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Thomas Hall

Professor Thomas Hall

Head of School

School of Social Sciences

Overview

As Head of School I have significant responsibilities for the strategic direction and leadership of the School of Social Sciences, shared with senior colleagues. My principal concern, in this role, is to exercise stewardship of the School’s exemplary research reputation and to foster its standing as a center for learning and teaching of the highest quality.

I have been an academic member of the School since it was first established, having come to Cardiff from Cambridge University where my background and training (and doctoral work) was in social anthropology. My research and teaching have been shaped by this upbringing, straddling anthropology, ethnography, the sociology of everyday life and the urban environment. I have researched and written about homelessness over most of the last twenty years, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly; also youth and young people.

I am a member of the British Sociological Association (BSA) and have previously served as the BSA Treasurer and as Editor of the BSA’s flagship journal, Sociology; I am also a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute and a Fellow of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods.

Publication

2023

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2003

2001

Articles

Book sections

Books

Research

My research has included theoretically informed, empirical and ethnographic research in the following fields: homelessness and 'street' populations; spatial practices of urban care and repair; begging, benefits and gifts; youth transitions, biography and locality (including mixed methods work with young people), informal education and citizenship, devolved governance and the third (community) sector. I am also interested in the cultural sociology of urban and social exploration, (pedestrian) mobilities and mobile methods. These various interests converge on, and inform, a primary concern with the street-level experience and management of inequality in urban public space(s). A fieldwork monograph, Footwork, to be published later this year by Pluto Press, brings some of the above together into (I hope) a coherent whole.

Recent funded research has included:

  • Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods (WISERD), a programme of primary research, data integration and capacity building in Wales jointly funded by the ESRC and the Welsh Assembly Government. I have direct responsibility for a research strand within the WISERD programme looking at the development and evaluation of innovative qualitative methods.
  • Locality, Biography and Youth in a Transforming Community. Funded by the ESRC, this project explored the links between locality, community and biography for young people in areas undergoing economic and social transformation. (This project was affiliated to the Cardiff node of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM), Qualitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences: Innovation, Integration and Impact.)Doctoral Supervision I have previously served as the School’s Director of Postgraduate Research, and continue to take a close interest in doctoral studies, supervising individual students across a range of fields and topics. I am always interested to hear from PhD looking to work on topics related to my research interests, beyond which I am happy to support doctoral candidates adopting an ethnographic approach to (almost) any empirical area of study.
Doctoral Supervision

I have previously served as the School’s Director of Postgraduate Research, and continue to take a close interest in doctoral studies, supervising individual students across a range of fields and topics. I am always interested to hear from PhD looking to work on topics related to my research interests, beyond which I am happy to support doctoral candidates adopting an ethnographic approach to (almost) any empirical area of study.

Teaching

I very much enjoy teaching, which I consider a delight and privilege. I have contributed to the School's undergraduate programme at all levels and across different schemes of study over the years, but primarily as a lecturer in sociology and (sometimes) social policy. Recent teaching includes the following modules:

  • Metropolis: Urban Life and Consumer Culture;
  • Ethnography and Everyday Life I have also contributed to taught postgraduate modules, including the MSc/Diploma in Social Science Research Methods, and to higher degree supervision.

I have also contributed to taught postgraduate modules, including the MSc/Diploma in Social Science Research Methods, and to higher degree supervision.