Dr Lucy Mayblin (she/her)
PhD
Department of Sociological Studies
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Co-Director Migration Research Group
+44 114 222 6445
Full contact details
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Lucy Mayblin is a political sociologist whose research focuses on borders, human rights, policy-making, and the legacies of colonialism. She is particularly interested in how policymakers imagine the world, and how this leads to particular kinds of bordering projects being taken, often with significant social justice implications. A central theme in her work has been how the legacies of 500 years of European colonialism continue to shape the contemporary moment, particularly in Britain. She is the author of three books: Asylum After Empire: Postcolonial Legacies in the Politics of Asylum Seeking (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2017) which won the British Sociological Association’s Philip Abrams Memorial Prize in 2018, Impoverishment and Asylum: Social Policy as Slow Violence ( Routledge, 2019), and Migration Studies and Colonialism (with Joe Turner, Polity, 2020). She has also co-edited two books: Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press, 2022) and the SAGE Handbook of Global Sociology (Sage, 2024).
In 2020 she won a Philip Leverhulme Prize for Sociology. She is currently working with colleagues on British government responses to small boat Channel crossings, and on methods for postcolonial historical sociology.
Lucy is Associate Editor for the Global Social Challenges Journal, and on the editorial board of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. She was previously an editor of the Global Social Theory website and an advisory board member, editor and contributor to the Connected Sociologies Curriculum Project.
- Publications
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Books
- The Sage Handbook of Global Sociology. Sage Publications Limited.
- Postcoloniality and Forced Migration Mobility, Control, Agency. Policy Press.
- Migration Studies and Colonialism. John Wiley & Sons.
- . Abingdon: Routledge.
- Asylum after Empire: Colonial Legacies in the Politics of Asylum Seeking. London: Rowman and Littlefield.
- . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Journal articles
- . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 42(5-6), 776-802.
- . The Political Quarterly, 95(2), 253-262.
- . Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
- . International Migration, 59(4), 265-267.
- . Ethnic and Racial Studies, 44(13), 2307-2327.
- .
- . Sociology, 54(1), 107-123.
- . Area, 51(4), 816-819.
- . Migration Studies, 7(1), 1-20.
- . Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 45(3), 375-394.
- . Economy and Society, 47(2), 191-213.
- , 222-238.
- . British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 18(4), 812-828.
- . Environment and Planning A, 48(5), 960-978.
- Troubling the exclusive privileges of citizenship: mobile solidarities, asylum seekers, and the right to work. CITIZENSHIP STUDIES, 20(2), 192-207.
- . Sociology, 50(1), 60-76.
- . The Geographical Journal, 182(2), 213-222.
- . Qualitative Research, 15(5), 583-599.
- . Geoforum, 63, 67-80.
- . Journal of Historical Sociology.
- . Gender, Place and Culture, 21(4), 401-414.
- . International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 34(5), 375-391.
- . Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 26(1), 93-110.
- International Relations and non-western thought: imperialism, colonialism and investigations of global modernity. INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 87(5), 1227-1228.
- What is geography's contribution to making citizens?. Geography, 93(1), 34-39.
- Made in...? Appreciating the everyday geographies of connected lives. Teaching Geography, 32(2), 80-83.
- . Social Sciences, 13(11), 620-620.
Chapters
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 109-124). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 1-27). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 223-236). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 109-124). Policy Press
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 223-236). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 109-124). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Postcoloniality and Forced Migration (pp. 1-27). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Regulating Refugee Protection Through Social Welfare (pp. 93-103).
- , Handbook on the Governance and Politics of Migration (pp. 25-35).
- Impoverishment and Asylum Social Policy as Slow Violence Introduction, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 1-+).
- Impoverishment and asylum Conclusion, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 131-141).
- Slow violence Everyday life on asylum support, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 96-130).
- Producing slow violence Imagining asylum as economic migration, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 46-73).
- Ameliorating slow violence Civil society as gap filler, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 74-95).
- Historicising and theorising impoverishment and asylum, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 29-45).
- Economic rights and seeking asylum, IMPOVERISHMENT AND ASYLUM: SOCIAL POLICY AS SLOW VIOLENCE (pp. 12-28).
- In Outhwaite W & Turner S (Ed.), The SAGE Handbook of Political Sociology: Two Volume Set (pp. 157-170). SAGE Publications Ltd
- Is there a black and minority ethnic third sector in the UK?, Community groups in context: Local activities and actions (pp. 172-191).
- (pp. 177-198). Bristol СŷÊÓƵ Press
- , Community Groups in Context (pp. 177-198). Policy Press
- , Community Groups in Context (pp. 177-198). Policy Press
- CREATING MEANINGFUL CONTACT: BOUNDARIES AND BRIDGES IN THE INTERCULTURAL CITY, The Intercultural City: Migration, Minorities and the Management of Diversity (pp. 153-162).
Book reviews
- . Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 22(1).
- . Ethnic and Racial Studies, 39(3), 524-526.
- . Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 17(3).
- . Sociology, 46(4), 772-773.
- . The Sociological Review, 59(1), 183-185.
- The Idea of Human Rights. POLITICAL STUDIES REVIEW, 8(3), 376-376.
- . Critical Policy Studies, 3(1), 141-148.
- . Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(1), 138-140.
- The Sage Handbook of Global Sociology. Sage Publications Limited.
- Research group
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Co-Director, Migration Research Group (/migration-research-group)
Lucy is interested in supervising PhD projects on: - The politics of asylum, borders and bordering - Histories of colonialism and contemporary post and neo-colonial dynamics as they relate to borders and migration - Human and refugee rights
- Grants
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2023-25 White Rose Network, The UK-Rwanda partnership as the ‘end of asylum’: Externalising borders, offshoring and resistance (Co-I), £13,0002022-25 ESRC Project Grant, Channel Crossings: Irregular migration, policies and politics in the English Channel (Co-I) £585,000 (ES/W006170/1)
2022-26 Sheffield Doctoral Training Centre on New Horizons in Borders and Bordering -6 PhD scholarships- (Co-I and Deputy Director) £350,000
2021-24 Philip Leverhulme Prize, Sociology and Social Policy (PI) £100,000
2017 ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, Civil Society filling the Gaps: Supporting Asylum Seekers at the Local Level (PI) £10,340 (ES/M500434/1)
2015-19 ESRC Future Research Leaders project grant, Asylum, Welfare and Work in the Age of Austerity (PI) £240,000 (ES/L011468/1)
- Teaching interests
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Lucy currently teaches Current Sociology, a whole year core module on the MA Sociology, and Contemporary Challenges: Refugees and Asylum, also at the MA level. As part of the Centre for Doctoral Training in Borders and Bordering she co-ordinates various activities for PGRs including a reading group, a masterclass series, and a PGR seminar series.
- Teaching activities
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- MA Sociology: Programme Leader
- MA Sociology: Current Sociology
- MA Sociology: Contemporary Challenges: Refugees and Asylum
- Partnerships, Engagement and Impact
Across Lucy's work she is committed to partnership and collaboration with groups outside of the university. This includes campaigning groups, and NGOs (from local to international) and has involved running workshops, consultancy, and research partnerships. Collaborations have occurred through formal research projects, but more importantly the Migration Research Group is committed to creating spaces for conversations within the university where community learning and thinking between and across the university/non-university divide can take place. Alongside her academic work, Lucy is also a trustee for the Sheffield based charity ASSIST.
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