Dr Majella Kilkey

Senior Lecturer in Social Policy (BSSc (Hons) (Queen's University Belfast), MA (York), DPhil (York))
Course Leader PhD Programme

Academic Profile

I joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2011, having taught in the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Hull since completing my DPhil ‘Lone Mothers Between Paid Work and Care: The Policy Regime in 20 Countries’ at the University of York.

I am an Executive Member of the UK Social Policy Association, and co-editor of Social Policy Review, a joint publication of the SPA and The Policy Press. I am also a member of the ESRC Peer Review College.

Research

I have a longstanding interest in the fields of comparative and international social policy, which through the adoption of the lens of globalisation has become informed by a transnational perspective. Areas of interest and expertise include: comparative gender analysis at the interface of paid work, care and welfare; international migration, including migration policies and migrants’ labour market and family experiences; families and social policies; Europeanization; and globalisation.

Much of my research has been informed by comparative, international and transnational perspectives, with relevant completed projects including: a comparison of family demography and policies across EU countries; a 20-country comparative analysis of policies for lone mothers; a comparison of gender equality in working, earning and caring across EU countries; a study on the gendered, classed and racialised character of the relationship between globalisation, migration and social reproduction with a specific focus on the UK and Central/Eastern Europe; and an ESRC seminar series ‘Gender, work and life in the new global economy’.

My current research interrogates family policies and practices through the lens of migration. A recently completed ESRC-funded project Situating men within global care chains: the migrant handyman phenomenon conducted with Professor Diane Perrons and Dr Ania Plomien (Gender Institute, LSE), sought to contribute to gendered understandings of the relationship between globalisation, migration and social reproduction, taking account also of the ethnic, ‘race’ and class dimensions of this relationship. Together with Professor Helma Lutz and Dr Ewa Palenga-Möllenbeck (University of Frankfurt), I have recently edited a special issue of Social Policy and Society on how variations in the configuration of paid domestic and care work across countries relates to cross-national variations in the patterning of welfare, gender and migration regimes. I am a member of an international network – Transnational Lives, Mobility and Gender - led by Dr Marzia Grassi (University of Lisbon) and recently awarded European Science Foundation Funding. Together with Dr Laura Merla (Université catholique de Louvain), I am also researching how transnational families’ care-giving arrangements are situated within institutional contexts.

My current research builds on three broader interests. The first relates to how policy configures the relationship between paid work and care, and began with my doctoral research on variations in the policy regime and its outcomes for lone mothers across twenty countries, and has continued with work on the recognition of care within higher education policy, and the naming of fathers as carers within work-life balance policies.

The second area of interest concerns the adoption of an intersectionality framework for the analysis of family and related policies, which recognises how gender is inflected by other social divisions (specifically, disability and ‘race’, ethnicity and nationality), and which I have pursued in my work on refugees and asylum seekers, migrant workers and disabled fathers.

The final area relates to my longstanding interest in comparative cross-national family policy research, which through the adoption of the lens of globalisation has become informed by a transnational perspective.

Funded Research Projects
Date	Sponsor	Details
2009-10	HEIF 4 Fund – Dissemination support for knowledge transfer research outputs, LSE	International seminar ‘Fathering and work-life balance: challenges for policy’ (with Prof. Diane Perrons and Dr Ania Plomien).
2008-9	ESRC	Situating men within global care chains: the migrant handyman phenomenon
2005-7	ESRC	Seminar Series ‘Gender, work and life in the new global economy’ (with Prof. Diane Perrons, Prof. Diane Elson, Prof. Linda McDowell and Prof. Ruth Pearson.
2003-4	Wakefield and Sheffield City Councils	The Quality of Life of Adult Asylum Seekers (with Prof. Gary Craig)
2002	EC	The ‘individual adult-worker’ model: towards gender equality?
2001	HEFCE	Experiences of non-traditional students at the University of Hull (with Steve Page)

Teaching

I have developed a substantial and varied teaching portfolio in social policy and related fields, which includes undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, core and optional elements, and taught as well as supervisory modes. I enjoy teaching and I am committed to achieving excellence in teaching standards. I strive to adopt a student-centred approach to teaching; to be inclusive, and to respond where appropriate in both content and method to the needs of students. I aim to make my teaching an enjoyable and stimulating experience for those who participate, so as to promote self-directed learning. I am a reflective teacher, and respond to feedback when appropriate in order to maintain the effectiveness of my teaching. My teaching is informed by my own research on topics around comparative gender analysis at the interface of paid work, care and welfare; international migration; families and social policies; Europeanization; and globalisation.

