Head of SoSS Claire Alexander receives Distinguished Service to British Sociology award
Professor Claire Alexander accepted her award at the British Sociological Association (BSA) annual conference.
Claire Alexander, Head of SoSS and Professor of Social Sciences, received the annual Distinguished Service to British Sociology Award from the BSA at its annual conference held at the University on 23-25 April 2025.
The is judged on service to British sociology and was given to Claire for her outstanding contributions to the discipline and extraordinary life as a sociologist, having researched and published on race, ethnicity, youth and migration in the UK for over thirty years.
Claire鈥檚 work has been centrally concerned with understanding and challenging racial and ethnic inequalities in Britain, and she has been researching Black and Asian youth identities in Britain for over 25 years, from an ethnographic perspective.
In 2024, she completed , in which she re-interviewed the original participants of her 'Asian Gang' (2000) research, 15 years after the original ethnography.
Claire is also a member of the and a trustee of the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Active Communities Network.
The conference celebrated the work of sociology and its positive influence on individual lives and social transformations, exploring the nature of and responses to local and global challenges and changes. It was attended by leading scholars who are passionate about understanding and influencing social change.
On receiving the award, Claire said:
I am proud and thankful to have been awarded this honour by the BSA. As one of many academic misfits, with a tendency to ask difficult questions in unconventional ways, Sociology for me has been a place of refuge and a space in which to thrive and from which to challenge. In these difficult times, globally and institutionally across the sector, this is something to defend and cherish.