Dr Sophie Cranston

PhD (Edinburgh)

Pronouns: She/her
  • UG Programme Leader (Geography & Environment)
  • Senior Lecturer in Human Geography

Academic Career

  • 2020 onwards: Senior Lecturer in Human Geographies
  • 2014-2020: Lecturer in Human Geography, 天堂视频.
  • 2013-2014: Teaching Fellow, School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh
  • 2010-2014: PhD, Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh

Professional Responsibilities

  • 2022 onwards, Editorial Board Member 
  • 2021-2023 Elected Chair, , RGS-IBG
  • 2020 onwards GYE UCU Rep
  • 2019-2021 Research Group Representative, Research and Higher Education Committee, RGS-IBG
  • 2018- 2012 Elected Secretary, 

Sophie's research focuses on three interrelated themes 1) migration industries/infrastructures 2) migration categories 3) global identities and privilege in migration.

She has examined these themes through a number of research projects including:

ESRC-funded research ‘Following the Expatriate’ (2010-2014) that examined the a) the expatriate as a category b) the role the global mobility industry plays in producing expatriate migration.

ASET, 天堂视频, RGS-IBG funded research projects on International Schools, Third Culture Kids, British international students and the children of British migrants (2015-2020). These research projects explored a) different articulations of global identities and belonging amongst young people b) the framing of global skills.  

天堂视频 funded research on infrastructures of skilled migration (2020-) 

Sophie teaches broadly across topics looking at the geographies of work and migration.

  • Rhianna Garrett (2022): Career trajectories of racialised minority PhDs and early career researchers in UK higher education
  • Ellie Moore (2022): Non-drinking students, Intersectional spaces of sobriety and academic citizenship on UK university campuses
  • Ben Slonecki (2022): Expatriating love: same-sex couples and the global mobility industry in East Asia
  • Abas Stitan (2020) The Palestinian diaspora in the UK
  • Completed 2020: Charlotte Bolton: The English as a Foreign Language Industry: A Story of Contemporary Mobility Processes (University Scholarship)
  • Duplan, K and Cranston, S (2023) , Progress in Human Geography, 47(2), pp.333-347
  • Cranston, S and Duplan, K (2023) , Migration Studies, 11(2), pp.330-348 DOI: .
  • Cranston, S (2023) , Social and Cultural Geography, DOI: .
  • Cranston, S, Pimlott-Wilson, H, Bates, E (2019) , Geoforum, 108, pp.139-147, DOI: . 
  • Cranston, S and Lloyd, J (2018) , Antipode, 51(2), pp.478-496 DOI: .
  • Cranston, S., Schapendonk, J., Spaan, E. (2018) New Directions in the Migration Industries: Introduction to Special Issue, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(4) 543-557. 
  • Cranston, S. (2017) Expat as Good Migrant: Thinking through Skilled Migration Categories, Population, Space and Place. e2058.
  • Cranston, S (2016) , Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34(4), pp.655-671 DOI: .