The SPA’s activities are co-ordinated by an elected Executive Committee. All members of the SPA are eligible to stand and elections for the Executive Committee are held at the AGM during SPA’s Annual Conference. The SPA is committed to promoting the discipline of Social Policy and representing its members’ interests. The SPA Executive operates under an agreed statement of ethics.
If you would like to discuss a particular issue with the SPA Executive or are interested in joining the Executive then please contact the relevant Executive member below.
Karen Rowlingson
Chair
k.rowlingson@bham.ac.ukUniversity of Birmingham
Karen Rowlingson is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Birmingham. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and member of the REF sub panel for UoA 20: social work and social policy.
Karen’s research interests include: wealth and the wealthy; financial inclusion; the moral economy of inequality; inter-generational relationships and inequalities; and the social security and tax systems.
Ruth Lister, Baroness Lister of Burtersett
President
University of Loughborough
Baroness Lister (CBE, FAcSS) is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy and her work is largely focused on poverty and citizenship. In both cases this has embraced theoretical, conceptual, empirical and policy analysis and has involved a strong gender dimension.
She received the SPA Lifetime Association award in 2010. She was appointed to the House of Lords as a Life Peer in 2011, where she sits as a member of the Labour Party.
Markus Ketola
Secretary
markus.ketola@ed.ac.ukUniversity of Edinburgh
Markus joined University of Edinburgh in 2019 as Senior Lecturer in Global and International Social Policy. He has also taught at Ulster University (2013-2019) and LSE (2011-2013).
Markus' research interests include the role of civil society organisations in social policy design and delivery, and the social policy of the populist rightist parties in Europe.
Anya Ahmed
Treasurer
Anya.Ahmed@mmu.ac.ukManchester Metropolitan University
Anya is Professor of Wellbeing and Communities at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Her research interests include ageing, dementia, migration and BAME communities, marginalised groups and homelessness.
PORTFOLIOS
Sarah Brooks-Wilson
Early Careers and Postgraduate
s.brooks-wilson@bham.ac.ukSarah Brooks-Wilson is a Lecturer in the Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Birmingham, teaching Criminology and Social Policy.
Her research focuses on inequalities accessing essential local services, particularly journey capabilities, structural journey barriers, and consequences for not being present and punctual. These issues have been explored in the context of young people's lives more broadly, as well as those in the justice system.
Gideon Calder
g.j.calder@swansea.ac.ukGideon is Associate Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Swansea University.
His main current research interests lie in three areas, which sometimes overlap: inequalities and social justice in childhood; ethics, including in research; and co-production. He is co-editor of the journal Ethics and Social Welfare, and director of Swansea’s Research Institute of Ethics and Law.
Ruby C M Chau
Teaching & Learning
ruby.chau@nottingham.ac.ukUniversity of Nottingham
Ruby Chau is an Associate Professor in Public and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham. Previously, she was a Marie Curie Research Fellow and a Lecturer at the University of Sheffield.
Her main research interests are women and ageing, women and family care, defamilisation, health and social care for older migrants, East Asian welfare systems and comparative social policy. She is currently involved in a project called ‘Leading the Way – towards an Ageing-Friendly Sheffield’ in which older people from different backgrounds are engaged in co-production activities to design ageing-friendly measures for the city.
Jan Eichhorn
Editor of Journal of Social Policy
Jan.Eichhorn@ed.ac.ukUniversity of Edinburgh
Jan Eichhorn is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh.
His research focuses on challenging orthodox economic assumptions in social policy and on understanding how people engage politically to affect changes. In addition to his university role, Jan is also the research director of a non-partisan German think tank, d|part, that connects research and practice in the field of political participation.
Jan is a co-editor of the Journal of Social Policy.
Liam Foster
Editor of Social Policy & Society
l.foster@sheffield.ac.ukUniversity of Sheffield
Liam Foster is a Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Sheffield.
His current research interests centre on pensions and pension systems, funeral provision, and theories of ageing. His research has tended to focus on inequality, poverty and social exclusion, especially in relation to gender and age. Liam is on the Teaching and Learning Committee and has a particular interest in teaching quantitative methods.
He is the co-editor of Social Policy & Society.
Lee Gregory
Membership
L.J.Gregory@bham.ac.ukUniversity of Birmingham
Lee joined Birmingham's Department of Social Policy and Social Work in September 2013 as a Lecturer in Social Policy.
