Professor Sasha Roseneil

Professor Sasha Roseneil has been appointed as Executive Dean for the world-leading Faculty of Social Sciences at the University.

Professor Roseneil is currently Professor of Sociology and Social Theory at Birkbeck, University of London, and Director of the Birkbeck Institute for Social Research. She will join the University of Essex on 1 September.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Anthony Forster, said: “I am absolutely delighted that Sasha will be joining the University as Executive Dean. Sasha impressed us with her commitment to the power of research-led education in offering a transformational educational experience to students.

“Sasha is an interdisciplinary scholar with a world class reputation for her work that straddles sociology, politics, psychoanalytic studies and health. Sasha will lead our Faculty of Social Sciences which, in the 2014 Research Excellence Framework, was ranked in the top four of all Social Science faculties in the UK and receives the largest amount of funding from the Economic and Social Research Council of any university in the UK.”

Professor Roseneil said: “I am excited and honoured to be appointed Executive Dean (Social Sciences) at Essex. Throughout my career the University of Essex has been at the centre of the social sciences in the UK, defining research agendas and educating new generations to think critically and rigorously about politics, economics and social relations.

“I look forward to working with colleagues across the Faculty in developing research and education that make a difference to people’s lives around the world.”

Professor Roseneil brings a wealth of academic leadership and management experience from positions including Head of Department and Assistant Dean (Subject) of the Department of Psychosocial Studies, and Assistant Dean (Research), School of Social Sciences, History and Philosophy at Birkbeck.

Prior to moving to Birkbeck, she was Professor of Sociology and Gender Studies at the University of Leeds, where she was also the founding Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies.
She was Professor II in the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo between 2005 and 2015.

She is also a Member of the Institute of Group Analysis and has worked as an individual and group psychotherapist in the NHS.