معرفی
Susan Robertson holds the Chair in Sociology of Education at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, where she serves as Director of the Doctoral Programme and Editor-in-Chief of Globalisation, Societies and Education. She joined Cambridge in 2016 after academic appointments at the University of Auckland and University of Bristol, bringing over three decades of international expertise in critical education studies.
Her educational foundation includes doctoral research in Sociology/Policy at the University of Calgary (1990), preceded by professional experience in the Research Division of Western Australia's Ministry of Education. This trajectory established her cross-sectoral perspective on education systems and policy implementation.
Robertson's research critically examines state-education relationships through governance frameworks that determine educational equity and outcomes. She investigates how global and regional actors mediate the social contract between states and citizens, with particular focus on geopolitical shifts, OECD influence, and neoliberal transformations in higher education. Her work bridges sociology, political economy, and decolonial perspectives to address social justice imperatives in education.
Analysis of her 2024-2026 publications reveals sustained engagement with higher education geopolitics, digital transformation challenges, and global governance mechanisms. Key thematic clusters include critiques of OECD-driven policy frameworks, analyses of ordinal citizenship in education systems, and examinations of how digitalization reshapes university missions while exacerbating existing inequalities.
As Director of the Doctoral Programme, Robertson oversees comprehensive PhD training while convening the Culture, Politics and Global Justice research cluster that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration on transnational education challenges. Her service on the ESRC funding council positions her at the nexus of research strategy and resource allocation in UK social sciences.
The Culture, Politics and Global Justice cluster under her leadership functions as a dynamic hub for critical scholarship, hosting regular seminars and collaborative projects that connect Cambridge researchers with global partners to address emergent issues in education governance and social transformation.
