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Dr Yunis Alam

Head of Department-Sociology/Criminology

Faculty/Dept/School School of Social Sciences
(Faculty of Management, Law and Social Sciences)
Emailm.y.alam1@bradford.ac.uk
Telephone +441274 233178

Biography

Yunis Alam is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Bradford. He has particular interests in public sociology, ethnography, ethnic relations, consumption, popular culture and how these relate with and have an impact on identity. 

Research

Ethnic relations, consumption, radicalisation, social cohesion, multiculturalism, ethnography, public sociology. I have completed a number of externally funded research projects, each exploring some of themes outlined above, using, in the main, an ethnographic methodology.

I am presently exploring the significance and sociological understanding of car culture. I have given a number of high profile conference/seminar papers around the car, ethnicity and identity and also produced a research article exploring similar themes. Using research that has underpinned this work, I am developing a more intensive research project which looks at a range of interlinked issues, including consumption, taste, the performance of ‘race’ and racism in greater depth. On the basis of this research, I hope to publish a book by 2020 (under contract with Policy Press). 

Teaching

Teaching interests

My areas of teaching interest and expertise are fairly closely connected to the broader concept of identity; who we think we are, and what forces and structures help us locate us in the world with our own sense of self. Specifically, research around ethnicity/race, class, taste, consumption and popular culture hold particular fascination for me, At the same time, I have a long standing interest in the extent to which postcolonial literatures reveal insights about society, its structures and identity more generally.

I am presently supervising a number of students with a wide range of focal points. One research student is undertaking ethnographically oriented work as a means of explore the intersections of identity and community through heavy metal culture and music, I am also co supervising a student who is analysing aspects of policing, with specific interest in the extent to which subjectivity informs stop and search opportunities. I have also supported students researching the motives and features of contemporary terrorism, Islam in the West, Higher Education and Muslim heritage students in the UK as well as research relating specifically to the city of Bradford, its history of migration and transition.