![Dr Karen Lumsden Dr Karen Lumsden](/img/200x200/staffpages/assets/images/default-profile-picture.jpg)
MA (Hons.), CertHE, MRes, PhD, FHEA
Senior Lecturer
- About
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- Email Address
- karen.lumsden@abdn.ac.uk
- School/Department
- School of Social Science
Biography
Karen is a sociologist, criminologist and qualitative researcher. Her research expertise includes the sociology of policing, emotional labour, death work and bereavement, victims' experiences, cyber-crime and qualitative methods including narratives, autoethnography, ethnography and reflexivity.
Karen returned to her alma mater, the University of Aberdeen in 2022. Previous academic posts include Associate Professor in Criminology at the University of Leicester, Assistant Professor at the University of Nottingham and Senior Lecturer at Loughborough University. Karen has conducted research, consultancy and evaluations in areas such as: policing, victims, digital media and online harms, and evidence-based policing. Her current research focuses on death work and emotional labour in policing.
While in the East Midlands, Karen played a crucial role in the development of police and academic partnerships. She was a founding member of the East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) and has been involved in a range of collaborative projects with police constabularies.
Karen has extensive experience of designing and delivering qualitative methods and academic skills training at universities including at undergraduate, Masters, and doctoral level, contributing to social research methods summer schools, and ESRC doctoral training centres, and for social researchers and police officers. She regularly delivers qualitative methods courses via the Social Research Association and focus group training for the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Summer School in Research Methods and Techniques. Training courses regularly delivered to a range of clients include: qualitative design, qualitative interviews, data analysis, thematic analysis, focus groups, writing qualitatively, ethnographic methods and observation, autoethnography, storytelling, narrative analysis, participatory action research, elite interviewing and trauma-based research.
Qualifications
- Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Learning & Teaching2012 - University of Aberdeen
- PhD Sociology2009 - University of Aberdeen
- Masters in Social Research2005 - University of Aberdeen
- MA Sociology (Hons)2004 - University of Aberdeen
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Member of the University of Aberdeen's 'Conversations on Death...' research group
Recruitment Officer for the Department of Sociology
Access and Articulation for the School of Social Sciences
Access & Articulation Committee (sub-committee of SRC)
Outreach and Engagement Committee (sub-committee of SRC)
- External Memberships
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Current:
Member of the Road Policing Research Network Advisory Group, Keele University, UK
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Editorial Board member - Qualitative Research journal
Member of the Social Research Association (SRA)
Member of the Association for Qualitative Researchers (AQR)
Member of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR)
Previous:
External Examiner, BA Programme in Sociology & Social Policy, University of Leeds, UK
External Reviewer/Assessor for BA Sociology and BA Criminology Programme, Middlesex University, London, UK
External Examiner, MSc Policing Degree, University of Derby, UK
Chair of Editorial Board - Sociological Research Online
Editor - Sociological Research Online
Editorial Board - Sociological Research Online
Editorial Board - Sociology
Editorial Board - SAGE Research Methods Cases
External Reviewer of university outputs for REF 2021 (Russell Group University). Sociology and Social Policy submissions
Advisory Project Group for NETSCC ID 16/115/18 Project: De-implementation in health and care services: what works, for whom, why, and in which contexts? A Realist Synthesis
Carnegie PhD Scholarship Advisor for Social Sciences
East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) Strategic Board (founding member)
Founder of EMPAC and Academic Lead of East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) Victims, Witnesses and Public Protection Network
Founder and Director of the Policing Research Group, Loughborough University
Mentor for the Feminist and Women Studies Association (FWSA)
Mentor at the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, Glasgow Caledonian University
Member of the British Sociological Association
Member of the British Society of Criminology
Member of the European Society of Criminology
Latest Publications
Precautionary policing and dispositives of risk in a police force control room in domestic abuse incidents: An ethnography of call handlers, dispatchers and response officers
Ethnography and the Evocative World of Policing. Bacon, M., Loftus, B., Rowe, M. (eds.). Routledge, pp. 71-86, 16 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: ChaptersReflections and Confessions on the Making of a Performative Autoethnography: University Professional Development Reviews and the Academic Self
Crafting Autoethnography: Processes and Practices of Making Self and Culture. Lumsden, K., Goode, J., Bradford, J. (eds.). Routledge, pp. 49-63, 15 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003309239-6
Crafting Autoethnography: Processes and Practices of Making Self and Culture
Routledge, London. 264 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksReflexivity and Feminism in Social Research: Its Legacy and its Current Role in the Context of Fast Academia and the Managerial University
Intersectional Feminist Research Methodologies: Applications in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Nyhagen, L., Cooke, J. (eds.). 1st edition. RoutledgeChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] https://www.routledge.com/Intersectional-Feminist-Research-Methodologies-Applications-in-the-Social-Sciences-and-Humanities/Cooke-Nyhagen/p/book/9781032507699#:~:text=Feminist%20Intersectional%20Research%20Methodologies%3A%20Applications,and%20re%2Devaluates%20existing%20approaches.
