Dr Julie Walsh (she/her)
PhD, MSc, BA (Hons)
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
School Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Institute
Co-editor and Special Issues Editor, Families Relationships and Societies
+44 114 222 6418
Full contact details
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Julie joined The University of Sheffield in 2016, as a Lecturer in Sociology. Before moving to Sheffield, Julie taught on the BA Youth and Community Work programme at The University of Hull, where she completed her funded PhD in 2015, focusing on the role of ‘family’, 'migrant family display', and everyday multiculturalism in a post-industrial northern English city.
Julie’s academic interests grew out of her previous career in youth work & community development, where she specialised in the management of user-led provision, working with marginalised communities.
- Qualifications
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- BA (Hons) International English (Hull)
- MSc Applied Social Research (Hull)
- PhD Sociology, Anthropology & Gender Studies (Hull)
- Research interests
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Julie’s research interests include family, migration, personal life, young people, childhood and the influence of prevalent narratives on everyday life. Her research has included working with migrant and settled communities to understand transnational family making and care practices, relationality, and culturally located perceptions of ‘the family’. She also focuses on how these perceptions impact on relationships within and between diverse families and their interactions with state and voluntary sector support services, particularly in northern UK post-industrial communities.
Julie’s work is consistently collaborative, participatory and co-produced and prioritises impact and knowledge exchange. She was most recently the PI for the ESRC funded New Investigator project (2020-23), “Everyday Bordering' in the UK: The impact on social care practitioners and the migrant families with whom they work”
Julie also has a broader interest in social constructions of 'family', relatedness, belonging and personal life. She was a Co-convenor of the BSA Families and Relationships Study Group between 2019 – 2024, and is currently Co-editor and Special Issues Editor of Families Relationships and Societies
Research areas:• Family relationships, youth studies, childhood and social change
• Cross-cultural constructions of 'family’
• Relationships between service providers and the ‘family’
• Ethnicity, multiculture, migration and superdiversity
• Care circulation
• Qualitative methodologies
• University-community collaboration
- Publications
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Journal articles
- Rethinking Street Level Bureaucracy: Everyday Bordering and networks of enactment and resistance in mixed welfare economies.. Journal of Social Policy.
- Families, relationships and societies: an introduction from the new editorial team. Families, Relationships and Societies, 14(2), 153-157. View this article in WRRO
- The Colonised Self: The Politics of UK Asylum Practices, and the Embodiment of Colonial Power in Lived Experience. Social Sciences, 12(7).
- Portholes of ethnography: the methodological learning from 'being there' at a distance.. Sociology, 57(1), 243-252. View this article in WRRO
- Correction to: ‘Everyday Bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social Work Decision-Making Processes When Working with Migrant Family Members. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(1), 363-364.
- ‘Everyday bordering’ in England, Sweden and Bulgaria: Social work decision-making processes when working with migrant family members. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 23(1), 343-361.
- Gender, parenting and practices in child welfare social work? A comparative study from England, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. British Journal of Social Work, 51(6), 2116-2133. View this article in WRRO
- Family display, family type, or community? Limitations in the application of a concept. Families, Relationships and Societies, 9(3), 345-360. View this article in WRRO
- How do you solve a problem like Maria? Family complexity and institutional complications in UK social work. European Journal of Social Work, 22(6), 1050-1061.
- What about the fathers? The presence and absence of the father in social work practice in England, Ireland, Norway, and Sweden—A comparative study. Child & Family Social Work, 24(1), 148-155.
- Walking the Walk: Changing Familial Forms, Government Policy and Everyday Social Work Practice in England. Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 603-618.
- Introduction: Families, Social Work and the Welfare State: Where Contemporary ‘Family’ Meets Policy and Practice. Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 599-602.
- Some Useful Sources. Social Policy and Society, 17(4), 679-681.
- Migrant Family Display: A Strategy for Achieving Recognition and Validation in the Host Country. Sociological Research Online, 23(1), 67-83.
- Displaying Families, Migrant Families and Community Connectedness: The Application of an Emerging Concept in Family Life. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 44(6), 689-698.
Book chapters
- Commentary on Chapter 4 (Response 2): Considering Belonging Through ‘Display’, Contextualizing Childhoods (pp. 99-105). Springer International Publishing
- Displaying Across Borders: The Role of Family Display in Maintaining Transnational Intergenerational Relations In Juozeliuniene I & Seymour J (Ed.), Family Change in Times of the De-bordering of Europe and Global Mobility: Resources, Processes and Practices (pp. 340-358). Vilnius, Lithuania: Vilnius University Press.
Digital content
- Migrant families, Covid-19 travel restrictions, and everyday bordering.
- COVID travel restrictions have created new borders for migrants who want to visit home.
- Collaborative research: the potential of COVID contingencies..
- ‘Reproducing the Stereotypes’: Family Complexity, Resource Scarcity and Social Work Decision-Making..
- 'Not one of you any longer': EU Nationals' Brexit uncertainty and mistrust..
Other
- Doing ethnography online: A lockdown research case study.
- Working with Migrant Communities: a resource for practitioners.
- Evaluation: New Beginnings Greater Manchester Pilot Project. The University of Sheffield.
- (Eds) Themed Section: ‘Families, Social Work and the Welfare State: Where contemporary “family”, meets policy and practice’. Journal of Social Policy and Society..
- Rethinking Street Level Bureaucracy: Everyday Bordering and networks of enactment and resistance in mixed welfare economies.. Journal of Social Policy.
- Research group
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Co-editor and Special Issues Editor for Families, Relationships and Societies
Co-Lead for the CIRCLE Children, Young People and Families theme
- Grants
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2024-2025, ESRC (IAA - Knowledge Exchange) £37,362. Title: Working with Migrant Communities: Upscaling and Embedding. PI: Julie Walsh
2022, ESRC (HEIF – Knowledge Exchange) £19,661.00. Title: Supporting Migrant Communities: Understanding and addressing the limitations of training resources available to practitioners’. PI: Julie Walsh
2020-23, ESRC (New Investigator ES/S015833/1) £ 297,995. Title: ‘Everyday Bordering in the UK: The impact on social care practitioners and the migrant families with whom they work’ PI: Julie Walsh
- Teaching activities
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Julie currently teaches and supervises students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. All of Julie's teaching is closely linked to her research activities and she encourages students on her courses to develop critical reflection by drawing on their own life observations and real-world examples. Julie is committed to inclusive teaching practices and working with students to develop approaches that work for them.
Julie's teaching includes:
• The Sociology of Family: Continuity and Change (Undergraduate)
• The Value of Sociology (Undergraduate)Julie also supervises undergraduate and postgraduate students taking extended essays and dissertations in Sociology, Social Policy and Social Research.
- Postgraduate Supervision
Topics previously and currently supervised include: transnational families and care networks; UK hostile environment policy and migrant families; everyday multiculturalism in post-industrial contexts; home school relationships in diverse communities; disabled people's experiences as family carers in the UK; impacts of family and fertility policy on women in China; and black women's experiences of gynaecological care in the UK. Julie is interested in supervising PhDs relating to the research areas noted on her research page.