Social Sciences blogs

Dr Nicola Roberts (University of Sunderland), Professor Catherine Donovan (Durham University) and Dr Matthew Durey (University of Sunderland) have had a new article published on ‘Students’ help-seeking for experiences of interpersonal violence: How can universities respond?’. The article is timely given the recent Office for Students’ consultation about how universities address harassment and sexual misconduct… Continue reading Students’ help-seeking for experiences of interpersonal violence: How can universities respond?

Dr Nicola Roberts (Associate Professor of Criminology), Lauren Doyle (Lecturer in Social Studies) and Mark Roberts (Independent Researcher) have published their article on ‘changing the culture of sexual violence at UK universities’, which is timely given the Office for Students’ recent consultation on how universities should address harassment and sexual misconduct. In their website analysis… Continue reading Changing the Culture of Sexual Violence at UK Universities: A Website Analysis of Definitions, Report/Support and Prevent Mechanisms

by Chloe Morgan The article I have shared on Research Gate (link below) is a result of my Dissertation research conducted as an MSc social science student on the MSc ‘Inequality and Society’ programme at the University of Sunderland (UoS). I studied at the UoS, part time, from September 2019 to September 2021. I am… Continue reading Former UoS MSc Inequality and Society student shares her research on the representation of girls and women on social media outlets

The research team: Sarah Lonbay, Steve O’Driscoll, Jess Dougherty, Carole Southall, Pat Higgins. This participatory arts-based project was designed to explore the concept of safety and what it means to people who have experienced mental health problems and abuse. Two separate groups worked to co-create artwork that reflected what safety means to them. The two… Continue reading A Vision of Safety: An arts based project

A participatory arts based project is underway to explore the concept of safety and what this means to people who have experienced difficulty in their lives related to mental health and/ or abuse and trauma. Two groups have worked together to co-create artwork that reflects what safety means to them. The two pieces, titled “Peace… Continue reading A Vision of Safety: An arts based project to explore the concept of safety

This blog post highlights and explores a piece of research carried out Dr Angie Wilcock who works within the Criminology team on both undergraduate and MSc programmes. The research focused on female Thai nationals married to a UK citizen living in England. The aim of the research was to gain an understanding about the women’s… Continue reading The transitional experiences of Thai women following migratory marriage to England, by Dr. Angie Wilcock.

We are really pleased to share the news that two members of our Centre for Applied Social Sciences (CASS) have been awarded a Vice-Chancellor’s Research and Knowledge Exchange (RKE) Fellowship. Dr. Lesley Deacon and Dr. Matt Durey have both been awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s RKE Fellowships which will give them dedicated time and resources to undertake… Continue reading New Research and Knowledge Exchange Fellows in the Centre for Applied Social Sciences

The Campus Security crime prevention campaign for December has proven popular with students. The campaign focuses on personal safety and securing personal property for those going home during the Christmas break. The team engaged with students on both campuses, Clanny House and Panns Bank / Scotia Quay to spread the important security messages. This included… Continue reading Campus Security Winter Campaign and Evaluation Research

Dr Matthew Durey, Dr Nicola Roberts, and Professor Catherine Donovan (Durham University) contributed a chapter entitled ‘Negotiating landscapes of (un)safety: atmospheres and ambivalence in female students’ everyday geographies’ to the recently published collection Landscapes of Hate: Tracing Spaces, Relations and Responses published by Bristol University Press. This chapter reflects on qualitative data from a survey… Continue reading Safe in the City? Female students’ experiences of urban landscapes

Dr. Nicola Roberts Reports of Violence and Abuse by LGBTQ+ University Students Dr Nicola Roberts and Professor Catherine Donovan (Durham University) have had a chapter ‘Violence and abuse, universities and LGBTQ+ students’ published in a new book ‘Stopping Gender-based Violence in Higher Education: Policy, Practice, and Partnerships’ with publishers Routledge. Drawing on findings from Project… Continue reading Stopping gender-based violence in Higher Education

