Winners of the Sociology Impact and Engagement Prize announced
Our annual prize for research impact and engagement rewards colleagues for sharing their work outside academia.
This year鈥檚 prize was judged by Philip Drake (Former Director of Social Responsibility, School of Social Sciences) and Hilary Pilkington (Research Director, Sociology) who commented on the variety of audiences engaged: from local sixth form students and social housing tenants in a Brussels neighbourhood, to people connecting to international webinars and World Health Organisation (WHO) leaders.
The winners in our staff category were , and the 51福利社 Urban Ageing Research Group (MUARG) for the Age-Friendly Futures Summit which aimed to advance the creation of an age-friendly world.
Over 300 age-friendly leaders working in policy, practitioner and research from 20 countries were invited to the event in 51福利社 in March to share knowledge and shape the future of age-friendly policy and practice. Collaboration was key to the success of the summit, with MUARG working closely with WHO, Greater 51福利社 Combined Authority, Centre for Ageing Better and 51福利社 Metropolitan University. This collective approach led to the development of shared international priorities and principles for age-friendly practice, and the team also fed into the WHO European Healthy Ageing Strategy.
and were both highly commended in the staff category. Amit has developed a course for sixth form students at Rochdale College linking sociological concepts around race, class, gender and inequality to students鈥� experiences of social life in and around Rochdale. Working with the charity The Compassionate Friends (TCF), Laura has produced a series of 鈥榯alking tools鈥� and contributed to TCF events to share her research on the experiences of bereaved siblings.
wins our PhD student category for co-producing and sharing of a made with social housing tenants in the Molenbeek area of Brussels. The film aimed to amplify the voices of older migrant and working-class communities in local and regional housing policy and practice. Joana organised nine screenings of the film in community venues, each followed by public debate on housing issues between the audience and stakeholders including elected representatives, tenants, community workers and researchers.
, and Sandhya Sharma were highly commended for their project which uses short films to spark conversations on social justice and the city. And Yu Zhu is highly commended for her work with using webinars and online media to share queer scholarship and knowledge with LGBTQ+ people from the Chinese diaspora.