About the Centre

We are living in interesting and challenging times – times of great change both nationally and internationally. The University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Research in the Social Sciences is at the forefront of research into the social forces and political processes shaping contemporary lives. CRISS includes a substantial body of new and established scholars with research interests in aspects of diversity and citizenship, including faith, ethnicity and nationalism, gender and sexuality, youth and aging and health and wellbeing. Located in West Yorkshire, the Centre is strategically well placed to explore the interconnections between the global and the local and their implications for communities.

We approach social and political change in different, but complementary ways with an emphasis on inter-disciplinarity and rigorous conceptual analysis. Moreover, we are committed to informing and influencing public issues and the production of research that is useful to a variety of citizens, notably service users and providers. This enables us to provide research-led and critically relevant teaching to undergraduate and postgraduate students across the social sciences.

Research Groups

CRISS brings together a range of research interests, structured around the following themes:

Age and the life course (McMahon, Reeves, Wray)
Citizenship (Evans, Gifford, Gill, Hayton, McGlynn, Monro, Mycock, Smith)
Crime (McMahon, Reeves, Whitehead)
Education (Gibbs, Gifford, McGlynn, McMahon, Woodcock)
Ethnicity (Clarke, Gill, McAuley, Monro, Wray)
Gender and sexuality (Bryson, Gill, Hearn, Locke, McMahon, Monro, Reeves, Whitehead, Woodiwiss, Wray, Yeadon-Lee)
Health and Wellbeing (Woodiwiss, Wray)
Identity (Butt, Cameron, Gibbs, Locke, McGlynn, McMahon, Mycock, Wilde, Woodiwiss, Yeadon-Lee)
Interpersonal Violence (Clarke, Reeves, Woodiwiss)
Nationalism (Gifford, McAuley, Mycock, Smith)

The concept of intersectionality, in which social characteristics are seen as routed through each other, combining in particular ways depending on context, is a useful one in bringing together these research concerns.

The Academy for the Study of Britishness, The Institute for Health Citizenship, and the Applied Criminology Centre also share some of the interests listed above.

Aims of the Centre

To promote interdisciplinary research of national and international relevance to the Social Sciences
To foster the development of knowledge which is conceptually at the cutting edge, ensuring that this is of immediate and longer term pertinence to user communities
To facilitate greater understanding of the relationships between social characteristics such as nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and age, as well as the ways in which these are structured by broader social and political forces

The RAE and the REF

CRISS actively engages with the RAE and the REF. A substantial number of academics who are now Centre members contributed to the 2008 RAE submission, including Bryson, Evans, Gibbs, Gifford, McAuley, Mycock, Woodiwiss, and Wray.

Research Students and Research Studentships

Information about current PhD projects being undertaken in the Centre.

We encourage PhD applications - both full and part-time – in our areas of interest. Current and completed PhD studentships in the Centre reflect the major themes of gender, sexuality, life course, citizenship, and identity.

Information for prospective politics postgraduates

Research Office