- [ONLINE] https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003399575/intersectional-feminist-research-methodologies-line-nyhagen-jennifer-cooke
How to Adapt Conventional Methodologies to an Online Format: Focus Groups
SAGE Research Methods: Doing Research Online. Snee, H. (ed.). SAGE Publications LtdChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)
- Research
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Research Overview
Karen has conducted extensive funded research, consultancy and evaluations on policing, victims and victimization (including domestic abuse), digital media and online harms, and evidence-based policing. Her research has been published in international sociology and criminology journals including for example: Sociology, British Journal of Criminology, Qualitative Research, Policing & Society, Mobilities, Sociological Research Online, Theoretical Criminology and Disability & Society.
She has researched and published on interpersonal cyber-crimes such as trolling, online harassment and abuse, and also police officers' views of cyber-crime. She co-edited the collection, Online Othering, which explores case studies of digital violence and discrimination on the web and was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019.
Karen is also an expert in qualitative research methods. Her second monograph, Reflexivity: Theory, Method and Practice, was published by Routledge in 2019. She also co-edited, Reflexivity in Criminological Research: Experiences with the Powerful and the Powerless, published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2014.
She is currently co-editing a collection on Crafting Autoethnography: Processes and Practices of Making Self and Culture with Dr Jackie Goode and Dr Jan Bradford, to be published by Routledge late 2022.
Karen is currently writing up findings from a Leverhulme Trust / British Academy Small Grant: Breaking Bad News: A Qualitative Study of Frontline Police Work with the Bereaved. This is the first study of its kind to explore the delivery of the death message by frontline police officers in the UK. As part of this body of work she is also preparing a monograph on Death and Bereavement in Policing to be published by Routledge in 2024.
Research Areas
Accepting PhDs
I am currently accepting PhDs in Sociology.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss your research ideas further.
Sociology
Accepting PhDsResearch Specialisms
- Criminology
- Policing
- Digital Media
- Victimology
- Sociology
Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.
Current Research
Karen is currently completing a Leverhulme Trust & British Academy Small Grant: Breaking Bad News: A Qualitative Study of Frontline Police Work with the Bereaved. This is the first study of its kind to explore the delivery of the death message by frontline police officers in the UK. She is also preparing a monograph on Death and Bereavement in Policing to be published by Routledge in 2024.
Past Research
Karen's early doctoral research was an ethnography of boy racers in Aberdeen and the social reaction to their behaviour. The research shed light on the common misconceptions concerning car modification (sub)cultures, which are labelled as deviant, risky and dangerous and whose rituals have helped fuel the myth of the boy racer. A monograph of this research, Boy Racer Culture: Youth, Masculinity and Deviance, was published by Routledge in 2013.
