Criminology PhD

As a Criminology PhD student, you will benefit from

• a range of social and research events and activities, including the Social Science Forum, a fortnightly opportunity for researchers to share their work and contribute to the development of each other’s research, an annual ‘Festival of Social Science’ for social scientists and their collaborators across the university, and an annual Social Science Public Lecture which is included in the Brighton Festival Fringe programme
• desk space and access to a computer in a space specifically designed for research students. There are a range of facilities on the Falmer site include various catering options.
• access to a range of electronic resources via the university’s online library, as well as to the physical book and journal collections in the Falmer Library and other campus libraries in Moulsecoomb and in central Brighton.
• state-of-the-art research facilities in Watson Building and you will have access to the Creative Methods Lab on the first floor, including access to specialist technical support.

You can join a centre that carries out renowned research on social movements, gun control, sexualities and complexity in public policy, have nurtured partnerships with a range of organisations, locally nationally and internationally. For example, collaborative research into emotional and mental health is carried out with Sussex Partnership Trust and work on digital healthcare with Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals Trust and the Brighton and Sussex Medical School and clinical sites across five European countries.

International collaborations include the Ageing and Communication Technologies International Partnership (ACT) on generational engagements with digital technologies and research on sensory engagements with space with universities in Finland and Slovenia (SENSOTRA). Our research attracts funding from AHRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust, NIHR, ERC Horizon 2020, Alzheimer’s Society, the Independent Social Research Foundation and others.

Our academics have a range of expertise in co-designed and creative research methodologies and methods, including work with older people, children, LGBT communities, Afghan migrants and those affected by chronic health conditions.

The School of Humanities and Social Science provides a vibrant environment for doctoral study, with opportunities to work with leading researchers in your field and to make use of our excellent research facilities. The criminologists in the school work primarily in two research areas with two Research and Enterprise Groups:

• Cities, Injustice and Resistance
• Care, Health and Emotional Wellbeing.

The school also provides a basis for politics and the wider humanities to be an aspect of your research. Depending on the nature of your PhD project, you may also become a member of one of the university’s Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (CORES), for example:

Centre for Spatial, Environmental and Cultural Politics

Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender

Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics

Centre for Digital Media Cultures

Dr Roxana Cavalcanti

I am interested in supervising students working on the following topics:

• Urban violence, state violence and political violence
• Feminist theory and intersectional perspectives
• Firearms and gun control
• Post-colonial theory, decolonial frameworks and Southern criminology
• Crime and deviance in Latin America
• Social movements and academic activism
• Theorising the persecution and criminalisation of resistance and dissent

Dr Chris Cocking

I am interested in supervising people with an interest in social psychology, crowd behaviour, or collective action. I am currently interested in public intervention in emergencies/mass casualty incidents (a concept known as 'zero-responders') and public behaviour during the COVID-19 pandemic, and its implications for emergency planning and response. Therefore, I would be especially interested in supervising emergency responders and other public health professionals who wish to do PG research. 

I am also interested in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and the broader area of collective resilience in response to general adversity. I would be keen to work with health professionals interested in postgraduate research in any of these areas.  

Dr Kirsty Mcgregor

Kirsty is interested in receiving postgraduate research proposals in her areas of expertise, including:

• domestic violence and abuse; 
• youth victimisation; 
• hate crime; 
• the lived experience of crime, the criminal justice system and/or victimisation; and 
• critical victimology and criminology.

Kirsty particularly welcomes proposals which situate their project within an intersectional, feminist or queer perspectives.

Dr Hannah Thurston

I have experience of supervising undergraduate, masters and PhD students. The projects these students have undertaken have been very varied, and have included topics such as: the importance of good food and nutrition to people in prison; parental strategies to reduce the risk of online bullying; narrative construction of political speeches about gun crime in America; reasons for abolition of the death penalty in specific US states; the Scandinavian prison system; the experience of offenders families and the Old Police Cells Museum in Brighton. The majority of my students have used qualitative methods which have included focus groups, interviews (both in-person and online) and ethnographic observation. In addition, many of my students have undertaken analyses of cultural products such as films, documentaries, news reports and exhibitions.

With regards to future projects, I would be happy to consider any application or idea although my own research interests include punishment and prison; narrative; the death penalty; museums and exhibitions; cultural memories and cultural forgetting and cultural comparisons.  

For further supervisory staff including cross-disciplinary options, please visit research staff on our research website.