SSE Researcher Joe Strong wins Anne Shepherd New Investigator Award 2026
Dr Joe Strong, who received the award from British Society of Population Studies (BSPS), is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the School of Society and Environment’s (SSE) department of Sociology, Politics and International Relations (SPIR).
The Anne Shepherd New Investigator Award celebrates a promising early career demographer and gives the recipient the opportunity to present their research in a plenary session at the society’s annual conference.
The award honours both the scholar’s previous research achievements and their future research agenda, identifying and highlighting upcoming contributions they will bring to the field.
Joe said: “To be recognised by the British Society of Population Studies is a huge honour; the plenary will be an opportunity to share my work to the field and fine tune my book.
“This award is a great springboard for my goal of bringing to the fore the politics of demography and the need for a critical turn in the discipline.”
Joe’s plenary speech will focus on his current Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship research at SPIR, where he interrogates how and where politics interact with knowledge production. He will draw on his research examining the absence of men in sexual and reproductive health to show how data shape the world, and the implications this has on people’s lives.
Find out more about Joe’s work, visit his website, or follow him on Linkedin and Bluesky