Growing up in Middlesbrough in the 1970s as the North-East was being ravaged through purposeful disinvestment, set in motion a critical position on how we live but not in conditions of our own choosing. Taught by her father never to trust news, government statistics or the state and to always treat people as she would want to be treated, and by her mother to care for others whatever the circumstances and always look her best, she surprisingly ended up at University. Never an intention and a big disappointment for her mother.. It was sociology that did it, more specifically Marx and Engels, who explained more to the curious 16yr old than any of her other education could. It set her on a critical quest, turning her from aspirations of marriage and being a local nursery nurse into an academic and activist, with a career of over 40 years.
Always addressing the many sites of inequality by conducting research and teaching, and/or establishing spaces for others to do the campaigning, research, writing and teaching. She has been insistent on keeping certain issues such as class, feminism and care on the mainstream agenda even when decried by others as redundant. Having lived through grim times (no jobs, no money, no hope) she thinks it’s important to maintain critique, keep struggling, ‘staying with the trouble’ and learning. There is no better way to avoid despair in difficult times.
Travelling around the world with dogged determinism, learning as much as she can, being incessantly curious with an indefatigable energy for ideas, she now hopes to make some of this learning open to others. The huge amount of labour, pain and pleasure in learning, creating, shaping, innovating has been an absolute privilege, one that is increasingly more difficult to access, hence why this archive was suggested. It’s important to recognise that none of the final “outputs” found here could have happened without the huge amount of collective sharing that went into their production. One of the things Bev was always insistent on is surrounding herself with super smart people from whom she can learn, this is how she navigated from place to place, beginning with the most amazing group of feminists at Lancaster University in the 90s.
Much much later she learnt that these smart people also needed to be fun and caring.
Rarely totally agreeing with anyone she carefully listens and learns. Challenge and debate is part of her intellectual nourishment as is copious reading around areas, now podcasts, and always engaging with people outside of academic circles. The archive represents a journey as perspectives are enlarged and positions change through these challenges. Diving into a debate, feeling like drowning until a perspective can be found that fits and makes sense is how she faces the world. Mistakes were made but that is what education is all about. We keep learning as long as we remain open and curious.
Bev’s Career Timeline
1980 – 1983: South Cheshire College of Further Education, Lecturer in Sociology
1983 – 1984: Crewe & Alsager College, of Higher Education, Research Fellow
1983 – 1984: University of Keele, PGCE Lecturer
1984 – 1986: Crewe & Alsager College of Higher Education, Research Fellow, Lecturer in Sociology
1986 – 1989: University College Worcester, Lecturer in Sociology
1989 – 1992: University of York, Lecturer in Education and Women’s Studies
1992 – University of Lancaster, Lecturer in Women’s Studies
1996 – University of Lancaster, Senior Lecturer, Women’s Studies (Co-Director /HoD, Women’s Studies)
1997- University of Lancaster, Reader in Sociology Women’s Studies
1999 – University of Manchester, Professor of Sociology, (2002 – 2004 Head of Department)
2004 – Goldsmiths, University of London, Professor of Sociology (2010 – 2013 Head of Department)
2013 – ESRC Professorial Fellow (2013-2016)
2017-2019 – London School of Economics, Academic Director, Atlantic Fellows Programme.
2018 – Founder and theme leader, Global Economies of Care, International Inequalities Institute, LSE
2019 – 2022 Lancaster University, Distinguished Professor in Sociology, Director of Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequality
Retired from formal institutional employment
2023 – Emeritus Professor, Sociology, Lancaster University
Writing about Bev
Feminist class politics revisited: An interview with Beverley Skeggs, Laura Mankki & Timo Aho (2020)
Refusing to be worn out, Veneza M. Ronsini and Gustavo Dhein (2017)
Thinking with Beverley Skeggs, Annika Olsson (2008)
On the economy of Moralism and Working-class Properness: An interview with Beverley Skeggs about Feminism, Respectability and Use-Value, Sophie Tornhill and Katharina Tollin (2008)
Arvostus ja Vastarinta (Translation: An interview with Beverley Skeggs), Mikko Jakonen (2006)
Interview on Respectability and Resistance with Beverley Skeggs (2006)
Degrees
- 1980 – BA Hons, Sociology, University of York
- 1981 – PGCE, Sociology, University of Keele
- 1986 – PhD, Sociology, University of Keele (SSRC funded)
Academic Recognition
- Elected, Academician of the Academy of the Learned Societies for the Social Sciences (from 2003 – )
- Honorary Professor, Sociology, University of Warwick (from 2010 – 2015)
- Managing Editor of The Sociological Review journal (from 2011-2016, European Editor at Large 2016-2022)
- Founder of The Sociological Review Foundation (2015)
- Chief Executive of The Sociological Review Foundation (2016-2020), Trustee (2015-)
- Honorary Doctorate, Aalborg University, Denmark (July 2011
- Honorary Doctorate, Stockholm University, Sweden (September 2011)
- Honorary Doctorate, University of Teesside (my home-town) (September 2012)
- ESRC Professorial Fellowship (awarded Sept 2013 – Dec 2016)
- Honorary Doctor, University of Josenuu, Eastern Finland (awarded June 2019)
- BA Lifetime Achievement award (awarded April 2023)
Visiting Posts
- Mexico City Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, El Colegio de Mexico, (funded by The British Council 1998)
- University of Adelaide, ANU, Canberra and University of Sydney, Australia (funded by The British Council 1999)
- Kerstin Hesselgren Professor in Gender Studies at Stockholm University (funded by The Swedish Research Council 2007).
- Invited Scholars Scheme (funded by Australian Research Council, November 2007)
- I apologise for not taking up the majority of visiting post to which I was invited during the 2000s. I was the only carer for my elderly parents (who died in 2015/16)
Collective Gratitude
To all the people I have learnt so much from, my life and career would not have been the same without you. I have gathered as many of my photos of the people, places and things I could. Sorry if I missed you.
