Dr Sophie Mary

In her research, Sophie is interested mostly in three things: 

1. How people decide on the kind of life they want to have – and how they try to get there. (An example might be what someone sees as a desirable family life and how they go about trying to have that life.) 
2. How people get through the day, particularly when trying to have the kind of life they want to have is difficult and tiring. (For example, how a woman feels about not quite managing to be the mother she thought she would be or having the family she thought she would have.) 
3. How people interact with others and with social institutions when their experiences are difficult and tiring. (For example, how parents experience their interactions with mental health or social care services when their family are going through a difficult time.) 

Most of her research focuses on the experiences of parents, usually those navigating difficulties, through mixed-method projects. She has also written on social theory about these topics.  

Inspired by this original stream of interests, her recent work has also tried to identify ways to make care more sustainable. Care holds up societies: whether that’s the familial care performed by women, or the care that families, friends, and professionals provide to people with mental or physical difficulties. It can be fulfilling, but it can also be exhausting and/or difficult; her research explores this ambivalence to identify ways care can be recognised, borne, and stretched.  

Within and beyond her research, Sophie is passionate about fostering a safe, supportive, and collective research culture. She has sat (and continues to sit) on Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion committees and have implemented various research culture initiatives within and beyond Cambridge.