His principal research interests include poverty, inequality and asset-based welfare, youth policy, the mixed economy of welfare and alternative forms of welfare provision. His current research focuses on the themes of resistance to austerity and the dominance of neo-liberal economics by applying the social theory of time to policy analysis.
Elke Heins
Publications
elke.heins@ed.ac.ukUniversity of Edinburgh
Elke Heins is Lecturer in Social Policy and Deputy Director (Research) of the Graduate School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh.
Her principle research area is comparative and European social policy. She is particularly interested in labour market and unemployment policy as well as well as the politics of health and wellbeing. She is currently one of the co-editors of Social Policy Review.
Steve Iafrati
Vice Chair, SPA Opportunities
S.Iafrati@wlv.ac.ukUniversity of Wolverhampton
As well as lecturing at the University of Wolverhampton, Steve's research interests focus on how specific groups in neighbourhoods experience poverty and/or are able to engage with services.
His research is mainly carried out within localities and often in partnership with voluntary and public sector organisations; recent examples include food banks, hate crime, drug treatment services and caste discrimination.
Majella Kilkey
Editor of Social Policy & Society
m.kilkey@sheffield.ac.ukUniversity of Sheffield
Majella is a reader in Social Policy and research aims to understand how the processes and outcomes of globalisation affect citizenship, with ongoing research projects around migration, transnationalism and citizenship, with the present economic crisis and austerity in Europe being a particular focus.
She is the co-editor of Social Policy & Society and an elected editorial member of the Journal of Social Policy.
Vikki McCall
Conferences
University of Stirling
Dr McCall is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy and Housing at the University of Stirling. Her work has included extensive research on the role of front-line workers, users and volunteers and the policy process and the integration of health and housing. This has included exploring front-line worker discretion, interpretations, activities and actions and bridging the gap between policy and practice. Dr McCall has a broad portfolio of social science teaching and research with the University of Stirling.
Key interests and publications include work on housing and ageing, volunteering, devolution, poverty, stigma, inequality, gender, urban society, museums and the cultural sector.
Theo Papadopoulos
International Relations
T.Papadopoulos@bath.ac.ukUniversity of Bath
Theo works in the Department of Social and Policy Sciences at the University of Bath where he lectures and conducts research in comparative and European social policy.
His research interests include the political economy of familistic welfare regimes, migration and welfare, the politics and impact of austerity policies and the changing governance of social welfare in Europe and, more recently, in Latin America.
Enrico Reuter
Awards
enrico.reuter@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Enrico is Lecturer in Public and Social Policy at the University of York.
His current research interests are in self-employment (and the wider context of changing wage-labour conditions and social protection systems), in public service reform (with a focus on the ideational underpinnings of reform trends), and in the crisis of liberal democracy (notably with respect to the principle of popular sovereignty).
Antonios Roumpakis
International Relations
antonios.roumpakis@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Antonios is a Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the University of York. Antonios completed his PhD at the University of Bath and his dissertation focused on the comparative governance of pension funds.
His current research interests centre on the political economy of familistic welfare regimes, debt and asset-based welfare, comparative research methods, the politics and impact of austerity policies and the changing socio-economic governance in Europe.
James Stanyer
PGR representative
J.B.Stanyer@wlv.ac.ukUniversity of Wolverhampton
James Stanyer is a doctoral student at the Institute for Community Research and Development based at the University of Wolverhampton, researching Inclusive Growth in the West Midlands region under the supervisory team of Dr Steve Iafrati and Dr Stuart Connor. Prior to his research, James completed a Masters in Social Policy at the University of Birmingham and a BA (hons) degree in Politics and Social Policy at Wolverhampton.
Outside of his doctoral research James has lectured across undergraduate Social Policy modules, and foundation level courses. His other interests include; food insecurity, disability, asylum seekers and refugees, and race.
Ellen Stewart
Communications
E.Stewart@ed.ac.ukUniversity of Edinburgh
Ellen is a Chancellor’s Fellow in Social Studies of Health and Medicine in the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh, and an Associate Director of SKAPE, the Centre for Science, Knowledge & Policy at Edinburgh.
Her research interests are in citizen participation in public services; the voluntary and community sector; critical approaches to evidence-based policy; and interpretive policy analysis.
