Staff Profile

I am a Sociologist - primarily of gender and sexuality, with a particular interest in risk, everyday life and constructions of the self. I have worked in seven UK universities and held Professorships at Stirling and Durham. I was Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Keele 2005-9 and Pro Vice Chancellor for Research at Glasgow Caledonian University 2009-13. Since 2013 I have held visiting positions at the Universities of Edinburgh and York and am currently a Visiting Professor at Helsinki as well as at Newcastle. In recent years I have undertaken consultancy - primarily in relation to research support - at a number of UK and European Universities. I was Chair of the Advisory Panel on the University of Helsinki's Change Process and have Chaired University-wide research reviews for the Universities of Jyvaskyla and Lapland, as well as of all of the Social Science Research Centres in Portugal for FCT (the equivalent of HEFCE in Portugal). I am a long standing member of the British Sociological Association - indeed my BSA network, established from the late 1970s,has been an enormous support through the challenges of academic life over the years. I was BSA President 2007-9, President of the European Sociological Association 2017-19 and have been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2008. From 2013-21 I was a founding managing editor of Discover Society an online social science magazine for a general audience. I am currently an Editor In Chief of the - Global Social Challenges Journal published by Bristol University Press. I have called myself a feminist since the mid 1970s and was one, without the word for it, for 10 years before that - thanks to my very wise Mother.

I was a member of The Women Risk and Aids Project 1988-91 and more recently a member of the Advisory Group in relation to the revisiting of that project, led by Professor Rachel Thomson at the University of Sussex.

Other funded projects have included:

- The Development and Evaluation of Sex Education in Scottish Schools (funded by the MRC)

- Parents and Children Negotiating Risk (funded by the ESRC)

- Risk and Everyday Kitchen Practices (funded by ESRC)

Much of my work on sexuality has been more theoretical and has primarily been undertaken with Stevi Jackso, Emeritus Professor at the University of York

I am currently exploring changing presentations of biography, the self and relationships, particularly through musical memories.

Some recent publications include:

Jackson, S. and, Scott, S. (2017) Practice Theory and, Interactionism: An Integrative Approach to the Sociology of Everyday Sexuality in King, S. Santos, A. C. and, I Crowhurst, Sexualities Research: Critical Interjections, Diverse Methodologies and, Practical Applications, London: Routledge.

Martens, L. and Scott, S. (2017) Understanding Everyday Kitchen Life: Looking at Performance, into Performances and for Practices. In Michael Jonas, Beate Littig, and Angela Wroblewski (Eds.) Methodological Reflections on Practice Oriented Theories. Springer International Publishing, pp. 177-191.  

Scott, S. (2017) Sexual embodiment and consumption in Keller, M. B, Halkier, T-A Wilska and M, Truninger (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Consumption

Scott, S and Jackson, S. (2020) Sexuality in Payne, G. and, Harrison, E. Social Divisions: Inequality and, Diversity in Britain (4^th Edition) Bristol: Polity Press

Jackson, S. and Scott, S. (2023) ‘Storytelling, sociology and sexuality' in Sexualities 26:4