Dr Laura Clancy

Lecturer in Media

Research Overview

My teaching and research are interdisciplinary, working across sociology, media and cultural studies, and gender studies. My research focuses on issues of inequality, and the overarching themes of my research are around institutions and power. I consider how inequalities are represented in media culture, and the systemic relations between media culture and political and economic formations of inequality. My research has two strands: 1) the cultural politics of the British monarchy and the aristocracy; 2) cultures of digital hate.

1) The cultural politics of the British monarchy and the aristocracy

My first monograph, Running the Family Firm: how the royal family manages its image and our money, was published with Manchester University Press in 2021.This analyses the contemporary British monarchy (1953-present) in order to understand its economic, political, social and cultural functions. Although the monarchy is usually positioned as a backward-looking, archaic institution and an irrelevant anachronism to corporate forms of wealth and power, the relationship between monarchy and capitalism is as old as capitalism itself. This book frames the monarchy as the gold standard corporation: The Firm. Using a set of case studies - the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle - it contends that The Firm's power is disguised through careful stage management of media representations of the royal family. The book was shortlisted for the British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize for the best sole, first-authored book. My second book, What is the Monarchy For? will be published with Bristol University Press in 2025. This public-facing book breaks longstanding myths around the monarchy to demystify and evaluate its place in the world today, and makes the case that social justice movements need to include abolishing the monarchy.

My current research is focusing on sociological understandings of the British country house in the context of an urbanised, corporatised world. Country houses are assumed to be crumbling, nostalgic edifices with no relevance to contemporary formations of elite wealth, but in fact, they have been remarkably resilient, adapting and diversifying to keep up with contemporary markets (e.g. with safari parks, hosting weddings and television productions, running popular social media accounts). The project is interested in the survival of these properties and the economic, social and cultural means through which estates are remade.

2) Cultures of digital hate

This project focuses on academics who, encouraged by their employers to have a visible, public profile to disseminate research, might find themselves subject to online abuse, harassment and/or misrepresentation. We illuminate the ways that the risks of visibility are unequally distributed and how digital hate functions to keep certain voices out of public debate. We have developed resources, and are developing training, to improve institutional support within the higher education sector, and lobby the sector to take this seriously as an issue of workplace health and safety. You can read two journal articles from our project here and here, and resources are available on our website https://culturesdigitalhate.wordpress.com/

I was shortlisted for the AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinkers Scheme 2023.

My writing and research has been featured in international media outlets, such as BBC Newsnight, The New York Times, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, BBC2, BBC News, BBC Radio 4, Novara Media, ABC Australia, BBC 5 Live, Sky News, NBC News, CNN, France24, the Washington Post, Red Pepper, Tribune, openDemocracy, the Independent, the i, the Sunday Times, the Australian, Al Jazeera, La Figaro, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo Chunichi Shimbun, Tortoise Media, South China Morning Post.

I am Co-Editor of the Routledge Transformations series, and on the Editorial Board for Cultural Sociology.

You can find more information about my research on my website https://laura-clancy.com/

NCCPE Catalyst Conversation on Researchers Experiencing Digital Hate When Sharing their Research with the Public
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

FASS PGR Workshop - Negotiating Media Engagement: Problems and Possibilities
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Akane Kanai, ‘Under scrutiny: young feminists, leadership, and critique, on social media’
Participation in conference - Academic

Understanding the risks of visibility when sharing research publicly
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Understanding the risks of visibility when sharing research publicly
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Natalie Ngai, ‘Pet Instagram: Women & Their Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars’
Participation in conference - Academic

Akhil Vaidya & Jessa Lingel, ‘Counternarratives and self-regulation: Digital tactics of the #FreeBritney movement’
Participation in conference - Academic

Piera Riccio, ‘Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who Is the Whitest of All? Racial Biases in Social Media Beauty Filters'
Participation in conference - Academic

KEYNOTE: ‘Labour for a Republic’ meeting at the annual Labour Party conference
Invited talk

Gala Rexer, ‘Palestine as a Feminist Issue: Demographic Anxieties, Palestinian Reproductive Futurity, and Settler Colonial Intimacies’
Participation in conference - Academic

From ‘safe spaces’ to ‘brave spaces’
Participation in workshop, seminar, course

Culture, Media and Sport Sub-committee report on Trusted Voices
Influence on Policy, Practice, Patients & the Public

Aerin Lai, ‘This is how we do things in Singapore’ – a Decolonial Intersectional Understanding of Masculinity and Citizenship-making Practices’
Participation in conference - Academic

'Last Week Tonight with Jon Oliver', HBO, 13 November 2022
Consultancy

Representing the Family Firm: the enduring power of the British royal family’
Invited talk

Formations at 25: Celebrating Beverley Skeggs
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Family Capital(ism) in the 21st century
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

‘Would abolishing the monarchy make the UK more equal?‘ The Equality Trust. Twitter Space event
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

-‘The coronation of Charles III and the uncertain future of the British monarchy’,
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Invisibility, ignorance and intimidation: identifying tools of elite power.
Invited talk

Rachel Odufuwa, ‘My ‘personal is political’: introducing Black Feminography'
Participation in conference - Academic

‘BSA Presidential Panel: Sociology and the ‘Taxpayer’: Who pays, who benefits?’
Invited talk

Minwoo Jung, ‘Queering Authoritarianism: The Politics of Rights in South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan’
Participation in conference - Academic

I have a folder in my email called Hate Mail”: academic public engagement, digital hate, and the unequally distributed risks of visibility
Invited talk

‘Panorama: Will King Charles Save the Monarchy?’, BBC One, 24 April 2023
Consultancy

Introductory comments at the launch of Sexscapes of Pleasure: The Whore Stigma in Italy, by Dr. Elena Zambelli
Invited talk

British Sociological Association Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Liz Cox, ‘The View From Our Wellies: Women Navigating the Shared Allotment Space’
Participation in conference - Academic

Aleena Din, ‘Redefining ‘work’: British-Pakistani women & their Relationship with Labour’
Participation in conference - Academic

Hua Ma, ‘Inner and outer beauty: exploring female beauty in contemporary China’
Participation in conference - Academic

'God Save the King?', The World Transformed
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Jamie Hakim, ‘Vulnerability and Control: queer men, smartphones & cultures of intimacy’
Participation in conference - Academic

Oscar Zhou, ‘Algorithmic Gay Sexualities on Douyin’
Participation in conference - Academic

Angela Jones, ‘Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Work Industry’
Participation in conference - Academic

The impact of impact on scholars’
Invited talk

Emily Hoyle, ‘Upload! Fantasies of self birthing and reproductions of masculinity'
Participation in conference - Academic

Digital Inclusion Policy and Research Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Routledge (Publisher)
Editorial activity

Centre for Gender Studies Seminar Series
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience

Feminist Studies Association (UK and Ireland) (External organisation)
Membership of network

Feminist Movie Monday
Festival/Exhibition/Concert

FASS Staff Award for Outstanding Team Contribution (Sociology Internationalisation Team)
Prize (including medals and awards)

Shortlisted for the British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize
Prize (including medals and awards)

BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinkers (shortlisted)
Other distinction

FASS Dean's Awards - Early Career Teacher of the Year
Prize (including medals and awards)

Lancaster University Staff Awards - International Impact Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

Staff Awards 2024: International Impact Award
Prize (including medals and awards)

Educational Role Model, FASS Dean's Awards
Prize (including medals and awards)

  • Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities
  • Centre for Gender Studies