Dr Karen Lumsden

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.

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.

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.

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 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.