Policy Press

Advances in Biographical Research

Series editors: Maggie O’Neill, University College Cork, Lyudmila Nurse, Oxford XXI and Lynn Froggett, University of Central Lancashire

Biographical research has a long and diverse genealogy, and its methods are connected across interdisciplinary boundaries by the interpretive storytelling of lives and experiences. These methods help us to gain insights into the workings of contemporary society and the relationship between biographical, personal and collective social issues. The growth and variety of biographical research methods challenges the disciplinary boundaries of biographical sociology and narrative methods by engaging in collaborative work with artists, film makers, geographers, historians and musicians. 

This book series provides a platform for authors who are exploring theoretical and methodological advances in biographical methods. It features innovative and experimental contemporary biographical scholarship alongside more established traditions, including oral history, narrative sociology, biographical narrative interview methods, free association narrative interview methods, in-depth hermeneutic life histories, the walking interview as biographical method (WIBM) and arts-based and performative biographical research.

Download the series flyer.

Download the proposal guidelines.

We welcome proposals for biographical research across a wide range of areas, including but not limited to:

  • theoretical and methodological advances 
  • digital culture and technology 
  • arts-based and performative methods 
  • the biographical, temporal and spatial changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic 
  • conflict, war and shifting geo-politics 
  • social change in the age of migration and the Anthropocene 
  • social care, motherhood, parenting, ageing 
  • social mobility, inclusion, educational studies 
  • inequalities, engaging with marginalised peoples and communities 
  • gender, sexualities, sexual citizenship and diversity 

Contributions may showcase research that: 

  • address problems in theory, method and analysis of biographical research;
  • explore lived experiences, in order to support policy and practice grounded in a concern for social justice; 
  • or design and develop texts books to support biographical research in the university curriculum.

If you would like to discuss submitting a proposal, please email the series editors:
Maggie O’Neill - maggie.oneill@ucc.ie
Lyudmila Nurse - lyudmilanurse@oxford-xxi.org
Lynn Froggett- lfroggett@uclan.ac.uk

Advisory Board
Jane Arnfield, Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
Dr Baiba Bela, University of Latvia, Latvia
Prof. Catherine Delcroix, University of Strasbourg, France
Mr John Given, Independent Scholar, UK
Prof. Dr. Kaja Kazmierska, University of Lodz, Poland
Prof. Jerome Krase, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, USA
Dr. Steffen Krüger, University of Oslo, Norway
Prof. Monica Massari, University of Milan, Italy
Dr Hab. Adam Mrozowicki, University of Wrocław, Poland
Prof. Dr. Gerhard Riemann, Technische Hochschule Nuremberg Georg Simon Ohm, Germany
Prof. Henning Salling Olesen, Roskilde University, Denmark
Prof. Dr. Fritz Schütze, University of Magdeburg, Germany
Tom Wengraf, University of East London, UK