Susan Venn

Susan’s research interests include sustainable lifestyles, lifecourse transitions, longitudinal qualitative analysis, gender and ageing.

Susan is the researcher on EliCiT (Exploring Lifestyle Changes in Transition) which is exploring the opportunities and/or constraints for sustainable lifestyle changes during two life course transitions - having a first child and retiring. Susan originally joined CRAG (Centre for Research in Ageing and Gender) at the University of Surrey in September 2000 as a research administrator working on two projects, PETRAS (Policies for Ecological Tax Reform: Assessment of Social Responses) funded by the EU, and a US/UK comparison of clinical decision-making for older patients, funded by the US National Institute of Ageing. Susan completed her MSc (Distinction) in Social Research in 2004 and her PhD in March 2011. Her previous research has focused on the social context of sleep across the lifecourse, and she has worked on projects investigating couples’ sleep, the role of technology in young peoples’ sleep, and was more recently a researcher on a four year ESRC funded project looking at sleep in later life (SomnIA) (2006-2010).

Susan is Co-Director of CRAG (Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender) in the Department of Sociology at the University of Surrey, Honorary Secretary to the British Society of Gerontology (BSG), and is Secretary of the Averil Osborn Awards Panel for the BSG.

Selected Publications

Arber, S., Meadows, R. and Venn, S. (2012) Sleep and society, in C. Espie and C. Morin (eds) Handbook of sleep and sleep disorders, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Venn, S., Davidson, K. and Arber, S. (2011) Social Dimensions of Aging: Gender, in R.A. Settersten, Jr and J.L. Angel (eds), Handbook of Sociology of Aging, New York: Springer, 71-82.

Venn, S. and Arber, S. (2011) Daytime sleep and active ageing, Ageing and Society, 31, 197-216.

Arber, S. and Venn, S. (2011) Caregiving at night: Understanding the impact on carers’ sleep, Journal of Aging Studies, 31:2, 155-165.

Venn, S., Arber, S., Meadows, R., and Hislop, J. (2008) The fourth shift: exploring the gendered nature of sleep disruption among couples with children, The British Journal of Sociology, 59(1).

Venn, S., (2007) ‘It’s okay for a man to snore”: the influence of gender on sleep disruption in couples, Sociological Research Online, 12(5) http://www.socresonline.org.uk/12/5/1.html.