BA (Hons) Sociology & Criminology

Core units:

• Introduction to Social Theory: You’ll be introduced to key social theory that has informed classical and contemporary sociology, anthropology and criminology, and is embedded in the historical and philosophical context of the analysis of Western society and its social forms.
• Media, Power & Social Order: This unit offers a broad introduction to social scientific approaches and methodological issues in research. You will be introduced to the parameters and scope of social scientific enquiry, focusing on the relationship of individuals to society, explored using published examples, including those carried out by BU researchers. Various approaches will be examined and practised with a view to you gaining the ability to develop your own social scientific research.
• Social Research Skills: This unit aims to help you transition from school or college to university-style work and the skills needed to achieve at university. You will use the skills learnt in lectures to carry out a small group project. 
• Introduction to Criminological Theory: You'll be introduced to key sociological, psychological and criminological theory that has informed classical and contemporary criminology. You'll engage with key criminological thinkers and perspectives. Theories will be evaluated within historical and contemporary social constructs and students will consider the role of structure and agency with regards to criminality and deviance.
• Social Inequality & Exclusion: Explore the nature, lived experience, impact and possible causes of discrimination, inequality and social exclusion, using sociological, criminological and anthropological approaches. You’ll apply relevant sociological, criminological and anthropological enquiry to explore social exclusion, community cohesion, inequality, discrimination, marginalisation and oppression, together with an understanding of how this might be addressed and tackled.
• Crime & the Criminal Justice System: You’ll explore the concepts of crime, the discipline and study of criminology and the structure and responsibilities of the key agencies within the criminal justice system, especially in the United Kingdom (UK), but with scope for international comparison of approaches to crime, policing, criminal justice and penology in developed and less developed societies. Considering specific case studies will allow you to reflect on differing approaches to addressing these fields of crime through policing and punishment.

Core units

Students are required to complete all 4 core units including either Quantitative Skills or Doing Ethnographic Research as a core unit, and choose 2 option units. Option units will run if selected by a minimum of 10 students. Some combinations of optional units may not be available depending on the semester of delivery and timetable configurations.

Core units:

• Qualitative Research Skills: You will be equipped with knowledge and skills to enable you to carry out entry level qualitative research and analyse the qualitative research of others. The unit will assist you in your preparation for your final year dissertation.
• Contemporary Social Theory: Introducing social theory that informs contemporary sociology, criminology and anthropology, you’ll explore theories embedded in the contemporary and philosophical context of Western society and its social forms.
• Borders, Migration and Human Trafficking​: You’ll consider the relationship between human trafficking, migration and criminality by looking at the different types of human trafficking that exist both locally and globally. You will explore human rights’ issues and develop critical skills in understanding the links between migration, human trafficking and organised crime.

Core or option:

• Quantitative Skills: You will develop your understanding and evaluation of a range of quantitative methods and the underlying philosophical and ethical principles of their application within social science research. This unit will assist you in your preparation for your final year dissertation.
• Doing Ethnographic Research in the Social Sciences: You will gain experience of designing and undertaking an ethnographic research project in the Bournemouth area, investigating sociological and anthropological research questions and critically reflecting on the benefits and challenges of qualitative research. The skills and experience developed from this unit will assist you in your preparation for the primary research you may wish to carry out as part of your final year dissertation. You will also have the opportunity to present your research findings at BU’s annual Student Undergraduate Research Conference.

Option units:

