Professor Darren Smith

Professor of Geography / Institutional Lead ESRC MGS DTP

Darren works at the interface of Population/Rural/Urban/Migration Studies. He coined the term studentification and his research examines gentrification. He is Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and editor of Journal of Rural Studies and Population, Space and Place.

Dr Ahmad Hassan Ahmad

Senior Lecture Economics

Ahmad is based at Loughborough Business School, he researches mobile money, financial inclusion, exchange rates and fiscal policy in developing economies, with extensive publications in top journals across development, finance and international economics.

Dr Laura Valadez-Martinez

Senior Lecturer in Social Policy

Laura’s research focuses on living standards, child wellbeing and social policy, with particular interest in poverty measurement, income adequacy and non-monetary indicators of quality of life. She has strong collaborative links with government and charitable sector initiatives in the UK and abroad.

Dr Marco Antonsich

Reader in Political Geography

Marco is a political geographer whose research focuses on the ways ethno-racial diversity impacts on the idea of the nation and national belonging. He is also the founder and convenor of the Loughborough University Nationalism Network (LUNN).

Dr Nicola Paine

Reader in Behavioural Medicine

Nicola holds a BSc (Hons) and PhD in Sport and Exercise Sciences and completed prestigious fellowships. Her research explores how psychological stress and movement behaviours' influence chronic disease development, focusing on cardiovascular and respiratory health outcomes.

Professor Korbinian Moeller

Professor for Mathematical Cognition

Korbinian's research interests are on the development of mathematical skills and how we can facilitate them employing game-based and embodied approaches. With a PhD from University of Tuebingen (Germany), he joined Loughborough University in 2020.

Professor Dominic Malcolm

Professor, Sociology of Sport

Dominic conducts sociological research on a wide range of sport-related topics, and the intersection of sport, health and medicine in particular. He was Editor-in-Chief of the International Review for the Sociology of Sport (2018-2024).

Dr Michael Skey

Doctoral Programme Lead (Communication & Media) and Senior Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies

Michael joined the School of Social Sciences in 2016. His research interests include national belonging, globalisation, sociology, media events and rituals, mediatization, sport and discourse theory. He holds a PhD and has taught media and sociology at many higher education institutions.