
Professor Susan Halford
BA, MA, PhD
Current positions
Professor of Sociology
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
Originally trained as a Geographer, Susan Halford is Professor of Sociology and has worked across the social and engineering sciences for the past 15 years. She is co-Director of the ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures and was co-Director of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute from 2019-2022.
Susan's present research focusses on the politics and practices of digital data, artefacts and expertise, with specific attention to the processes of creating and intervening in emergent sociodigital futures. She has published key interventions on the Semantic Web, social media analytics and big data practices. She is also well-known for her work as an organizational sociologist, in which she has explored the dynamics of organizational change with particular reference to gender identities, to ageing and - linking both - to the intrasectionalities of digital technologies in everyday practice across diverse workplaces.
After a decade of interdisciplinary education and research in Web Science at the University of Southampton, Susan joined the University of Bristol in 2019 and became founding co-Director (with Dimitra Simeonidou) for the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. In 2021 she co-led (with Dale Southerton) a successful bid for an ESRC Centre in Sociodgital Futures. Susan sits on a number of strategic and advisory boards, including the EPSRC ICT Strategic Advisory Team, the UK Biobank Ethics Advisory Group and is Chair of the ESRC New and Emerging Forms of Data Strategic Advisory Group. Susan was President of the British Sociological Association 2018-21.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/05/2022 to 30/04/2027
Critical Human Security and Public Policy Challenges in a Post-Covid World: UK and South Korea
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
This ESRC funded project brings together a multidisciplinary team of researchers from the UK and South Korea to contribute to the development of a body of knowledge, academic exchange and…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/02/2022 to 31/08/2023
Critical Human Security and Sustainable Public Policy in a post-Covid World: UK and South Korea
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/02/2022 to 31/07/2023
8119 ES/V012177/1 ESRC Post Doc Fellowship, Jessica Ogden - The Social Life of Web Archives
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/10/2020 to 31/03/2022
8119 Liverpool Victoria collaboration
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/07/2020 to 31/08/2023
Publications
Recent publications
24/10/2024Research on sociodigital futures: claims and affordances in evidence
Explaining Machine Learning Practice
Information, Communication & Society
Semantic Web Practices
Science, Technology and Human Values
Sociodigital Futures?
Sociologia Italiana : AIS Journal of Sociology
What Future for the Sociology of Futures? Visions, Concepts and Methods
Sociology