Originally trained as a Geographer, Susan Halford is Professor of Sociology and for over a decade has worked across the social and engineering sciences. She is co-Director of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute and President of the British Sociological Assocation (2018-21).  

Susan's present reserch focusses on the politics and practices of digital data, artefacts and expertise, with specific attention to the processes of creating and intervening in emergent 'sociodigital' futures. She has published key interventions on the Semantic Web (with Mark Weal and Catherine Pope, awarded the British Sociological Association/SAGE prize for innovation and excellence in 2014), social media analytics and big data practices. She is well-known for her work as an organizational sociologist, in which she has explored the dynamics of organizational change with particular reference to gender identities, to ageing and - linking both - to the intrasectionalities of digital technologies in everyday practice across diverse workplaces. 

After a decade of interdisciplinary education and research in Web Science at the University of Southampton, Susan joined the University of Bristol in 2019 and became founding co-Academic Lead for the Bristol Digital Futures Institute. Susan sits on a number of strategic and advisory boards, including the EPSRC Digital Economy Programme Board, the UK Biobank Ethics Advisory Group and is Chair of the ESRC New and Emerging Forms of Data Strategic Advisory Group.