• Victims of Crime: Examine the various forms of crime, particularly criminal acts within relationships, as well as sex offending and sex work. Alongside the established ‘legal’ definitions of crime, you’ll also explore the broader concept of social harm and related theoretical frameworks such as zemiology, environmental criminology and risk society. Consider the obvious and less obvious ‘costs’ and impact of crime and harm on individuals, on communities and on society at large, as well as the role and impact of the media on social attitudes and stereotypes, which might determine how we perceive crime and harm.
• Policing & Society: This unit considers the institution of the police and the social practice of policing society. It will cover the colonial origins of policing and the introduction of the Metropolitan police in London in 1829, as well as key events. You will also explore the creation and maintenance of 'police culture', the policing of protest and address contemporary issues around technology and media.
• Youth Crime, Gangs & Youth Justice: This unit explores the specific context of youth offending within the wider context of on-road subculture and gang involvement. You will gain a broad understanding of the context around youth offending and criminality, as well as the policing and punishment of youth crime. On-road subculture will be explored using examples such as involvement in the drug trade, drug transportation (county lines), and the criminalisation of grime music.
• Globalisation, Justice and Global Instabilities: Globalisation is a concept that refers to economic, political and technological forms of global interdependence and alignment in today’s world. In this unit you’ll explore the debates about globalisation within sociology and associated social science disciplines.
• Public Health & Crime: Discover the rich and complex findings of social science in the sphere of health and how it relates to crime. You will investigate the sophisticated inter-relation between these fundamental concepts, and how their relationship continues to change.
• Culture & Conflict: This unit explores and develops a critical and theoretically informed understanding of the extent to which the concept of ‘culture’ can be applied for explaining when and why people associated with different cultures come into conflict with the law. Topics include 'legal parallelism', ''subculture' and 'gang culture' in criminal proceedings, 'cultural defence', 'cultural evidence', 'cultural expertise' in court, 'culturalism', the crime of 'culturicide', and much more.
• Growing Up and Growing Old: This unit explores sociological and anthropological perspectives and theories of childhood, youth and aging. You will examine the variety, changes, and categories of the life course and the impacts of these constructions on people’s experiences of growing up and growing old.
• Placement Learning unit: You will have the opportunity to develop your graduate employability and career management capabilities by studying and experiencing an area of work relevant to your academic and professional interest in sociology and/or criminology and its relationship to wider society through participation in a 20-day or 150 hours placement-based learning unit.
• Criminological Psychology: Develop your understanding of the contribution of psychology to issues relating to crime and criminal justice. You’ll be introduced to a range of theoretical perspectives on offending behaviour, drawing from cognitive, developmental, social and biological psychology. The unit will explore aspects related to criminal investigation and detection, such as offender profiling, eye-witness testimony, police interviewing and false confessions. It will also consider the psychological impacts of crime, through exploring issues such as fear of crime and the psychology of victimisation.  
• The Sociology of AI: The aim of this unit is to explore whether the widespread use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) perpetuates social inequalities and creates new ones using sociological evidence. You will gain a broad understanding of how everyday use of AI shapes how you think and behave, and the unit will also offer a global perspective on how AI is shaping society by looking at international businesses utilising and developing AI today.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

You can opt to take a longer sandwich placement (30 weeks) for the third year of an extended four year degree.  This gives you the chance to gain experience and make contacts for the future.

Whether you choose the three- or four-year option, you will complete the following units in your final year.

Core units

• Dissertation: The dissertation provides you with an opportunity to demonstrate your intellectual, analytic and creative abilities through sustained independent work. Specifically, it aims to provide an opportunity for critical in-depth review of the research literature within the broad parameters of sociology and/or criminology, and to enable students to apply this knowledge in the development of a research proposal.
• Politics & Ideology: To improve, change and transform the situations and lives of individuals and communities, it may be necessary to influence government and decision makers in order to seek positive change. Therefore, this unit will provide you with an understanding of politics, political processes and the ideologies that may be key drivers in the development of policy and governance at the local, societal and global level.
• Terrorism, Protection & Society: You’ll be introduced to many of the complex issues involved in conceptualising and responding to terrorism and protection in contemporary societies. You’ll explore protection and counter-terrorism as a form of social regulation and will consider ways in which society is ordered in an age of terrorist threat, and how this impacts on social life.

Option units (choose two):

• Drugs, Crime & Society: Examines the phenomenon of illicit drug use and drug supply within the UK and internationally. It critically evaluates policing and policy regimes that have attempted to reduce the availability and consumption of drugs, whilst considering possible alternatives. The module explores theoretical explanations around drugs and drug addiction and considers the benefits of harm reduction and treatment programmes.
• Seekers, Believers and Iconoclasts: Sociology of Thought: Explore belief systems as a sociological phenomenon contextualised within a cultural and social analysis, as well as a philosophical and historical one. You’ll also consider belief systems as phenomena subjects to social change and transformation in terms of influencing social structures, interactions and shared or diverse social understandings, influencing societies in transition.
• ‘Troubling’ Gender: This unit will explore gender as socially constructed and historically variable aspect of societies, past and present. It will examine the ways in which gender informs social structures, inequalities, and analyse the interrelationships between gender and other social categories (e.g., class, sexuality, race, ethnicity, religion, and nationality).
• Crime and Criminal Justice in the 21st Century: Build on your understanding of how crime is differentially defined within different sociological traditions, its possible causes, and how crime and criminal acts can impact on individuals, communities and societies. You’ll consider how crime can be addressed and whether wider policy changes in education, mental health, and drug policy can make a difference.
• Intersectional Criminology: This unit will introduce you to the intersecting relations of crime between different social groups. You’ll critically explore the social construction of crime by looking at the media and the creation and construction of divergent images, identities and attitudes towards different social groups, together with social policies and laws relating to crime and victimisation. You’ll consider the representation of marginalised communities within the criminal justice system and the contribution of intersectionality to criminological research.