Knowledge Exchange
Karen has over 10 years' experience of knowledge exchange and public engagement with police organisations in the UK. While in the East Midlands, she fostered external working relationships with police constabularies including Nottinghamshire Police, Leicestershire Police, West Midlands Police, Northamptonshire Police, Gloucestershire Police, and the College of Policing.
While at Loughborough University she co-founded the East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) and subsequently led the EMPAC Victims, Witnesses and Public Protection Network as part of a HEFCE and College of Policing 'Policing Knowledge Fund' (Co-I £862,620). Karen also led the Policing Research Network at Loughborough University and was PI on an application for a mini-centre for doctoral training - 'Policing For the Future: Socio-Technical Resilience and Innovation'. This involved the award of £350,000 for five fully funded interdisciplinary PhD studentships.
Examples of research and evaluative work for police organisations and other partners over the past five years include:
- Evaluation of Operation Tutelage for Gloucestershire Police and the Roads Policing Network;
- Research on Active Citizenship and Migration: Development of Good Practice Guidelines on the Benefits of Involving Community Perspectives on Roma Migration and Integration Post-Brexit (with C. Tileaga, J. Aldridge, and S. Popoviciu);
- Evaluation of West Midlands Police Early Intervention and Prevention Delivery Plan (with H. Trivedi and G. Hyde-Dryden);
- Research on EU Migrants’ Experiences of Hate Crime in Lincolnshire Post-Brexit Vote: Police Support and Responses to Victims for Lincolnshire Police (with A. Black);
- Research on PLOD and Video Relay for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community: Evaluating What Works and Best Practice for Leicestershire Police (with A. Black);
Karen is currently a member of the Academic Advisory Group of Road Policing Academic Network (RPAN) at Keele University, a member of the Scottish Institute for Policing Research (SIPR), and a member of the Academic Advisory Group for Community Justice Scotland.
She has also delivered advanced research methods training to academics, social researchers and research professionals via the Social Research Association, and to police officers and staff via EMPAC and West Midlands Police.
Supervision
Current PhD supervision at the University of Aberdeen:
Chelsey Drew - Online Abuse and Victimisation
At Loughborough University Karen co-supervised four PhD students to successful completion in Sociology and Criminology:
2019: Sian Lewis - Sexual Harassment on the London Underground
2018: Austin Li - China’s Skateboarding Youth Culture as an Emerging Culture Industry
2017: Herminder Kaur - Disabled Adolescents’ Use of the Internet
2017: John Whittle - Social Networking, Friendship and Education
Supervisees
Funding and Grants
2022. Principal Investigator. Evaluation of Operation Tutelage. £11,200. Gloucestershire Police and Roads Policing Academic Network, UK.
2020-22. Principal Investigator. Breaking Bad News: A Qualitative Study of Frontline Police Work with the Bereaved. £9955. Leverhulme Trust funded British Academy Small Grant.
2019. Principal Investigator. LIASON Bid. £1000. Institute of Advanced Studies, University of Leicester, UK.
2018-19. Principal Investigator. Building an Evidence-Base for the Policing of Interpersonal Cyber-Violence: Examining the Experiences of Perpetrators in relation to the use of Digital Tools in Domestic Abuse and Stalking. £4043. College Research Development Fund, University of Leicester, UK.
2018-19. Co-Investigator. Active Citizenship and Migration: Development of Good Practice Guidelines on the Benefits of Involving Community Perspectives on Roma Migration and Integration Post-Brexit. £36,567. Enterprise Project Grant funded via a Higher Education Innovation Fund, Loughborough University, UK (with Tileaga, Cristian (PI), Salomea Popoviciu (Co-I), Karen Lumsden (Co-I) and Jo Aldridge (Co-I)).
