Emma KirbyAcademic

Professor of Sociology

UNSW Sydney (University of New South Wales)

Cited in UK press coverage of health & social care

2 citations

Across 1 topic, first on 10 Aug 2026, most recently 27 Aug 2026.

Biography

Emma Kirby is a Professor of Sociology and leader of The Care Lab in the School of Social Sciences at UNSW Sydney, where she is also Associate Dean Societal Impact, Equity & Engagement for the Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture. The Care Lab is an interdisciplinary research hub dedicated to exploring the social and relational dimensions of care, spanning informal care, illness, death, dying, and bereavement. Her research provides a critical sociological analysis of advanced illness and end-of-life care, with a focus on relationships in healthcare, health care practice, diversity, and social justice. She has previously held roles as a UNSW Scientia Fellow and an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow in the Centre for Social Research in Health. She holds a David Parkin Visiting Professorship at the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society, strengthening her collaborations with UK researchers. She has argued for greater attention to the social and relational dimensions of care and the implications of pandemic-related delays for dying and bereavement.

References

1.Professor Emma Kirby – UNSW Staff Profile — Role title, organisation, bio detail, ARC grants, awards, editorial board memberships
2.Professor Emma Kirby | UNSW Research — Role, The Care Lab leadership, research focus on end-of-life care, ORCID, prior fellowships
3.The Care Lab | Social Sciences – UNSW Sydney — Description of The Care Lab, its research themes, and Kirby's leadership role
4.Emma Kirby – UNSW | LinkedIn — David Parkin Visiting Professorship at University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society
5.Emma Kirby – Google Scholar — Citation count (3,742+), research keywords: Sociology, Health Sociology, Qualitative, Care, Caring

Expertise

Cited on

Unpaid carers

Stated areas of expertise

End-of-life and palliative care sociology
Informal and unpaid care
Pandemic impacts on health and dying
Health inequalities and diversity in care
Sociology of health and illness
Bereavement and grief

Notable achievements

Awarded ARC Discovery Project Grant (DP240101775, $343,081) for 'Understanding the implications of pandemic delays for the end of life' (2024–2026), co-led with A/Prof John MacArtney (University of Warwick, UK). Source ↗
Appointed David Parkin Visiting Professor at the University of Bath's Centre for Death and Society. Source ↗
Published over 104 journal articles, with Google Scholar recording more than 3,742 citations. Source ↗
Received the 2018 UNSW Faculty of Arts & Social Science Dean's Award for Scholarly Impact. Source ↗
Serves on the editorial boards of Health Sociology Review (2015–present) and BMJ Open (2020–present). Source ↗

What they’ve said

“We carry this assumption that caring for your parents is the most normal, safe dynamic but this paints over instances of often decades-long abuse.”
Professor of Sociology at University of New South Wales · Unpaid carers · 27 Aug 2026 · The impossible task of caring for ageing parents who did not care for you: ‘There’s a lot of reliving old triggers’ ↗
“'Different forms of cognitive impairment, dementia, Alzheimer's, different illnesses and diseases and frailties, manifest in very complicated ways over time and that can play out in anger, in resentment, in frustration, that often the carers have to bear the brunt of,' says Emma Kirby, Professor of Sociology at UNSW Sydney.”
Professor of Sociology at UNSW Sydney · Unpaid carers · 10 Aug 2026 · Will Burnham’s Plan to Reform Social Care Help Unpaid Carers? ↗

Source references

The impossible task of caring for ageing parents who did not care for you: ‘There’s a lot of reliving old triggers’theguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
Will Burnham’s Plan to Reform Social Care Help Unpaid Carers?shoutoutuk.org · 10 Aug 2026

Contact & links

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.

Professors, researchers and think-tank analysts quoted on the strength of their research rather than a clinical role. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.