
Professor Esther Dermott
B.A.(Cantab.), M.Sc.(Edin.), Ph.D.(Essex), PGCHE (Bristol)
Expertise
Current positions
Faculty Pro Vice-Chancellor
Senior Team
Contact
Press and media
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Research interests
Professor Esther Dermott research focuses on families, parenting, and inequalities, across sociology and social policy. She is currently PVC and Executive Dean for Arts, Law and Social Sciences.
Esther is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Higher Education Academy. She is Editor-in-Chief of Families, Relationships and Societies, and Founding Editor of the book series Sociology of Children and Families.
Her current areas of research are on: caring practices in the digital home (ESRC - Centre for Sociodigital Futures); the experiences of separating families (Nuffield); the relationship between resources and parenting practices (ESRC - Centre on Micro-Social Change); the experiences of Syrian refugee fathers in Britain and Sweden (British Academy); and the concept of good parenting.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
ESRC Centre for Sociodigital Futures
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/05/2022 to 30/04/2027
Being a father and a refugee
Principal Investigator
Description
The on-going Syrian war has led to an unprecedented increase in families seeking refuge in Western Europe. Once given permission to stay, families encounter different settlement and ‘integration’ processes as…Managing organisational unit
School for Policy StudiesDates
01/10/2018 to 01/04/2020
Conversations with Fathers
Principal Investigator
Role
Co-Investigator
Description
The project will co-produce a resource to help men ‘live well’ as fathers. This is in response to a need to extend the repertoire of fathering practices men are…Managing organisational unit
Bristol Medical School (PHS)Dates
09/05/2016 to 09/05/2017
Parenting Practices in Japan: Definition, Measurement and Relationships
Principal Investigator
Description
JSPS International Invitational FellowshipManaging organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/09/2014 to 31/12/2014
UK-Japan Comparisons on Intimacy in the Public Sphere
Principal Investigator
Description
Sasagawa funded workshops in Kyoto and TokyoManaging organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/04/2014 to 30/04/2014
Thesis supervisions
Doing Justice to Justice-Apt Care
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
29/11/2022Separating families
Separating families
Being a father and a refugee
Men and Welfare
Intimate Fatherhood
Intimate Fatherhood
Displaying Families: a new concept for the sociology of family life
Displaying Families: a new concept for the sociology of family life
What's parenthood got to do with it?: men's hours of paid work
British Journal of Sociology
Recent publications
01/01/2024Syrian Refugee Dads in the UK: Gendered Practices of 'Involvement'
Caring Fathers in the Global Context
Families, relationships and technology
Families, Relationships and Societies
Good normative parenting
Journal of Family Studies
Maternal and paternal depressive symptoms and parental vocalisation behaviours in infancy: findings from UK-based birth cohort
Frontiers in Child And Adolescent Psychiatry
Maternal postnatal depressive symptoms and offspring emotional and behavioral development at age 7 years in a U.K. birth cohort
Developmental Psychology