• Capitalism’s crimes, contracts, and crises. Decolonial perspectives in the social sciences: This unit will introduce you to decolonial perspectives in sociology, social anthropology, and criminology. You will be encouraged to question and deepen your understanding of the world, including looking at the origins of capitalism in colonial slavery, the social and environmental impacts of global supply chains and tax havens, the links between racism and class divisions, climate change and fossil fuel capitalism.

• Sport and Leisure Cultures: Critical Perspectives: You will critically explore the socio-cultural, political and economic aspects of sport and leisure. This unit will analyse many societal concepts, including discrimination, exclusion, inequality, social justice, and theories of the body, gender, class, race, sexuality, agency and globalisation, as well as considering specific contexts such as physical education, football, Olympic and Paralympic Games, Gay Games, and gym culture.

• Health, Wellbeing & Society: Health pervades all aspects of human experience and is defined by the World Health Organisation as “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being" and not solely the absence of illness. However, at the global, national and community levels there are inequalities in how long we live, how healthy we are in older age, the types of illnesses we develop across the life course, and the healthcare we receive. You will critically explore the social context of health and illness and contrast this with the dominant bio-medical perspective of health and illness.

• Criminology of Organisations: This unit will introduce you to organisational crime and how this type of crime is currently being policed and regulated through means of law and social control. You’ll explore critically, the reasons why only a small percentage of this type of crime is prosecuted and adjudicated by the criminal justice system.

• Prisons & Punishment: This unit takes a historical and theoretical approach to punishment, to gain a critical understanding of conceptualisations of and rationalisations for punishment. The unit aims to provide an understanding of the current issues within the penal system in England and Wales, whilst critically thinking through alternatives.

Please note that option units require minimum numbers in order to run and may only be available on a semester by semester basis. They may also change from year to year.

Programme specifications provide definitive records of the University's taught degrees in line with Quality Assurance Agency requirements. Every taught course leading to a BU Award has a programme specification which describes its aims, structure, content and learning outcomes, plus the teaching, learning and assessment methods used.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the programme specification, the information is liable to change to take advantage of exciting new approaches to teaching and learning as well as developments in industry.

If you have been unable to locate the programme specification for the course you are interested in, it will be available as soon as the latest version is ready. Alternatively please contact us for assistance.

Our students have previously worked for:

• Government Social Research sandwich placement
• Microsoft Marketing Internship
• Amazon Research Internship
• Dorset Police
• 999 Call Centre
• Change Grow Live
• The YMCA
• Longmead Community Farm
• Hampshire County Council in the Insight and Engagement Team
• National Probation Service
• Nationwide Building Society as a Risk Analyst
• House of Fraser, as a Training Support Administrator
• SCA (Social Care Agency Social Enterprise, Hampshire)
• Monkton Wyld (an education centre for sustainable living)
• Insight & Engagement Team, Hampshire County Council
• Bournemouth Foodbank
• Bournemouth Churches Housing Association (BCHA)
• Citizens Advice, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
• Footprints Project (supporting men and women leaving prison)
• Primary, secondary and SEN schools
• Universiti Sains Malaysia, partner university
• NGOs in Malaysia (the Peace Learning Centre, House of Hope)

This course provides the opportunity to undertake a 20-day placement as an optional unit in your second year, or to complete a minimum 30-week placement in-between your second and final year studies to be eligible for a sandwich award. We provide you with support to help you achieve a rewarding and satisfying placement. 

The faculty running your course will offer the support of a Placement Co-ordinator.   

Through timetabled sessions and one-to-one appointments, they’ll help support you in your placement search including advice on finding a placement, information and advice on all aspects of job searching and job applications, as well as ensuring your proposed placement meets the requirements of your course.    

Our CareersBU service is also available throughout your time at BU, offering services like CV checking and careers fairs to meet employers.  

Placement Development Advisors will support you once you have started your sandwich placement – so you will be able to maintain contact with the university throughout.  

