Skip to main content Skip to navigation

News

Select tags to filter on

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships 2024

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships aim to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers, but who have a proven record of research. The expectation is that Fellows should undertake a significant piece of publishable work during their tenure, and that the Fellowships should lead to a more permanent academic position, either within the same or another institution. Approximately 145 Fellowships will be available in 2024. Fellowships can be held at universities or at other institutions of higher education in the UK. Full details of the scheme, funding and eligibility are available on the Leverhulme websiteLink opens in a new window.

The closing date for applications to Leverhulme is 22 February 2024 at 4pm, with decisions released in May.

Sociology is inviting applications from suitably qualified candidates and up to three applicants will be selected for departmental support through a competitive selection process.

The procedure is as follows:

  1. Expressions of interest in the scheme should be sent by email to Amy Clarke at Amy.Clarke@warwick.ac.uk by 12noon on Monday 4th December. 
  2. All expressions of interest should include the following materials:
  1. An outline project proposal (2 pages maximum)
  2. An academic CV
  3. An email or letter confirming support for your application from your chosen mentor in Sociology (who must be a permanent member of staff).
  • All submissions received by the deadline and meeting these requirements will be reviewed by the Department Selection Panel.
  • The criteria for selection are:
  • Research track-record of nominee
  • Quality of proposed research to be conducted while at Warwick
  • Fit with the mentor and the strength of their support
  • Fit with broader aims of the Leverhulme competition.

5. Decisions will be reported back to applicants by 12 January 2024.

6. Successful applicants will receive feedback and administrative support from the Department and University prior to the Leverhulme deadline on 23 February 2024.

Queries about the scheme or process should be sent to Professor Goldie Osuri (Director of Research & Impact) at G.Osuri@warwick.ac.uk

Useful Links:

Scheme overviewLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window

Key Dates:

Deadline for Expressions of Interest: 12noon on Monday 04th December 2023

Leverhulme Deadline: 4pm on 22 February 2024

Thu 02 Nov 2023, 14:09 | Tags: Research

Sociology Seminar Series Event - Shamim Miah (University of Huddersfield)

Monday 30th October 2023
17:00 - 18:30
S0.13, Social Sciences

In the second of the Sociology Seminar Series, we welcome Dr Shamim Miah who will explore the works of Ibn Khaldun (d.1406) who was a historian and philosopher and is considered to be one of the founding fathers of sociology. This event further aims to discuss the paradox of Ibn Khaldun's influences on the formative years of modern western sociology, alongside its marginality from mainstream western academia. Dr Miah proposes ways to bring Ibn Khaldun into the mainstream through the systematic application of his theory. This event will be ideal for those interested in developing sociology beyond the western canon.

 

Bio: Dr Shamim Miah is Senior Lecturer University of Huddersfield and author of Ibn Khaldun: Education, History and Society

Thu 26 Oct 2023, 11:57 | Tags: events

In Memoriam: Professor Annie Phizacklea

The Warwick Sociology Department is sad to share the news of the death of our colleague Professor Annie Phizacklea, who died of pneumonia on 9 September 2022. Everyone who knew Annie respected her vibrant, inclusive, and good-humoured leadership in research, teaching and other departmental activities, including long stints as director of research and director of the graduate school. She was a uniquely generous and supportive colleague, and her research, teaching and outlook was formative for both staff and students. Her research made a path-making contribution to the sociology of gender, ethnicity, international migration and work and employment. She retired in 2008 and went on to write a novel based on her academic research on the experiences of migrant women in Britain.

Mon 11 Sep 2023, 14:00 | Tags: Staff

Sociology receives an Athena Swan Silver Award

The Department of Sociology received a Silver Athena SWAN Award from Advance HE in recognition of its intersectional efforts to advance gender equality. The submission for this award can be viewed here.


