Dr Bethany Simmonds PhD in the Sociology of Ageing (University of Southampton); PGCLTHE; BSc. Sociology (hons) (University of Bath)
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences
Contact Details
- Email: bes88@aber.ac.uk
- ORCID: 0000-0003-2463-7623
- Office: K3, Llandinam Building
- Phone: +44 (0) 1970 622384
- Research Portal Profile
- Personal Pronouns: She/Her
Profile
I am a sociologist of ageing interested in risk, examining the interactions between global, national, and individual level analyses, exploring how (embodied) experiences are produced by discursive and institutional change, contingent on the spaces older people are located in.
I joined as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at Aberystwyth University in September 2022 to lead the Sociology Programme, prior to this I was Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Portsmouth (2016-2022) where I was awarded a Themes, Research and Innovation Fund (TRIF) Strategic Fellowship in Health and Wellbeing in 2018.
Preceding this I was employed as a Research Associate in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Bristol where I researched topics including, falling and fracturing, delays to older people being discharged from hospital, and end of life interventions (2011-2016).
From 2007 to 2010, I worked as an Assistant Lecturer in Sports Sociology at the University of Chichester whilst completing my PhD in the sociology of ageing, physical activity and rurality at Southampton University. This was after completing my BSc in Sociology (hons) from the University of Bath in 2005, and being appointed to Research Assistant at the University of Plymouth, where I worked on numerous projects for the Social Research and Regeneration Unit.
Additional Information
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the fields of sociology of ageing, risk and/or health. Either exploring embodied ageing experiences in relation to intersecting identities (gender, ethnicity, 'dis'ability and risk), or political economic approaches to health and the welfare state, precarity/risk, feminist ethics of care, or necropolitical analyses of ageing/death in health and social care systems.
Teaching
Module Coordinator
- GS15120 - Thinking Sociologically
- GS17120 - Introducing Sociological Research
- GS20620 - Cementing Sociological Research
Lecturer
- NU10120 - Introduction to Professional Practice
- GS31240 - Sociology Dissertation
- GS25020 - Sociological Theory
- GS16120 - Key Concepts in Sociology
- GS20020 - Research Design and Fieldwork Skills
- GS15120 - Thinking Sociologically
- GGM2860 - MA Dissertation
- DA25420 - Dylunio Ymchwil a Sgiliau Gwaith Maes
Tutor
- GS34040 - Dissertation: Geography, Environmental Science, and Environmental Earth Science
- GS33320 - Everyday Social Worlds
- GS31240 - Sociology Dissertation
- GS17120 - Introducing Sociological Research
- GS14220 - Place and Identity
- GS10220 - The city & the country: processes of conflict & changes
- GS10020 - Living in a Dangerous World
Coordinator
Research
I am a sociologist of ageing interested in health and risk, examining the interactions between global, national, and individual level analyses, exploring how (embodied) experiences are produced by discursive and institutional change, contingent on the spaces older people are located in.
My doctoral research centred on the corporeal, emotional and social experience of ageing and physical activity in rural spaces. My post-doctoral research has developed my interests of ageing and health. I developed this corpus of work into a monograph entitled: Ageing and the Crisis in Health and Social Care; which examines the impact of globalisation, neoliberalism, Austerity policies and ageism on health and social care systems in the UK, Sweden and Germany, published in November 2021 by Policy Press as part of their Global Challenges in Ageing Series.
Subsequently, I have developed some of the themes which emerged from my recent book, including feminist ethics of care; necropolitical state decision-making of ageing/death in health and social care systems; intersections between disablism and ageism in the Covid-19 pandemic; and political economic approaches to care and ageing.
In relation to internal and external collaborations, I was appointed to the Centre for Excellence in Rural Health Research steering committee at the University of Aberystwyth; I am an affiliated member of The Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD); and a member of the Centre for Ageing and the Life Course (CALC). Finally, I was selected by the editing board for Sociological Research Online with expertise in Ageing and have a visiting fellowship at the Centre of Death and Society (CDAS) at the University of Bath, where I lead on Ageing/End of Life.
Responsibilities
As Senior Lecturer in Sociology and Programme Lead for Sociology in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, my role is to lead and develop the new Sociology programme launched in 2019. I was also appointed External Examiner for Criminology and Sociology BSc at Swansea University in 2023-24.