PhD in Sociology | PhD in Social Policy | PhD in Social Work

The University of Brighton fosters a range of research associated with Sociology and related social sciences including research into Social policy and Social work, and is also well-placed to develop cross-disciplinary projects with subjects that make use of sociological practices and methodologies.

Our Sociology PhD students are based within the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Brighton’s Falmer campus. Sociology is a vibrant and stimulating programme of study, with lecturers engaged with diverse sociological issues such as health, mobilities, teenage pregnancy and parenthood, the life course, gender, migration, outer space, and classed identities.

Our expertise also covers areas of research into Social policy and Social work, both of which welcome approaches for supervision.

As a Sociology PhD student you will become a member of one or more of the university’s Centres of Research and Enterprise Excellence (COREs) or Research and Enterprise Groups (REGs), with opportunities for support and networking beyond your primary supervision.

Recent and current PhD students have been successful in obtaining studentships covering both fees and living costs through the University of Brighton’s involvement in the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Programme.

Employment opportunities with a Sociology PhD include academic posts as lecturers and postdoctoral research assistants at the University of Brighton and elsewhere, as well as roles in central and local government, non-governmental organisations, social research, teaching, journalism and the media.

Apply to 'social Science' in the applicant portal

Apply with us for funding from the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Programme

Key information

As a sociology student at Brighton, you will benefit from:

a supervisory team comprising two or sometimes three members of academic staff. Depending on your research specialism you may also have an additional supervisor from another school, another research institution, or an external partner from government or industry. 
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 housed within the Falmer Library and other campus libraries. 
SASS has 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.

Academic environment

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. It has 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. We also carry out renowned research on social movements, gun control, sexualities and complexity in public policy.

We 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.

As a Sociology PhD student, you will become an integral member of the School of Humanities and Social Science, contributing to the school’s research culture as well as joining its rapidly expanding and active group of research students. The school offers 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.

Researchers work collaboratively across three research groups in addressing challenges of social, health, psychological, spatial, and environmental injustice, seeking to transform policy and practice on global and more local scales.

Academic staff in the School of Humanities and Social Science have expertise in a range of research topics and research methodologies and foster that research within centres and groups. Of particular interest might be:

Supervisory interests

Dr Matthew Adams

Matt supervises PhD students addressing a range of topics including human-animal relations, more-than-human and multispecies methods, Anthropocene studies, the posthumanities, psychology and the climate crisis, climate activism, mental health and distress, social and cultural identity.

He is especially interested in supervising students adopting qualitative and creative methods. Interdisciplinary projects are especially welcome.

Dr Daniel Burdsey

I am interested in supervising doctoral students in all areas related to my research interests in sociological, cultural and geographical analyses of race, ethnicity and popular culture.

PhD students currently working with me are undertaking research on: conflict, protest and resistance around the Hamburg Olympic Games referendum; identities and experiences of mixed-race university students; tourism in post-Communist Romania; Black British contemporary intellectual thought; and women’s cricket and sport policy in India.

Prof Rebecca Elmhirst

I am currently supervising four PhD students, two of whom are part of a H2020 Marie Curie Sklodowska Innovative Training Network. I am interested in supervising MRes and doctoral projects relating to (feminist) political ecology, and in particular, projects that relate to social and environmental justice, climate and agrarian resource extractivism, decolonial thinking and critical approaches to sustainable development.

Dr Helen Johnson

Helen supervises PhD and MD students with an interest in arts-based interventions in healthcare, education and wellbeing, and/or the use of creative, arts-based research methods. She is interested in talking to doctoral applicants who are interested in researching creativity and the arts, with foci including: art therapy; arts interventions for health and wellbeing, including invisible chronic and contested conditions; social prescribing; creativity and the lived experience of dementia; arts education; spoken word and poetry slam; art worlds/communities; arts inclusivity; everyday creativity; and the artistic process. She is also interested in supervising students who wish to work with creative, arts-based and/or participatory methods, including: poetic inquiry; autoethnography; photo voice; photo elicitation; collaborative poetics; and participatory action research. Helen currently supervises four doctoral candidates, who are researching: the lived experiences of women with borderline personality disorder (including creative coping strategies); neurologic music therapy with young people with juvenile dementia; black people's experiences of intimacy and psychosis; and decolonial praxis in museum learning. She has previously supervised and examined work covering topics that include: perceptions of frailty in the undergraduate medical curriculum; the impact of austerity policies on homeless people; spoken word with young offenders in a Macedonian prison; the performance and perception of authenticity in contemporary UK spoken word poetry; and NHS staff experiences of work.