Sociology receives an "Excellence in Gender Equality Award"

The Department of Sociology Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team (SAT), led by Professor Nickie Charles and Dr Maria do Mar Pereira, has received the inaugural "Excellence in Gender Equality Award", given by the University to recognise individuals and teams doing outstanding work to promote gender equality at Warwick. More information on the award can be found here.


Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships 2023

The Sociology Department will be supporting applications to the next round of the Leverhulme Early Career Fellowships Scheme, which aims to provide career development opportunities for those who are at a relatively early stage of their academic careers.

There is a single-stage internal selection process, with applicants invited to submit expressions of interest to the department by 12 noon on Thursday, 1st December 2022.

Queries about the scheme or process should be sent to Professor Nick Gane (Director of Research) at N.Gane@warwick.ac.uk

Thu 10 Nov 2022, 08:00 | Tags: Homepage Research

In Memoriam: Professor Jim Beckford

It is with sadness that we must share the death after a short illness of our colleague, Emeritus Professor, Jim Beckford. The Department and the University of Warwick more generally were an important part of Jim's career and life. He served the Department of Sociology in a number of capacities, including Head of Department, and was a valued member of our community. He was a key figure in the sociological study of religion and was an active participant in debates and discussions in this area. We mourn his loss and treasure his important role in the development of the Department of Sociology, and University.

Jim Beckford, a Personal Reflection by Peter Ratcliffe

Professor James (Jim) Beckford

Following posts at the Universities of Reading and Durham, Jim joined the Department in 1989 from a Chair at Loyola University, Chicago. By this point he had already developed an international profile as one of the key figures in the Sociology of Religion and Sociology of Culture. Indeed, he had only recently been elected President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, 1988-1989. Once at Warwick his reputation and international stature blossomed, culminating in his election as Fellow of the British Academy in 2004.

Although rightly seen as a prominent social theorist, Jim was above all a great communicator. He had little time for 'theory for theory's sake'. That shows is his vast body of published work: from his first book based on his PhD research, 'The Trumpet of Prophesy: A Sociological Study of Jehovah's Witnesses' (1975) to his 'Social Theory and Religion' (2003) and then his groundbreaking study 'Muslims in Prison: Challenge and Change in Britain and France' (2005, with Danie`le Joly and Farhad Khosrokhavar).

The latter work demonstrated even more clearly than previously a commitment to addressing contemporary issues faced by socially marginalised groups, not least those subjected to racism and Islamophobia. This led to his close association with the Department's Centre for Rights, Equality and Diversity.

This provides a glimpse into his general character and moral commitments. He was above all else a thoroughly decent, caring and warm person who exuded an overriding sense of calm reassurance. Those of us who were privileged to know him cannot but feel a deep sense of emptiness. The Department has lost a colleague who gave his all to our collective endeavours. He retired, theoretically, in 2008, but in fact he never really stopped working. As Emeritus Professor, he never ceased to amaze me how active he remained on the academic scene, even talking about being involved in new transnational research projects stretching years into the future.

If I may, by way of conclusion, be permitted a few personal thoughts, I'd like to reflect on my own sense of loss. I'll miss, deeply, evenings spent at a local hostelry in Kenilworth, where he would regale me with endless tales of all things Japan, and especially Japanese railways, a passion we shared. His characteristic tenacity, commitment and thoroughness was applied, in later life, to the study of the Japanese language. Not surprisingly, he excelled in what clearly represents no mean feat.

He will be sadly missed by all of us

Fri 13 May 2022, 11:31

In Memoriam: Professor Sir Robert Burgess

Professor Sir Robert (Bob) Burgess, who died at age 74 on 21st February 2022, played a major role in shaping the Department of Sociology at Warwick in its formative decades. Having graduated from the University of Durham in 1971, Bob was appointed to a Lectureship at Warwick in 1974; and he completed his PhD there in 1981. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1984 and to Professor in 1988. Bob served as Chair of the Department from 1985 to 1988 and later as Chair of the Faculty of Social Studies as well as the founding Chair of the Board of Graduate Studies. At the same time he founded the Centre for Educational Development, Appraisal and Research (CEDAR) in 1986. The culmination of his many and varied contributions to department and university was his appointment as Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor in 1995.

