School of Social, Historical and Literary Studies

Profile

Yvonne is a Principal Lecturer in Sociology and has been the subject leader for Sociology since 2009.  Previously, Yvonne was the subject leader for Social Policy and maintains an interest in this subject area and the application of sociological theory and analysis to social issues.  Yvonne teaches a range of courses across different degrees and at different levels within the faculty of humanities. This teaching includes units on the ‘family’, ‘deviance crime and social problems’ ‘Work Employment and Society’ and ‘young people state and society’ as well as contributing to teaching on social research and sociological analysis.  Part of Yvonne’s teaching involves developing and contributing to  courses specifically aimed at supporting the University’s students to develop both their academic and employability skills during their degree course. Yvonne has a keen interest in the types of skills students develop during their degree programmes and has been part of a University Committee examining the opportunities for this development within the undergraduate curriculum. Yvonne has also been involved in the development of the University’s first, fully web-based degree programme and acted as an online tutor for this degree.

Yvonne has a varied research background including the medico-legal interface; the third sector; regulation and governance and, together with colleagues, has published several articles in these areas. More recently Yvonne’s research has been in the area of family diversity, employment and the labour market and related programmes, policies and law. New units for the undergraduate curriculum have been developed in these areas.

In addition to the above Yvonne contributes regularly to the University’s validation process for new degree programmes (both at undergraduate and master’s levels), examined Phds, has taught in the USA, visited universities in Hong Kong as a guest lecturer, is the Book Reviews editor for the Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, and the vice-chair of governors for a local school.