Dr Daniel Holman (he/him)

BA, MSc, PhD

Department of Sociological Studies

Lecturer in Sociology and Public Health

Dr Daniel Holman
Profile picture of Dr Daniel Holman
daniel.holman@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 6417
Office hours: By appointment

Full contact details

Dr Daniel Holman
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

Dr. Dan Holman is an interdisciplinary researcher focussed on the interface between public health, sociology and social science.  His overall research interest is in health inequalities and their social determinants, especially in relation the ageing process. He is especially interested in intersectional approaches to health and healthy ageing inequalities.  

Dan joined the department in November 2014 to work with Professor Alan Walker as a Research Associate. He was Principal Investigator (Co-Investigators Professor Sarah Salway and Dr. Andy Bell) on a ESRC project on intersectional inequalities in later life chronic disease (‘Chronic disease and healthy ageing at the intersections: social locations, biomarkers, and health practices’).  He has been Co-I on a number of national and international projects funded mainly by ESRC and NIHR.  He has also worked on various international ageing projects including Mobilising the potential of active ageing in Europe (MoPAct), Social Innovation for Active and Healthy Ageing (SIforAGE), and Social inequalities in extending working lives of an ageing workforce (EXTEND).  He was Co-I on a World University Network project on Intersectional Methodologies.

Prior to joining Sheffield, Dan was a Research Associate at the University of Cambridge. He obtained his PhD in Sociology in 2012 from the University of Essex under the supervision of Professor Joan Busfield.

Research interests

​​​​​​Intersectionality, health inequalities and healthy ageing

Dan is interested in how intersectionality can inform understanding of inequalities, especially in ageing and health.  This has mainly involved quantitative but also mixed methods work.  He is particularly interested in the ‘MAIHDA’ (Multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy) approach to quantitatively studying intersectionality and has published several papers on it.  He focuses on how social determinants of health across the lifecourse shape health ageing for different intersections in the population.

Extending working lives

Dan was Co-Investigator on the ESRC funded project ‘EXTEND: Social inequalities in extending working lives of an ageing workforce’ which considered the social inequalities that result from extending working life policies. This included work on inequalities resulting from changes to the state pension age, the role of chronic conditions in driving later life exit from employment, case studies in the social care sector, policy mapping, and the impact of working conditions on post-retirement health.

Social science, social determinants and public health

Dan is interested in social science perspectives on public health and health behaviours/health practices. This work has involved reviewing behavioural science contributions to health promotion for the WHO and tracing the input of social science and sociological theory in health behaviour interventions. He is interested in social quality theory as a framework to investigate the social determinants of health. He has occasionally published in the field of medicine, specifically on risk models and healthcare costs in relation to chronic diseases and diabetes peer support.

Publications

Journal articles

Preprints

Research group

Co-lead: Healthy lifespan Institute workstream on Intersectionality and Health

Grants
  • 2023-24: Evaluating the impact of national and local action aimed at levelling up and pandemic recovery - Phase 1 (Co-I). National Institute for Health Research. £257,000.
  • 2021-22: Intersectional Methodologies (Co-I). World University Network. £10,000.
  • 2022-25: Storying Life Courses for Intersectional Inclusion: Ethnicity and Wellbeing Across Time and Place. (Co-I). ESRC £1.35m.
  • 2020-22: Strengthening the intersectional equity focus in public health research in and beyond School for Public Health Research. (Co-I). National Institute for Health Research £132,179.
  • 2020-23: The Social Determinants of Multimorbidity in Sheffield. (Co-applicant). ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership PhD with Professor Alan Walker and Sheffield City Council.
  • 2018-21: Chronic disease and healthy ageing at the intersections: social locations, biomarkers, and health practices. (PI) ESRC £198,000.
  • 2016-18:  Social inequalities in extending working lives of an ageing workforce. (Co-I). ESRC £171,000.
  • 2014:  Randomised Controlled Trial of Peer Support in Type 2 Diabetes Health Economic Assessment. (Co-I). Peers for Progress £30,000.
Teaching activities

Dan teaches and supervises students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His teaching is focussed on methods, health inequalities and ageing.

Dan’s teaching is always informed by his research experience which has entailed leading or co-leading a wide variety of projects and publishing actively in his disciplines.

Dan is currently convenor on SCS6107 Researching Society and the dissertation and extended essay modules (SCS3001, 3002, 3003, 3044, 3050).

Professional activities and memberships

Co-Director of Wellcome Trust Public Health Economics and Decision Science Doctoral Training Centre.

Postgraduate Supervision

Current postgraduate students

Sophie Bright. Incorporating intersectionality within a microsimulation of alcohol control interventions. Co-supervisor. Wellcome Trust Public Health Economics and Decision Science, 2022. Sophie

Maxine Kuczawski. The social determinants of health in adolescents. Co-supervisor. ESRC/White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership Collaborative Award, 2021.

Shidong Huang. Exploring Chinese nursing home residents’ levels of satisfaction with service provision. Co-supervisor. Self-funded, 2020.

Topics of interest

I am interested in supervising students who are working in the area of health inequalities, intersectionality and/or healthy ageing.