College position(s)
Life Fellow
Subject
Geography
Specialising in
Life Fellow; Former Mistress (2009-2022)
Professor Susan J Smith
Degrees, Awards and Prizes
MA, DPhil (Oxon), FBA, AcSS, FRSE
(PhD Cantab by incorporation)
Research themes
I have always been concerned with the challenge of inequality, addressing themes as diverse as residential segregation, housing for health and fear of crime.
For the past 15 years, my research has focussed squarely on inequalities in the housing economy, and particularly on those arising from the uneven integration of housing, mortgage and financial markets. I am particularly interested in the limits to markets and the compatibility of markets with an ethic of care: a topic at the heart of my Tanner Lectures on Human Values at Clare Hall delivered in 2010. These are available in the University of Cambridge’s audio & video collections and are published online.
Methodologically I have explored a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches, and a variety of participatory techniques. In collaboration with Dr. Mia Gray and Menagerie Theatre Company, for example, I was involved in a project (Public choices in times of austerity) dramatizing the findings of original academic research in a style – Interactive Forum Theatre, as developed by the Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal – designed to inform and empower stakeholder audiences. With Arts Council funding, we were able to tour this forum theatre event across 18 UK venues, stimulating debate across various stakeholder groups and giving voice to public opinion on key policy issues around austerity. This video provides a glimpse of how the project worked.
I have also enjoyed a longstanding collaboration with Rachel Ong-Viforj (Curtin University) and Gavin Wood (RMIT University) exploring housing pathways captured by the national panel surveys of the UK (BHPS and Understanding Society) and Australia (HILDA). Most recently, with Bill Clark (UCLA) we added the USA’s PSID to this mix, and completed a three-country ARC-funded study of ‘The Edges of Ownership’, building on the earlier work. Key findings include our paper on tenure transitions at the edges of ownership and a piece on housing and economic inequality in the long run.
Role and responsibilities
I was Mistress of Girton for thirteen years, during which time we celebrated the 150th anniversary of the Foundation of the ‘College for Women’ (on 16th October 1869). Many of the events are archived online.
I have also been a Trustee of Gates, Cambridge (2010-2018), a member of the University Council (2014-2018), external member of the Faculty of Music, and Chair of the 2021 Music Performance Review Implementation Group, which led to the creation of the Cambridge University (cross-faculty) Centre for Music Performance.
I am an Honorary Emerita Professor of Social and Economic Geography at the Department of Geography.
Teaching responsibilities
I have, over the years, lectured on a variety of topics relating to housing, health and economic inequality for undergraduate geographers. Currently, I give occasional lectures for executive education programmes run by CISL and the Judge Business School.
Other
Prior to moving to Cambridge, I was Professor of Geography and a founding co-director of the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University, and before that, Ogilvie Professor of Geography at the University of Edinburgh.
I have held a variety of honorary and visiting positions, most recently at the Bankwest-Curtin Economics Centre in Perth, and at RMIT University Melbourne.
I am a longstanding member of the Society of Authors, and a member of the Royal Geographical Society which awarded me the Victoria Medal in 2014.
Links