Dr Sarah Leaney

I am interested in supervising doctoral students in classed inequalities, urban sociology, social housing and ethnographic methodologies.

I am currently supervising the following projects:

Social and cultural exclusion through seaside gentrification on the south coast Bethan Prosser

Precarious practices and policies in the divided ‘smart city’ Matthew Smith

Prof Lesley Murray

I am interested in supervising doctoral students on a range of topics including transport and mobilities, urban sociology, visual sociology and gender and generation. In addition, I welcome proposals from students seeking to adopt creative and inventive methodologies and methods. I am currently supervising projects on: lived experiences of the anthropocene; urban place-attachment across generations; sequential art in architectural practice; urban pocket parks; generation and automobility futures; and the wellbeing of refugee children.

Dr James Ormrod

I am interested in supervising doctoral research in the areas of outer space studies, environmental sociology, human-animal studies, and social movement studies, as well as work more broadly situated within psychosocial studies.

Dr Raphael Schlembach

Raphael is interested in receiving proposals for doctoral studies across politics, sociology and criminology. His areas of expertise include critical approaches to protest and social movements; criminal justice and social policy; migration and citizenship; policing and security; nationalism and the far right; critical and democratic theory; and public inquiries.

For current funding opportunities see: http://www.southcoastdtp.ac.uk/apply/

Dr Rebecca Searle

Rebecca supervises students researching contemporary British History. She has particular expertise in the history of housing, the politics of twentieth and twenty first century Britain, the history of sexuality and gender, and the impact of war on society. She works with students across social, political, cultural and economic history and with students specialising in politics, sociology or philosophy who want to incorporate historical analysis into their research.

Dr Jane Thomas

I am interested in supervising PhDs in social policy, and health policy in particular. A possible PhD project concerns attitudes towards NHS privatisation. Further areas I am interested in supervising include: inequalities in health, local government public health policy, empowerment and public control over the determinants of health, public access to information, public health leadership, policy on climate change and workplace health.

Jane is supervising PhD researchers, including:

practitioners' conceptions of 'holism' and midwifes' attitudes and practice concerning contraceptive advice.

Dr Laetitia Zeeman

Supervision support can be provided to PhD students who are interested in queer theory, poststructuralism, the application of critical social theory, new materialism, intersectionality and feminist theory in health-related research. Focus areas include LGBTQ+ health and healthcare, health inequalities, resilience, trans health and mental health promotion with the aim to achieve greater health equity. PhD students she has supervised to completion have worked on studies employing critical social theories, new materialism and qualitative creative methods. She has examined PhD/Professional Doctorate studies at universities in the UK and further afield.

Current PhD students

Sacha Mead, Aile Trumm; Sebastian Beaumont, Elisavet Anastasiadi and Mike Phillips.

Former PhD students (PhD completions)

Esther Omotola Ayoola, Amy Middleton, H Howitt, Kim Brown, Tracey Harding, Adam Kincel, Jens Schneider.

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

Making an application

Once you have prepared a first-rate application you can apply to the University of Brighton through our online application portal. When you do, you will require a research proposal, references, a personal statement and a record of your education.

You will be asked whether you have discussed your research proposal and your suitability for doctoral study with a member of the University of Brighton staff. We strongly recommend that all applications are made with the collaboration of at least one potential supervisor. Approaches to potential supervisors can be made directly through the details available online. If you are unsure, please do contact the Doctoral College for advice.

Please visit our How to apply for a PhD page for detailed information.

Fees and funding

Funding

Undertaking research study will require university fees as well as support for your research activities and plans for subsistence during full or part-time study.

Funding sources include self-funding, funding by an employer or industrial partners; there are competitive funding opportunities available in most disciplines through, for example, our own university studentships or national (UK) research councils. International students may have options from either their home-based research funding organisations or may be eligible for some UK funds.

Learn more about the funding opportunities available to you.

Tuition fees academic year 2024–25

Standard fees are listed below, but may vary depending on subject area. Some subject areas may charge bench fees/consumables; this will be decided as part of any offer made. Fees for UK and international/EU students on full-time and part-time courses are likely to incur a small inflation rise each year of a research programme.

MPhil/PhD
	Full-time	Part-time
UK	£4,786	£2,393
International (including EU)	£15,900	N/A
International students registered in the School of Humanities and Social Science or in the School of Business and Law	£14,500	N/A

PhD by Publication
Full-time	Part-time
N/A	£2,393

Contact Brighton Doctoral College

To contact the Doctoral College at the University of Brighton we request an email in the first instance. Please visit our contact the Brighton Doctoral College page.

For supervisory contact, please see individual profile pages.