Professor Kahryn Hughes awarded Fellowship to the Academy of Social Sciences

Professor Kahryn Hughes has been awarded Fellowship to the Academy of Social Sciences for her substantial contributions to social science.

We are pleased to share that the Academy of Social Sciences has welcomed Professor Kahryn Hughes to its Fellowship for her substantial contributions to social science. Professor Hughes, internationally recognised scholar in qualitative secondary analysis, has been a colleague within the School of Sociology and Social Policy for 25 years. As of 2025, Professor Hughes leads the MA Qualitative Research Methods for the School of Sociology and Social Policy and is the the Programme Leader for MA Social and Public Policy. 

We had the opportunitity to interview Professor Hughes following this exciting career achievement.

Please can you share with us your journey in academia and research that led to this award.

Absolutely! One of the defining opportunities of my career was being invited to be part of the founding research team for ESRC Timescapes in 2005. That project, as well as the many valuable collaborations it fostered, have supported a long interest in how we might observe how time operates not only within people’s lifetimes, but also as part of the research process itself. Professor Bren Neale passed on to me the role of the Director of the Timescapes Archive, and in this role some of my key academic contributions have shaped emerging debates on the temporality of methods, including new ways to conceptualise continuity, change, and return — both empirically and methodologically –– as well as how we conceive of evidence more broadly.

The Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences was awarded for my work developing methods for tracing, revisiting, and repurposing qualitative data across time, particularly qualitative secondary analysis.

What does receiving this award mean to you (personally and/or professionally)?

The Fellowship is really significant. To begin with, it is awarded based on the esteem of my peers and acknowledges my contributions to my discipline which is incredibly humbling, as well as rewarding. More broadly, as academics, we rarely get the opportunity to celebrate each other in this way – and so it’s exciting to be invited into a community where this is a core activity.  I’m very much looking forward to working with the Academy in the future.

Looking forward, what are you working on in terms of research?

I am currently enjoying a period of research leave during which I’m developing a series of publications on qualitative data science in global contexts increasingly shaped by AI.  These link with my work for the ESRC as part of a specialist task and finish group where I’m heading up a series of national consultation workshops on AI and qualitative data science, data archiving and reuse. It’s an amazing opportunity to be engaging with the world almost at the pace that it’s changing through conversations with leading social science experts in this area.

On my return from research leave, I am looking forward to being more actively engaged in a new Nuffield funded research project, led by Professor Max Henderson, University of Leeds, where I’m contributing methodological expertise to a study in examining the longitudinal connections between Musculoskeletal Disease, Mental Health, and economic inactivity.

Please can you share any advice for current students or early career researchers, who are looking to make an impact in the field of social science?

The sector has changed: funding is harder to find, time to pursue a research agenda is becoming more squeezed, while simultaneously the demands to produce outputs and engage in research are heightened. But what hasn't changed is the joy of collaboration. My advice is to keep talking with people whose interests align with yours – serendipity happens when you develop engaged conversations. Colleagues may unexpectedly become co-travellers in ways which are both unexpected and mutually enriching.

I've found that these collaborations unfold over many years. For instance, the Palgrave Macmillan book on Men, Families and Poverty with Professor Anna Tarrant, University of Lincoln, was the culmination of a 10-year relationship that started at a conference dinner in Prague when Anna expressed an interest in some of the Timescapes data. The book is unique, based entirely on methods of Qualitative Secondary Analysis, and aggregated research data from projects I’ve either worked on or have had collegial connections to. This collection of datasets spanned 20 years and allowed us to see patterns that weren't visible when studied in isolation. Sometimes impact comes not from creating entirely new data, but from creating new knowledge from what we already have using novel approaches developed through shared interests.

Anything else you would like to share?

Yes! I'd like to thank my nominees to the Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Ros Edwards and Professor John Goodwin, who have not only been generous in their support of this Fellowship, but also across my career. Also, it’s important to acknowledge how the intellectual work for which the Fellowship has been awarded has been developed with colleagues over many years – work I draw on and speak to. Finally, I’d like to thank the Academy members who voted in my favour. I very much appreciate their recognition and support.

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