In 1999 Bob was appointed Vice-Chancellor at the University of Leicester and retired in 2014 as its longest serving Vice-Chancellor. Having presided over many new developments and achievements at Leicester he was knighted in 2010 for services to higher education at local and national levels.

Bob's main contributions to teaching, research and supervision at Warwick centred on the sociology of education and on the refinement of qualitative research methods in their practical application to education at all levels. His many publications (such as Experiencing Comprehensive Education: a Study of Bishop McGregor School (1983), Education, Schools and Schooling (1985), The Ethics of Educational Research (1989), Research Methods (1993)) were both innovative and influential. The fact that CEDAR, now re-located within the Faculty of Social Studies, remains a vibrant part of the university is testimony to Bob's energy and vision.

Alongside all the distinguished contributions that he made to the success of the Department of Sociology at Warwick and to CEDAR Bob was nevertheless a model citizen of the wider community of sociologists in the UK. In addition to joining the Training Board, the Research Resources Board and the Council of the ESRC he became President of the British Sociological Association in 1988, the founding Chair of the UK Council for Graduate Education, and President of the Association for the Teaching of the Social Sciences. This extraordinarily high level of commitment to the public advancement of sociology and other social sciences was tribute not only to Bob's boundless energy but also to his unwavering goal of defending and promoting the social sciences in British higher education. For more details on how this side of his professional service went on to flourish after his departure from Warwick, see the obituary at:https://le.ac.uk/about/history/obituaries/2022/sir-bob-burgess

Bob was a consummate "committee man" who not only revelled in the intricacies of committee procedures but who also had a fine sense for the broadly political considerations of decision-making at the level of Faculties and Senate. He actually seemed to enjoy preparing for meetings and participating fully in the discussions. At the same time, Bob's temperament was invariably polite and gentle. He got annoyed at times when he thought that wrong decisions were being made or were being forced through against reasonable doubt. But he never allowed his annoyance to express itself in other than reasoned argument.

One of the remarkable things about Bob was that, for all his interest in research methods and in efficient administration, he was hopeless with IT. There was a computer in his department office, but rumour had it that he didn't know how to switch it on. I never saw him using it. In addition, his office was best described as "a tip", with books and papers piled up on all available surfaces (including chairs and window sills).

Bob Burgess will be remembered with respect and affection at Warwick for his unpretentious, easy-going personal manner, his ability to get on well with people at all levels of institutions, the impressive stamina with which he pursued his ambitions and his unswerving determination to achieve the highest standards in research, teaching and professional service.

Jim Beckford
20 March 2022

Bob Burgess and Terry Lovell with Meg Stacey at her retirement (1990)

Mon 21 Mar 2022, 11:17

'Student Voice' Ambassadors

Are you interested in developing your skills, enhancing the student experience, and being paid in the process?

The Department of Sociology is currently inviting applications from finalist students for a number of 'Student Voice' Ambassador roles. Ambassadors will act as an interface between students and staff, feeding back both ways. The role will include, for example, inputting into departmental discussions on teaching policy and curriculum change.

If you are interested in this role, please send your CV and a supporting statement (of up to 350 words) outlining why you feel you would make a good 'Student Voice' Ambassador to the department’s Director of Student Experience, Dr Andre Celtel (A.Celtel@warwick.ac.uk).

The closing date for applications is 2 pm on Thursday 03 October 2019.

Mon 23 Sep 2019, 12:25 | Tags: Undergraduate Postgraduate Students job opportunity

Dr Khursheed Wadia awarded WJM Mackenzie prize for the best book in political science for 2017-18

Congratulations to Dr Khursheed Wadia whose book - jointly authored with Daniele Joly - won the PSA's WJM Mackenzie prize for "The best book in political science" for 2017-18.

Mon 29 Apr 2019, 13:13 | Tags: Research Staff

Older news