Program Overview

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Research profile

The Sociology and Communications group is a dynamic, international and globally respected community of researchers. Members are at the forefront of study into subjects as diverse as globalisation and social transformation, political communication, communication and social change; gender and sexuality, the body, human-animal studies, the senses and embodiment, race and ethnicity, the environment, urban space and cities, digital cultures, public communication, young people, rights and the global south; popular culture, comedy/humour studies, experimental multi-media, and sports studies.

Join an expert interdisciplinary community that publishes innovative and world-leading research addressing contemporary concerns and emerging social and cultural challenges.

Be part of a thriving research culture where researchers have received regular grants from the AHRC, ESRC and British Academy.

Benefit from our excellent multi-Supervisory teams to support your postgraduate study.

Enjoy being part of a collegial and active research environment.

Find out about the exciting research we do in this area. Browse profiles of our experts, discover the research groups and their inspirational research activities you too could be part of. We’ve also made available extensive reading materials published by our academics and PhD students.

Learn more about research in Sociology and Communications and Media Studies.

While we welcome a wide range of topics in the areas of Sociology & Communications, here is an example list of potential research topics that we would like to supervise:

Digital antagonism, exclusions and discrimination

Environmental Communication

Popular communications and Social change

Public sphere, deliberative democracy and free speech

Public space and protest movements

Surveillance and algorithmic profiling

Creative industries, inequality and diversity

Comedy, Identity and Society

Intersectional Veganisms

Transgenderism and ‘Transracialism’

Reality Television and Ethnic Minority Girls

Cities, urban change and place

Sensory Sociology

Culture, Space, Time and Cities

Political economy of communication/media

The digital revolution and social change

The rise of the far-right and neo-fascism

Radical social movements, the precariat and digital labour

Democratisation and the clash of civilisations

World-systems analysis

Anarchist social thought

Emergent Digital Media Technologies

Film & Media History

Globalisation and youth activism

Children and international development

Globalisation of education

Science and society

Urban Space and Experience

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Browse the work of subject-relevant research groups

Comedy Studies

Contemporary Writing

AI Social and Digital Innovation

Global Lives

Institute of Health, Medicine and Environments

Institute of Communities and Society

Living avatars

Open data analysis in social and political science

Health and Wellbeing Across the Lifecourse

Sustainable Plastics

South Asia Studies

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