I currently convene the following undergraduate modules:

• SCS3026 Migration and Families
• SCS3001 Dissertation in Sociology
• SCS3002 Dissertation in Social Policy
• SCS3003 Extended Essay in Sociology
• SCS3004 Extended Essay in Social Policy

As well as being the departmental coordinator, I am also involved in the one-to-one supervision of undergraduate students taking extended essays and dissertations.

See our Undergraduate degree pages.

At postgraduate level, I am a member of the MA in Global and International Social Policy teaching team. On that programme I convene SCS653 Global Social Problems and SCS656 Masters Dissertation.

Postgraduate Supervision

I have supervised a number of research students through to completion. I welcome enquiries from students considering pursuing doctoral studies in areas related to my specific research interests as outlined above, as well as in the broader fields of comparative, international and global social policy.

To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:
Studying for a PhD in Sociology

Publications since 2005

Kilkey, M., Plomien, A. and Perrons, D. (forthcoming 2012) 'Migrant men’s fathering narratives, practices and projects in national and transnational spaces: recent Polish male migrants to London', International Migration

Kilkey, M. & Merla, L. (forthcoming 2012) 'Situating transnational families’ care-giving arrangements: the role of institutional contexts', Global Networks

Holden, C., Kilkey, M. & Ramia, G. (eds) (2011) Social Policy Review 23, Bristol: Policy Press.

Yeates, N., Haux, T., Jawad, R. and Kilkey, M. (eds) (2011) In Defence of Welfare: The impacts of the Comprehensive Spending Review, UK Social Policy Association.

Greener, I., Holden, C. and Kilkey, M. (eds) (2010) Social Policy Review 22, Bristol: Policy Press.

Kilkey, M. (2010) “Men and Domestic Labor: A Missing Link in the Global Care Chain”, Men and Masculinities, 13: 1, 126-149.

Kilkey, M. (2010) “Domestic and care work in the UK: locating men in the configuration of welfare, care, gender and migration regimes”, in Themed Section “Domestic and care work at the intersection of welfare, gender and migration regimes: European experiences” (Guest Editors M. Kilkey, H. Lutz and E. Palenga-Möllenbeck), Social Policy and Society, 9: 3, 443-54.

Kilkey, M., H. Lutz and E. Palenga-Möllenbeck (2010) “Introduction’ in Themed Section “Domestic and care work at the intersection of welfare, gender and migration regimes: European experiences” (Guest Editors M. Kilkey, H. Lutz and E. Palenga-Möllenbeck), Social Policy and Society, 9: 3, 379-84.

Kilkey, M. and H. Clarke (2010) “Disabled Men and Fathering: Opportunities and Constraints”, Community, Work and Family, 13: 2, 127-46.

Kilkey, M. & Perrons, D. (2010) “Gendered divisions in domestic-work time. The rise of the (migrant) handyman phenomenon”, Time and Society, 19: 2, 239-64.

Perrons, D., Plomien, A. and Kilkey, M. (2010) “Migration and uneven development within an enlarged European Union: Fathering, gender divisions and male migrant domestic services”, European Urban and Regional Studies, 17: 2, 197-215.

Gonzalez-Arnal, S. and Kilkey, M. (2009) “Contextualizing Rationality: Mature student carers and higher education in England”, Feminist Economics. 15: 1, 85-111.

Alsop, R., Gonzalez-Arnal, S. and Kilkey, M. (2008) “The Widening Participation Agenda: The Marginal Place of Care”, Gender and Education, 20: 6, 623-39.

Kilkey, M. (2008) “Disabled Fathers”, in Disability, Pregnancy & Parenthood International, No. 62.

Kilkey, M. (ed.) (2007) Disabled Fathers: towards a research agenda, Hull, CASS Working Paper Series, University of Hull. ISBN 1 903 704 37 5.

Kilkey, M. (2007) ‘Introduction’, in Kilkey, M. (ed.) (2007) Disabled Fathers: towards a research agenda, Hull, CASS Working Paper Series, University of Hull. ISBN 1 903 704 37 5.

Kilkey, M. (2007) ‘Identities, Practices and Experiences of Disabled Fathers. Some emerging research findings’, in Kilkey, M. (ed.) (2007) Disabled Fathers: towards a research agenda, Hull, CASS Working Paper Series, University of Hull. ISBN 1 903 704 37 5.

Kilkey, M. (2006) “New Labour and Reconciling Work and Family Life: making it fathers’ business?”, Social Policy and Society, 5: 2.

A full list of publications can be downloaded by clicking the link on the right of this page.