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In This Section
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Find a PhD Supervisor

Professor Lisa Smyth

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work
Lanyon

Professor Lisa Smyth

School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work

Professor Smyth's research focuses on norms, emotions and social change. She is currently working on social change in Ireland, focusing on solidarity in the context of a moral revolution.

Her previous book, The Demands of Motherhood: Agents, Roles and Recognition (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), examined agency and normative complexity. She has also published on the gendered national politics underpinning the abortion conflict in Ireland; the social politics of breastfeeding; sex education; and the significance of motherhood in social change in Belfast.

Contact info

  • l.smyth@qub.ac.uk
  • +44 (0)28 9097 3251

Research Interests

Open to PhD applications in the field of

  • Social role analysis in relation to gendered family life 
  • Studies of the emotional quality of social politics, including abortion, breastfeeding, and motherhood
  • Interactionist analyses of emotions, roles and social change.

Make a PhD enquiry


Public outreach & key achievements

  • BBC Radio 4, Thinking Allowed: Maternal Situations: Sectarianism and Civility in a Divided City
  • My work has led to new ways of thinking about agency/structure tensions in everyday social life, through a
    focus on normative complexity, interpretation and social esteem.

Research students

PhD Title Narratives of persistent poverty: The case of lone mothers in Northern Ireland
Name Bronagh Boyle
Country Northern Ireland
   
PhD Title  Gender and Career Progression in India’s IT Sector: Experiences and Perceptions of Women Employees
Name Gerard Gallagher
Country India
   

 


Alumni: Where are they now

PhD Title 'A different kind of girl': young women's experiences of growing up and 'coming out' in Northern Ireland.
Name Gail Neil
Year of Study 2013 - 2017
Country  Northern Ireland 
Current Position Lecturer in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences at Ulster University
   
PhD Title Abortion and Northern Ireland 1921-2002
Name  Mark Benson
Year of Study 2013 - 2017
Country Northern Ireland
Current Position AHRC Creative Economy Engagement Research Fellow, School of History, Anthropology, Politics and Philosophy, Queen’s University Belfast
   
PhD Title Early Motherhood and the Transition to Adulthood: Discourses of Youth and the Struggle for Authority
Name Jennifer McIlwaine
Year of Study 2008 - 2013
Country Northern Ireland
Current Position Corporate Services Officer, Controlled Schools Support Council

 

 


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  • School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work 


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20 College Green
Belfast
Northern Ireland
BT7 1LN

E-mail: ssesw@qub.ac.uk

Tel:+44 (0)28 9097 5941

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