Rate My Professor Bridgette Wessels

Professor Bridgette Wessels is Professor in the Sociology of Inequalities (Sociological & Cultural Studies) in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. She studied sociology and the sociology of culture at the Universities of Durham and York, earning a BA (Hons) in Sociology from Durham, an MA in Sociology of Contemporary Culture (ESRC-funded) from York in 1994, and a D.Phil. (ESRC-funded) from the University of Sussex in 2000 on the innovation and use of telematics. Following two post-doctoral research projects at the Universities of Durham and Newcastle, she held her first lecturing post at the University of Sheffield, advancing to Reader in Digital Sociology in 2014 and founding the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Socio-Digital Research (IRiS). She subsequently served as Professor of Sociology at Newcastle University before joining Glasgow as Professor of Social Inequality. At Glasgow, she founded the Glasgow Social and Digital Change Group, leads the College of Social Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Theme on Digital Society and Economy, co-leads the ESRC Productivity Institute's Scottish Forum, hosts Professor Jane Duncan's BA Global Professorship on state oversight and surveillance in Southern African countries, and is a founding member of the Digital Technology and Social Change hub in the European University Alliance CIVIS network. She is co-editor of Participations: journal of audience and reception studies and has secured substantial research funding from UKRI, EU, and other sources, managing large national and international teams.

Her research expertise centers on social change in the digital age, including inequalities in work, consumption, communication, and power; digital divides; social exclusion; financial exclusion and the e-economy; social media and political inequality; health inequalities and telehealth; welfare services and digital identity; local journalism and inclusion; and e-policing. Key projects include AHRC-funded work on knowledge and power in digital text and content, digital cultural engagement mediated by human and machine learning, and Beyond the Multiplex on film audiences; ESRC evaluations and seminars; EU COST actions; and the World Universities Network Web Observatory Project. Notable publications encompass books such as Inside the Digital Revolution (Ashgate 2007/Routledge 2016), Understanding the Internet: a Socio-cultural Perspective (Palgrave 2010), Exploring Social Change: Process and Context (Palgrave Macmillan 2014), Open Data and the Knowledge Society (Amsterdam University Press 2017), Communicative Civic-ness: Social Media and Political Culture (Routledge 2018), and Film Audiences: Personal Journeys With Film (Manchester University Press 2023, co-edited), alongside articles in journals like International Journal of Communication (2015) and Information, Communication and Society (2013). Her work informs strategies for funders including UKRI, EU, and NSF on responsible research and innovation and open data, with policy impact on inequality and e-inclusion across South East Asia, Australia, USA, and Europe, and civic partnerships in regions like South Yorkshire and Newham.