This panel session addresses and problematises a phenomenon that is located at the very epicentre of the discipline of sociology, namely inequality. The panel draws on and showcases the expertise in the Cambridge Department of Sociology across different domains of research and levels of seniority – in ways that are conducive to collective discussion and mutual learning. The questions provided to the panellists were as follows:

1. What led you to study inequality and what difference does a sociological perspective make to the study of inequality?
2. What kind of inequality do you study and how does it intersect with other kinds of inequality? What key concepts have been driving your work?
3. What are the main challenges that come with being a sociologist of inequality? Do you have any advice for fellow sociologists?
4. In your experience, how has the study of inequality changed over time and where is it going?

Panel Members:

• Emeritus Professor Christel Lane: economic and political sociology of global inequality (02:20)
• Dr Brendan Burchell: inequalities in the labour market (10:55)
• Senhu Wang: race, migration, and inequality (20:23)
• Asiya Islam: the gendered politics of class formation (27:45)
• Nathalie Holloway: mixed race identity and the reproduction of whiteness (36:32)
• Kathryn Medien: racism, reproduction, anti-colonialism, and feminism (42:52)
• Emeritus Professor Göran Therborn: a global sociology of inequalities (48:46)

Video Recording:

Watch on Youtube.

Facilitators:

Panel moderator: Dr Jeff Miley.

Panel organizers: Elias Nosrati, Dr Marcin Smietana, Shuting Xia.