AccessBU: AccessBU provides you with the opportunity to tell us about your circumstances that are not always evident in your UCAS application. This widening access initiative also considers relevant criteria such as being in care or if you live in an area with a low participation rate in Higher Education - if you are eligible, your offer could be up to 16 UCAS tariff points below the published tariff.

Apprenticeships: We recognise the transferable knowledge and skills gained through apprenticeships and welcome applications from students with a Level 3 Advanced Apprenticeship recognised by the Institute for Apprenticeships. Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Deferred entry: We are happy to consider eligible applicants for deferred entry. If you have already submitted your application, please submit your deferral request through our website.

Direct entry: We welcome applications from students who have previously studied at degree level at other institutions and wish to transfer onto a BU course. Our Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) procedure enables credit awarded from one institution to contribute to a BU award, subject to an application process. Please visit our RPL webpage for more information.

Mature applicants: We recognise that mature applicants may have a wealth of experience rather than formal qualifications, so we’ll consider your application on these merits if included in your application. You’ll need to apply to BU in the usual way through UCAS and you may be invited to an interview to discuss your suitability for the course based on the experience you tell us about in your application.

As a student, you will be required to use your IT skills to utilise the web-based resources that are designed to support your study, write assessments, perform literature searches and create presentations.

We select candidates for this course by looking at your application; there are usually no interviews or selection activities needed. For that reason, make sure your application really stands out from the crowd, and leave us in no doubt as to why you should be joining BU. You can find some handy hints about filling in your UCAS form on our how to apply web pages.

We look at individual applications and make a tailored offer based on your potential to succeed on the course considering a range of factors, including your academic achievements, work and other experience, reference and personal statement, and in some cases, your performance at an interview or a portfolio review. Typically, we make an offer at the bottom of the tariff range.

If you are unable to meet the entry requirements, we may be able to make you an offer through AccessBU if you meet certain criteria e.g. you have been in care or live in an area where fewer people typically progress to Higher Education. If you don't meet our published tariff, we will accept you at least 8 points below if your personal circumstances match our AccessBU criteria. 

Our offer-making will typically be based on your most recent qualifications, including any required subjects where applicable. We'll consider all qualifications when assessing your application, although these may not be part of our offer.

If you do not meet the criteria of your original offer, we may still offer you a place. We will review your whole application and consider all academic qualifications (including those not in the offer) to see if you have the academic potential to succeed on the course. If we feel the answer is yes, we will confirm your place.

Among the sectors our graduates are working in are:

• Government and civil service
• Social services
• Criminal justice
• Community work
• Police
• Prisons
• Education
• Probation service
• Counselling charities and the voluntary sector
• International development and aid
• Marketing and policy research
• Corporate management
• Journalism and media.

Once you have completed an undergraduate Honours degree, you can further develop your education by studying for a postgraduate degree. For example, there is the possibility to develop your undergraduate research into a Master of Research with us.

Please visit our Postgraduate section for further details about our range of Master’s degrees.

What’s included in your tuition fee?

Your tuition fee covers expenses associated with your course including tuition materials, access to facilities, mandatory field trips and the following:

• Materials for laboratory and mandatory field-based teaching activity
• Support for finding placements (UK or abroad) and fieldwork, and non-financial support whilst on placement if this is part of your course of study
• A range of student services – advisors, help desks, counsellors, placement support and careers service
• The Library – access to a wide range of electronic resources (databases, e-journals and e-books), print and multimedia collections, subject librarians and study spaces
• Access to Brightspace, our virtual learning environment, which offers a responsive and personalised learning experience with powerful learning analytics capabilities, integrated social media and advanced video features
• IT labs (some open 24/7), wireless network, AV equipment to borrow
• Free software download to your personal device of Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus while you are studying, as well as access to applications provided on AppsAnywhere, subject to licensing and compatibility restrictions
• Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) scheme
• Disability and additional learning support, according to individual circumstances 
• The BU Language Centre to help you develop/improve foreign or English language skills
• 24 hours a day, 365 days a year security team.

