Winners of the Sociology Public Engagement Prize announced

Sociology public engagement prize winners announced

Dharmi Kapadia (with Jingwen Zhang and James Nazroo) won the staff category for her influential report which uncovered stark ethnic inequalities in healthcare. Commissioned by the NHS Race and Health Observatory the report was covered widely in national media and has received attention from policymakers in the UK and internationally.

Luke Yates, and Patsy Irizar were highly commended in the staff category. Luke’s research explores the impact of short-term rentals, such as AirBnb, on local neighbourhoods. After writing an Ethical Consumer report to share his findings he engaged with policymakers and residents, also creating the Action on Short Term Lets campaign platform. Patsy’s research uses innovative quantitative methods to investigate ethnic inequities in COVID-19 outcomes: she was commended for engaging with the World Health Organisation to share her data and her methodological expertise with colleagues in other countries.

Ernestina Zhu won the PhD student category for sharing her research on NFTs and the Metaverse through WeChat, podcasts and blogs.

Christopher R Fardan and David Dobson (with James Fletcher and Maohui Deng) were highly commended in the student category. Christopher worked with the Norwegian government’s Commission on Extremism to share his research on right-wing extremism as well as writing articles for the Norwegian press. David conducted exploratory research into what makes events ‘dementia-friendly’ before piloting a dementia café with partner Bolton Octagon.

The prize was judged by Hilary Pilkington (Research Director, Sociology) and Philip Drake (Director of Social Responsibility, SoSS). Both commented on the strength of the field, saying:

‘Sociology as a department has an excellent reputation for research and this is evidence that colleagues – staff and postgraduate students alike – are equally skilled in engaging communities outside academia with their research. It is especially impressive to see the range of activities colleagues are involved in: from advising housing campaigners in Moss Side to advising the WHO and regional and national governments; from trailblazing podcasts to inspiring workshops and ‘dementia friendly’ events.’