A Lancaster University professor has been elected as a trustee of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) and will help to shape and support its future direction.

Professor Imogen Tyler will serve a three-year term of office with the AcSS, the national academy of academics, practitioners and learned societies in social science.

As the sector’s leading independent voice in the UK, the AcSS champions the vital role social sciences play in education, government and business.

Professor Tyler said: “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to support and shape the future direction of the Academy during this challenging period for the social sciences in the UK.

“During this period of global uncertainty – social, economic and environmental – the role of the social sciences in providing and communicating research evidence, and in helping imagine alternative futures, has never been more important.”

A committed public intellectual with a significant public engagement portfolio, Professor Tyler will bring to the Academy's Council her expertise in promoting social sciences in the UK for public benefit, especially in the translation of social scientific research to non-academic audiences towards goals of social justice and greater social equality.

A Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University, her research focuses on inequalities of poverty, class, race, gender, disability and citizenship.

She frequently works with community groups, activists, artists and museums, is a Trustee of the Poverty Truth Network, an executive board member of Lancaster Black History Group and a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘Stigma and Poverty Design Team’.

Head of Lancaster University Sociology Department Dr Chris Grover said: “I am delighted that Professor Tyler has been elected as a trustee for the Academy of Social Sciences.

“She embodies the values of Lancaster University's Sociology Department in her committed advocacy for the use of social science research to address the injustices and inequalities that too many people face on a daily basis.”