Additional costs

We are committed to offering you value for money and ensuring there are no hidden costs while you are studying with us, therefore we have listed below any additional costs you may incur that are not covered by your tuition fee:

For September 2024 entry:

• Laptops, tablets and mobile devices and any software used on personal devices. Access to a personal computer is strongly recommended for your study. If you are experiencing financial difficulty, visit our website for information regarding hardship funds.
• Textbooks, general stationery and other supplies. Our award-winning library is stocked with a large range of textbooks and online resources, free of charge. The Students’ Union shop stocks a wide range of stationery supplies.
• Accommodation and living costs. Our accommodation price guide can be found on our website. 
• Travel costs to and from the University campus. An annual bus pass is included in your rent if you are living in halls of residence/Unilet accommodation or may be purchased separately.
• Travel costs to and from your placement (both in the UK and overseas). Information about funding your placement year can be found on our website.
• You will need to meet the cost of any Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check if required by your placement setting, including any Post Office verification changes. 
• Clothing or equipment costs required for your placement if this is part of your course of study.
• SportBU membership.

If you need to repeat one or more units during your studies (with or without attendance) the pricing will be pro-rata of the full-time fee.

Adrian is a former Associate Dean for post-graduate research and a Head of Criminology and Forensic science. He has worked in British universities since 2002 and has successfully supervised and examined a number of PhDs as well as numerous MSc dissertations. Beyond academia, Adrian has held a number of research-related roles, including working for the Ministry of Justice looking at ethnicity in prisons, being part of a Home Office study on drug users and the criminal justice system, and working with local authorities on multi-agency training for working with domestic abuse survivors.

Stephanie studied social anthropology and Balkan studies at Free University Berlin, conducting her first ethnography in Albania in 1992, when the country had only just emerged from isolation and state socialism.

Stephanie became fascinated with the translocal evocations of local pasts in the rapidly, often violently, changing period of post-socialist transition. Social actors mobilised these pasts to construct new identities and social statuses and to negotiate conflicts over scarce resources. From 2000, Stephanie extended her research to the politics of memory and identity in post-war Kosovo.

From 1997 to 2003, Stephanie served as the first Nash Fellow for Albanian Studies at SSEES, UCL. Subsequently, she worked as an independent academic consultant with international agencies including the OSCE, World Bank, NATO, IOM and the ICTY. Stephanie was also called upon as an academic expert by police and social services, the Crown Court and immigration tribunals in the UK in cases involving blood feuds, homicide, war rape, trafficking, ethnic and sexual minorities and migrant family conflicts. This work sharpened her interests in applied anthropology, ethics and the relation between local and global culturist representations and their impact on social realities in practice.

Stephanie’s current research investigates local responses to the international paradigms of peace-building and state-building in post-war Kosovo. She explores how pre-war and war experiences in Kosovo are symbolically and ritually codified and transmitted through the generations; how these cultural reproductions underpin private and public memory, emotions, ideals and perceptions in the present; and who contests these.

Stephanie joined Bournemouth University in autumn 2013. She teaches undergraduate units on gender, childhood and youth, the life course, kinship and family. 

Before joining Bournemouth University, Richard was a Police Sergeant in West Yorkshire Police, where he served for 28 years.

He is a Fulbright Scholar (University of Cincinnati, 2012) and in 2014 he was Visiting Bramshill Scholar at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, where he taught courses on international criminal justice and policing.

Richard holds degrees in Sociology, Politics and Education and, as such, he brings a multi-disciplinary approach to his research and teaching. Dr Heslop is the Editor for Practitioner Liaison at Police Practice & Research: An International Journal.

Dr Jane Healy joined BU in 2017 as a Lecturer in Sociology and Crime & Deviance. Prior to this, Jane completed a PhD in disability hate crimes at Middlesex University, as well as Masters degrees in Social Science Research Methods and Criminology with Forensic Psychology. Jane also has an undergraduate degree in Psychology and worked as a Researcher at Middlesex University on a number of different projects within psychology, sociology and criminology.

Jane is currently co-investigator on the Respect at BU Hate Crime Project, which has engaged in forum theatre events for undergraduate and postgraduate students in hate crime awareness. She is also supporting a group of Anti-Slavery Student Ambassadors, who work in the local Bournemouth community to promote awareness of modern slavery and human trafficking. Jane is Chair of the CPS Wessex Modern Slavery Scrutiny Panel, and is an independent Panel member of the CPS Wessex Hate Crime Panel and the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner's Stop and Search Panel.

Dr Healy teaches across sociology programmes, as well as representing Criminology programmes on the department's Placement Committee. 

After teaching at the University of Bath for four years whilst doing her PhD, Joo joined the Sociology team at Bournemouth in 2012. Since then, she has been teaching a range of undergraduate courses, as well as developing her research, exploring issues around identity, ethnicity/’race’, culture, and gender, focusing on East Asians in the UK.

