Dr Carol Stephenson

Associate Professor

Department: Social Sciences

ADSS Carolstephenson Staffprofile 255 Carol joined the University of Northumbria in 2001 having previously worked at the University of Sunderland. Prior to teaching and researching in Higher Education she worked as a researcher in a wide range of settings; in the National Health Service, in Community Development settings in the West End of Newcastle and in the former mining community of Ashington in Northumberland; within the trade union movement for TUSIU (The Trade Union Studies Information Unit).

Born and brought up in the North East of England in the steel community of Consett, Co. Durham, Carol's research interests and questions are shaped by biographical experience and biographical research strategies have defined her approach to research.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Carol is a sociologist of work with a research interest in post-industrial communities, and gender and class related social deprivation. She is known for her work on the British miners’ strike of 1984-5, its aftermath and the distinctiveness of the gendered experience of that dispute.

She has been at the forefront of pedagogic innovation, public sociology, and publishing in the subdiscipline of the sociologist of work for more than 20 years. In 2014 she was recognised for her innovative approach to teaching and learning in sociology when she was awarded BSA/HEA annual Award for Teaching Excellence

Carol is a founding member of Critical Labour Studies (CLS). CLS is a network of academics, researchers and activists and a set of principles and practices which relate to the co-production of research, public engagement, learning, dissemination and pedagogic innovation. CLS emerged in response to the importance of a public sociology which engages with non-academic groups as co-producers of research and as learners. CLS is now an international network of teachers, academics, researchers, trade unionists and social and political activists which has over 350 members across 15 countries.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Fear and Professionalism on the Front Line: Emotion Management of Residential Care Workers Through the Lens of COVID-19 as a ‘Breaching Experiment’, Pulignano, V., Riemann, M., Stephenson, C., Domecka, M. 3 Oct 2024, Essentiality of Work, Emerald Publishing
Metamodern sensibilities: Toward a pedagogical framework for a wicked world, Bowman, S., Salter, J., Stephenson, C., Humble, D. 3 Jul 2024, In: Teaching in Higher Education
Proximity to anti-fracking protests: public attitudes about disruption and hydraulic-fracturing risks, Palmer, R., Stretesky, P., Stephenson, C., Short, D. 6 Oct 2024, In: Social Movement Studies
‘Go Home, Get a Job, and Pay Some Taxes to Replace a Bit of What You’ve Wasted’: Stigma Power and Solidarity in Response to Anti-Open-Cast Mining Activism in the Coalfields of Rural County Durham, UK, Brock, A., Stephenson, C., Stephens-Griffin, N., Wyatt, T. 1 Jun 2023, In: Sociological Research Online
Graduate Sensibilities: a Metamodern Pedagogical Framework for a Wicked World, Bowman, S., Stephenson, C., Humble, D. 27 Jun 2023, The North East Universities Consortium Three Rivers Conference
Putting a Human Face on it: gender and photographic meaning in a Canadian women’s coal mine campaign, Spence, J., Stephenson, C. 2023, In: International Labor and Working-Class History
Decline or redeployment? The sociology of work in the UK, Stephenson, C., Stewart, P. 1 Nov 2021, In: Nouvelle Revue du Travail
Editorial: “After Industry” the Economic and Social Consequences of Deindustrialization, Warren, J., Stephenson, C., Wistow, J. 18 Mar 2021, In: Frontiers in Sociology
"It Often Feels Like You Are Talking To A Wall”: Police and Private Security Responses To The Protect Pont Valley Campaign Against Opencast Coal Extraction, Stephens-Griffin, N., Lampkin, J., Wyatt, T., Stephenson, C. 1 Jun 2021, In: Critical Criminology
After The Storm: Inter-disciplinary Dialogic Discourses with a Post-Fishing Community, Stephenson, C., MacPherson, F. 30 Jun 2020, In: Frontiers in Sociology

PGR Supervision

Dionne Smith Start Date: 01/10/2018 End Date: 01/04/2020
Catriona Hugman What's the Story? Sociological Explorations of the Life Course Narratives of Adults with Care Experience Start Date: 02/10/2012 End Date: 01/06/2018
Thomas Ryan Finding the Plot: Developing Practical Community Unionism through Critical Labour Psychology Start Date: 06/07/2010 End Date: 27/09/2012
Sarah Lea An Ethnographic Study Exploring the Food Habitus of Families with Children and the Impacts of their Food Environment and Wider Community. Start Date: 21/09/2023
Laura Smith The good enough blind parent: an exploration of how personal assistants impact blind parents when navigating normative parenting ideals Start Date: 01/10/2023

Qualifications

Sociology PhD January 28 2002
Sociology BA January 28 2002
Senior Fellow (SFHEA) Higher Education Academy (HEA) 2017

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