2018. Co-Investigator. Improving the Health of Our Online Civic Culture: New Frontiers in the Social and Information Sciences (The Online Civic Culture CDT). £350,000. Loughborough University, UK (with Chadwick, Andrew (PI), Louise Cooke (Co-I), John Downey (Co-I), Suzanne Elayan (Co-I), Tom Jackson (Co-I), Karen Lumsden (Co-I), Simone Natale (Co-I), Martin Sykora (Co-I), Cristian Tileaga (Co-I), Cristian Vaccari (Co-I)).
2016. Principal Investigator. Conference on Online Othering: The Dark Side of the Web. £1750. Internal funding from the Centre for Research in Communication and Culture, Loughborough University, UK (with Emily Harmer (Co-I)).
2016-17. Principal Investigator. An Evaluation of West Midlands Police Early Intervention and Prevention Delivery Plan. £38,000. West Midlands Police, UK (with Helen Trivedi (PI) and Georgia Hyde-Dryden (Co-I)).
2015-17. Co-Investigator. East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC). £862,620. College of Policing and HEFCE Policing Knowledge Fund. Lead of the Victims, Witnesses and Public Protection Network at Loughborough University (with University of Northampton (PI)).
2015-18. Principal Investigator. Policing for the Future: Socio-Technical Resilience and Innovation. (Mini centre in doctoral training). £350,000 Loughborough University, UK (with 9 Co-Investigators from across Loughborough University).
2015. Principal Investigator. Victims’ Journeys through the Criminal Justice System. £3000. Enterprise Project Grant awarded via a Higher Education Innovation Fund, Loughborough University, UK.
2015. Principal Investigator. Qualitative Methods Courses for Police Officers. £2000. Enterprise Project Grant awarded via a Higher Education Innovation Fund. Loughborough University, UK.
2015-17. Co-Investigator. Loughborough University Advanced Training Courses in Social Sciences: Methodological Advances in Applied Ethnography. £28,999. ESRC Non-Standard FEC Grant (with Downey, John (PI) and other Loughborough academics (Co-Is)).
2014-15. Principal Investigator. Nottinghamshire Police and Loughborough University Strategic Partnership Development. £117,179. Enterprise Project Grant funded via a Higher Education Innovation Fund. Loughborough University, UK.
- Teaching
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Programmes
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
- Undergraduate, 4 year, September start
Teaching Responsibilities
Karen teaches on various sociology and criminology undergraduate courses at the University of Aberdeen.
Karen is also the Recruitment Officer and Access & Articulation Officer for the Department of Sociology.
Non-course Teaching Responsibilities
Karen has extensive experience of delivering qualitative research methods and academic skills training including undergraduate, Masters and doctoral teaching on qualitative research methods, contributing to social research methods summer schools, and ESRC doctoral training centres.
Examples of courses delivered include: qualitative design, qualitative interviewing, qualitative data analysis, thematic analysis, ethnographic methods and observation, narratives and storytelling, narrative analysis, participatory action research, and reflexivity.
She has also designed and delivered qualitative research methods training to social research and consultancy organisations, charities, government, and NGOs via the Social Research Association, and has delivered research methods training to police officers and staff including via the East Midlands Policing Academic Collaboration (EMPAC) and for West Midlands Police.