Dr. Nicola Roberts Dr Nicola Roberts has had her statistical analysis on student retention published in the Journal of Further and Higher Education, a Routledge journal. Read the article here about ‘variables predicting the odds of failing to progress onto the second year of study for criminology students in a UK university’: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/B3NEAQSC86FEPSZCTYEE/full?target=10.1080/0309877X.2022.2088268. The findings… Continue reading Retaining students in Higher Education

by Dr. Nicola Roberts Despite the use of bystander training in universities in the UK, very little is known about what works in such training. Our article, by Dr Nicola Roberts and Heaven Marsh, ‘A qualitative evaluation of bystander training: What works?’ shows what works. Published with Wiley Open Access here: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hojo.12487, it shows that… Continue reading Bystander training: What works?

Dr. Sarah Lonbay (University of Sunderland) and Dr. John Cavener (Northumbria University) have just published a new study which explored how to teach difficult ‘trauma material’ in the classroom. The study explored social work educators’ and students’ experiences and found that trauma informed principles are implicitly applied within educational activity. Sarah and John suggest a… Continue reading New research published on Enhancing ‘best practice’ in trauma-informed social work education

By Dr. Helen Williams and Dr. Nicola Roberts Dr Helen Williams and Dr Nicola Roberts have published an article based on research into how Criminology students transition to higher education – ‘I just think it’s really awkward’ : transitioning to higher education and the implications for student retention, published with @SpringerNature in the international journal, Higher Education: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-022-00881-1.… Continue reading Transitioning to Higher Education

By Dr. Nicola Roberts The second article from the ‘student safety and campus security’ research has been published by Dr Nicola Roberts on ‘the dark and desolate campus: what can be done to enhance students’ perceptions of safety on-campus’? With Emerald Publishing in the Safer Communities journal: DOI https://doi.org/10.1108/SC-01-2022-0006. The implications of the findings point… Continue reading Student Safety and Campus Security

The Portal Podcast: Bringing Academia to Social Work Practice Dr. Sarah Lonbay and Dr. Lesley Deacon We are delighted to announce that the very episode of ‘The Portal Podcast: Bringing Academia to Social Work Practice’ is now available. When working in frontline practice having the time for, and access to, current research can be difficult.… Continue reading Launch of the Portal Podcast

Dr. Nicola Roberts Further to the blog posted on 1 October 2020, the first article from the ‘student safety and campus security’ research has been published on ‘the makings of an exclusive community: students’ perceptions of dangerous others’, published with @SpringerNature in Higher Education international journal. The implications for HEIs are important! The paper argues… Continue reading The makings of an exclusive community: Students’ perceptions of dangerous others

Exploring the experiential impact of life course events on the psychosocial wellbeing of women at midlife in the UK Jacqui Merchant, Senior Lecturer in Social Policy Jacqui is a senior lecturer in Social Policy in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Sunderland. Jacqui has worked at the university for over 25 years,… Continue reading “The Existential Crunch that is Middle Age”

Dr. Sheila Quaid and Lauren Doyle My current research explores diversity and commonalities in lives of ‘child free’ women or just sometimes it’s more appropriate to say – who do not have children.  The pilot stage is complete, and we are in the process of analysis right now. As PI on this project, I have… Continue reading M/otherhood: Choices, Representations, Experiences and Emotions

The aim of the CASS Working Papers is to advance knowledge and bring about debate in Social Science research and practice. Editor: Dr. Lesley Deacon (Lesley.Deacon@sunderland.ac.uk) Editorial board: Dr Athanasia Chatzifotiou, Dr Matt Durey, Dr Sarah Lonbay, Dr Donna Peacock, Dr Sheila Quaid, Dr Nicola Roberts, Dr Diane Simpson To celebrate five years of the… Continue reading CASS WORKING PAPERS RELAUNCH