Joo has conducted a number of research projects inspired by her personal experiences of migration to Britain from South Korea in 2000. Thanks to her cross-cultural experience, she has become fascinated by the considerable cultural differences between Korea and Britain and how these impact on individuals’ lives within these countries, as well as on those who cross cultural boundaries.

Joo’s PhD, titled: ‘The Intersection of Motherhood Identity with Culture and Class: a Qualitative Study of East Asian Mothers in England’, explored the accounts of first generation East Asian mothers living in England by using life history interviews. It aimed to examine how these women perceived their national and/or cultural heritage to have affected their experiences and identity formation, focusing on the gendered division of household labour within the family and discourse around motherhood and employment

Joo is currently working on her next research project on North Korean defectors in the UK.

Dr Jonathan Parker is Professor of Society & Social Welfare. He moved to Bournemouth in 2006 after 11 years at the University of Hull, where he was one of the founders and director of the Family Assessment and Support Unit, a practice placement agency attached to the University and awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for Higher Education in 1996, and latterly Head of Department of Social Work.

Jonathan's research projects focus on disadvantage and marginalisation, cross-cultural aspects of social work, research ethics and violence, conflict and religion. He has also researched and published in theories and methods in social work and dementia care. He has recently conducted cross cultural research on learning and practice with colleagues in Southeast Asia. He is currently working on projects concerning the meanings constructed during church visiting, constructions of adult safeguarding, gendered rituals in professional practice, and research ethics and learning disabled people.

He has published widely, including over 25 books and over 150 academic papers, chapters and reports. Jonathan is the co-editor of the highly successful series of Social Work text books 'Transforming Social Work Practice' and editor of the 'Journal of Practice Teaching and Learning', and joint editor-in-chief of the international journal 'Social Policy & Social Work in Transition'.

A core theme in Rosie’s work has been anthropological exploration of care in different social and cultural contexts. Much of her research is how people come to have ideas about what defines good care, who is most deserving of it, and who should have responsibility for providing it, along with all the implications this carries for social identities and inequalities, particularly of gender and class.

Rosie has explored the social boundaries between paid and unpaid care work, and how those boundaries change over time. She is interested in how ageing societies, restructured welfare systems and globalised labour markets create new challenges for the provision of care in the contemporary world.

Rosie gained her doctorate in social anthropology from Manchester University in 2002. Her PhD study explored the involvement of religious groups in Czech elderly care provision, following the privatisation of health care in the 1990s. More recent research projects, funded by the British Academy, the NSPCC and UK Research Councils, have explored various forms of volunteering and community action in the Czech Republic and Britain.

Since 2006, Rosie has worked as a Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University. She has taught undergraduate courses on Globalisation and Marginalisation, Culture and Society and Introduction to Anthropology, amongst others.

Sara is a Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Social Work in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. She is both a sociologist and established UK-qualified, social work academic with a long-standing international career behind her prior to joining Bournemouth University in 2007.

Sara’s academic interests reflect an abiding and deep fascination with culture, diversity, gender and faith. Recent research work includes indigenous people in Malaysia under ecological threat.

Sara has published on mental health issues in Southeast Asia and racism towards minority ethnic communities in Hong Kong. She is interested in faith, social change and social welfare in the Middle East and is the main author of the first European book on Islam and social work.

She is the joint editor of the international journal Social Policy & Social Work in Transition and serves on editorial boards and as a peer-reviewer on many international peer-reviewed journals.

Sara has a genuine commitment to internationalisation of the curriculum and works towards ensuring that our Sociology students are able to benefit from opportunities within BU and beyond. Sara believes that developing our international reach within our programmes will assist students' understanding of global issues on the road to becoming knowledgeable, marketable, socially aware and engaged global citizens.

Edwin trained as a medical sociologist and has an interest in mixed-methods research, qualitative research and evaluation research. A large share of his academic work has been in the field of either Public Health or the Organisation of Maternity Care. He has substantial research experience in conducting large-scale comparative studies, often using mixed-methods approaches.

Edwin’s been involved in evaluating large-scale community-based public-health interventions in Scotland funded by, for example, the Chief Scientist Office (Scottish Government, Edinburgh), the Wellcome Trust, and NHS Health Scotland. He has also published on various aspects of research methods in a format easily accessible to a lay audience, including a paper on research ethics published in a midwifery journal.

Edwin’s overseas research is largely based in Nepal, involving the evaluation of a community-based project funded by Green Tara Trust (UK-based Buddhist charity) tries to improve the uptake of antenatal care.