- Publications
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Public Criminology, Reflexivity and the Enterprise University: Experiences of Research, Knowledge Transfer Work and Co-option with Police Forces
Theoretical criminology, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 243-257Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480616689299
Austerity Policing, Emotional Labour and the Boundaries of Police Work: An Ethnography of a Police Force Control Room in England
The British Journal of Criminology, vol. 58, no. 3, pp. 606-623Contributions to Journals: ArticlesThe McDonaldisation of Police–Academic Partnerships: Organisational and Cultural Barriers Encountered in Moving from Research on Police to Research with Police
Policing and Society, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 75-89Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCyber-Trolling as Symbolic Violence: Deconstructing Gendered Abuse Online
The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Violence. Lombard, N. (ed.). 1 edition. Routledge, pp. 121-132, 12 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)'It's a Profession, it Isn't a Job': Police Officers' Views on the Professionalisation of Policing in England
Sociological Research Online, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 4-20Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780417724062
The McDonaldization of police-academic partnerships: Observations on what works and what doesn’t
Policing InsightContributions to Specialist Publications: ArticlesPolice Officer and Civilian Staff Receptivity to Research and Evidence-Based Policing in the UK: Providing a Contextual Understanding through Qualitative Interviews
Policing-A journal of policy and practice, vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 157-167Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/paw036
Analysis of Police Reports of Revenge Pornography and Domestic Violence Offences with an Online Element
Commissioned by Nottinghamshire Police.Books and Reports: Commissioned ReportsEU Migrants’ Experiences of Hate Crime in Lincolnshire Post-Brexit Vote: Police Support and Responses to Victims
Commissioned by Lincolnshire Police.Books and Reports: Commissioned ReportsEvaluation of West Midlands Police Early Intervention and Prevention Delivery Plan
Commissioned by West Midlands Police.Books and Reports: Commissioned ReportsMedia framing of trolling and online abuse: silencing strategies, symbolic violence, and victim blaming
Feminist Media Studies, vol. 17, no. 6, pp. 926-940Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1316755
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11327/2/Submission_3_FINAL_DRAFT.DOCX
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11327/1/Table_1_1_.docx
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11327/3/Cover_Page_2.docx
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11327/4/Cover_Letter_2.docx
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/11327/5/Author_bio.docx
PLOD and Video Relay for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community: Evaluating What Works and Best Practice
Commissioned by Leicestershire Police.Books and Reports: Commissioned ReportsPolice Control Room and Dispatch Responses to Domestic Violence Calls
Commissioned by Northamptonshire Police.Books and Reports: Commissioned ReportsThe Shifting Legitimacy of Knowledge Across Academic and Police/Practitioner Settings: Highlighting the Risks and Limits of Reflexivity
Reflexivity in Criminal Justice: Intersections of Policy, Practice and Research. Armstrong, S., Blaustein, J., Henry, A. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 191-213, 22 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Audit Culture, the Enterprise University and Public Engagement
Non-textual Forms: Web Publications and WebsitesThe McDonaldization of Police-Academic Partnerships: Observations on ‘What Works’ and ‘What Doesn’t Work’
Non-textual Forms: Web Publications and WebsitesBoy Racer Culture and Class Conflict: Urban Regeneration, Social Exclusion and the Rights of the Road
Order and Conflict in Public Space. De Backer, M., Melgaco, L., Varna, G., Menichelli, F. (eds.). 1st edition. RoutledgeChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)(Re)civilizing the Young Driver: Technization and Emotive Automobility
Mobilities, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 36-54Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2013.823716
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Aberdeen Beach Boulevard and the Bouley Bashers: A Response
Scottish Justice MattersContributions to Journals: ArticlesReflexivity in Criminological Research: Experiences with the Powerful and the Powerless
Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke. 336 pagesBooks and Reports: BooksBook Review: Public Engagement and Social Science edited by Stella Maile and David Griffiths
Contributions to Specialist Publications: Reviews of Books, Films and ArticlesYou Are What You Research: Researcher Partisanship and the Sociology of the Underdog
Approaches to Fieldwork: Volume Three: The Purpose, Task and Ambitions of Fieldwork. Hillyard, S. (ed.). SAGE Publications LtdChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)Anti-Social Behaviour Legislation and the Policing of Boy Racers:: Dispersal Orders and Seizure of Vehicles
Policing: a Journal of Policy and Practice, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 135-143Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/police/pau005
Speeding and Joy Riding
Shades of Deviance: A Primer on Crime, Deviance and Social Harm. Atkinson, R. (ed.). First edition edition. Routledge, 4 pagesChapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings: Chapters (Peer-Reviewed)- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315848556
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Book Review: Lush Life: Constructing Organized Crime in the UK by Dick Hobbs
Contributions to Specialist Publications: Reviews of Books, Films and Articles