro bono work within the undergraduate degree programme in Law. I was also invovled in the development of a multidisciplinary undergraduate course.

Course Development and Teaching

I am currently the Module Chair for the following module in presentation:

DD311 Crime, harm and the state

I was previously involved in the production of:

DD311 Crime, harm and the state

DD212 Understanding criminology

DD804 Crime and global justice

Reflecting my interest in public sociology and the contemporary climate of knowledge production and consumption, I am interested in breaking down the barriers between 'academic knowledge' and 'the public', as reflected in some of my recent public engagement activity.

I have 'performed' my research on a number of occasions as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe's 'Caberet of Dangerous Ideas', organised in conjunction with The Beltane Public Engagement Network, and was an invited panellist at ‘Mark Thomas: The Manifesto Roadtest’, Sunday Herald Verb Garden during the 2013 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I have also written about the experience of performing my research in The Beltane Public Engagement Network Magazine (The Beltane Networker).

In February 2016, I was also invited to deliver a TED talk as part of the TEDxUniversityofEdinburgh annual conference.

I have presented papers at a number of conferences internationally, and during my doctoral studies, held an ESRC-funded Visiting Research Fellowship at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.