معرفی
Professor Liam Foster is a faculty member at the University of Sheffield's School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations, where he holds the title of Professor of Social Policy and serves as Director of Education. He joined the university in 2007 after completing his PhD there, and his academic career includes roles as Lecturer (2008) and Senior Lecturer (2015) in Social Policy and Social Work. His research focuses on inequalities in later life, particularly gender disparities in pensions, funeral provision, and ageing theories. He has contributed to comparative policy studies on active ageing and led a large-scale project funded by the Swedish Research Council (2019–2022).
Education: BA and MA from the University of Leeds, PhD from the University of Sheffield (2006).
Research interests span gender and pension provision, workplace inequality, funeral policy, extending working lives, and the sociology of sport. He has advised unions (TUC), pension providers (AXA/Prudential), and political parties (Labour’s Older Women’s Commission). His work has been presented globally, including at the UN, EU Parliament, and UK parliamentary bodies.
Teaching: Convenes modules on quantitative social research and social problems, and co-authored influential textbooks like Social Research Methods. Awards include the 2013/14 Sheffield Teaching Excellence Award and the 2021 Social Policy Association Teaching Award.
Grants: Includes a £2.5M Swedish Research Council grant (2019–2025) on late working life exclusion, and projects on defamilisation and pensions funded by the British Academy and HEA. Supervises PhD research on topics like Thai women’s ageing, disability identity, and global pensions.
Labs/Teams: Active in the Swedish-funded 'Exclusion and Inequality in Late Working Life' project and collaborates internationally on pension policy analysis and defamilisation studies.
