Professor Elizabeth Peel

BA, Diploma Applied Psychology, PhD, C.Psychol, FBPsS

Pronouns: She/her
  • Acting Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities
  • Professor of Communication and Social Interaction

Research groups and centres

Elizabeth is Acting Dean of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities at Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é and Professor of Communication and Social Interaction.

Having graduated with a joint honours degree in Psychology and Sociology and a Diploma in Applied Psychology from the University of Nottingham (1997), Professor Peel completed their PhD in Social Psychology at Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é. Prior to (re)joining Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é in April 2016, Elizabeth was Professor of Psychology and Social Change at University of Worcester and has also held academic posts at University of Edinburgh and Aston University. Elizabeth has received a number of awards, including the Feminism & Psychology undergraduate prize (1998), American Psychological Association distinguished book award (2007), and British Psychological Society (BPS) awards for outstanding research (2012) and textbook prize (2013). Elizabeth held an inaugural British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship for the ‘Dementia Talking: Care, conversation and communication’ project, and was elected Fellow of the BPS in 2016.

Elizabeth Chaired the BPS Psychology of Sexualities Section (2014-2017), and edits (with Elizabeth Stokoe) the Routledge ‘Gender and Sexualities in Psychology’ book series. She is an executive committee member of International Society for Critical Health Psychology () and led the organisation of the society’s 10th Biennial Conference in July 2017. They are co-I on the ESRC-funded Future of Legal Gender project (2018-2022).

Professor Peel has been awarded 21 research grants worth £2M from funders including the ESRC, the British Academy and the Alzheimer’s Society and has produced over 200 scholarly outputs and conferences presentations.

Elizabeth's research, under the umbrella ‘critical social psychology’, principally coheres around two main areas: (non-heterosexual) sexualities, especially with regard to families and relationships, and health communication, particularly in relation to people living with a dementia. She has published widely in the areas of sexualities diversity training, same sex relationships and families, type 2 diabetes, and latterly dementia care and communication, using predominantly (but not exclusively) post-positivist qualitative methods including discursive psychology and conversation analysis.

Professor Peel has taught undergraduate courses in sexualities and qualitative research methods at undergraduate and masters levels. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2018), and a UK Council for Graduate Education (UKCGE) Recognised Research Supervisor (2020).

Professor Peel is an experienced doctoral research supervisor and welcomes conversations with prospective PhD students.

Current postgraduate research students

  • Lauren Hall: Interactional management of agency in homecare work with virtual assistants, ESRC funded.
  • Felicity Slocombe: Managing Selfhood in Dementia: Interrogating the operationalisation of identity work and its relationship with media representations, ESRC funded.
  • Manuel Torres-Sahli: Representations of ageing in Chilean discourse, Chilean Government funded.
  • : Legal decision-making in dementia: A conversation analytic study, ESRC funded.

Completed postgraduate research students

  • Gabriel Knott-Fayle (2021) Cisgenderism in sports talk: A discursive analysis, Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é funded.
  • Aysegul Dilbirligi (2021) Attitudes towards alternative parenting in the UK and Turkey, Turkish Government funded.
  • Scott Varney (2020) Watching sitcoms together: A discursive analysis, Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é.
  • Jordan Elliott-King (2019) Physical activity interventions in dementia, Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é funded.
  • Joseph Ford (2017) Empathy in palliative care interactions, Ãå±±ÂÖ¼é funded.
  • Heather Yemm née Vickers (2017) Understandings of mild cognitive impairment, University of Worcester funded.
  • Shahreen Bashir (2017) Young people living with liver disease, Children’s Liver Disease Foundation funded.
  • Kirsty Danielle Stephens (2016) Constructing the female sporting body, University of Worcester funded.
  • Jan Grove (2014) Same-sex couple counselling, University of Leicester.
  • Amy Burton née Bennion (2012) Quality of life in older patients with age-related macular degeneration, Aston University funded.
  • Adam Jowett (2011) Chronic illness in non-heterosexual contexts, Aston University funded.
  • Newman, H.J.H. & Peel, E. (2022) “An impossible dream”?: Non-binary people’s perceptions of legal gender status and reform. Psychology & Sexuality.
  • Knott-Fayle, G., Peel, E. & Witcomb, G.L. (2022) Prejudice in ‘inclusive’ spaces: Cisgenderist collusion in the interview context. Feminism & Psychology.  
  • Witcomb, G.L. & Peel, E. (Eds.), (2022) . Routledge.
  • Peel, E., Riggs, D.W & Ellis, S. J. (2022). In M. Augoustinos, K. Durrheim & C. Tileaga (Eds.) Routledge International Handbook of Discrimination, Prejudice, and Stereotyping (pp. 104-117) Routledge.
  • Di Lorito, C., Bosco, A., Peel, E. et al. (2021) Are social and health care services, and support organizations meeting the needs of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) caregivers of LGBT people living with dementia? A scoping review of the literature. Aging & Mental Health 
  • Knott-Fayle, G., Peel, E. & Witcomb, G.L. (2021) (Anti-)feminism and cisgenderism in sports media. Feminist Media Studies.   
  • Peel, E. & Ellis, S.J. (2021) Aging and Chronic Illness in Language and Sexuality. In K. Hall & R.E Barrett (Eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford University Press.
  • Ellis, S.J., Riggs, D.W. & Peel, E. (2020) Cambridge University Press. Second Edition.
  • Peel, E. & Newman, H.J.H. (2020) Gender’s wider stakes: Lay attitudes to legal gender reform. feminists@law, 10(2).
  • Jowett, A. & Peel, E. (2019) Reshaping relational scripts? Marriage and civil partnership proposals among same-gender couples. Psychology & Sexuality, 10,(4), 325-337.
  • Harding, R. & Peel, E. (2019) Polyphonic legality: Power of Attorney in dialogic interaction. Social & Legal Studies, 28(5), 675-697. 
  • Peel, E., Holland, C.A. & Murray, M. (2018)  Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Rivers, I., Gonzalez, C., Nodin, N., Peel, E. & Tyler, A. (2018) LGBT people and suicidality in youth: a qualitative study of perceptions of risk and protective circumstances. Social Science & Medicine, 212,1-8 
  • Jowett, A. & Peel, E. (2017) ‘A question of equality and choice’: Same-sex couples’ attitudes toward civil partnership after the introduction of same-sex marriage. Psychology & Sexuality, 8(1-2), 69-80.   
  • Riggs, D.W. & Peel, E. (2016) . Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Peel, E. & Harding, R. (Eds.), (2016) . Routledge.
  • Erol, R., Brooker, D. & Peel, E. (2016) The impact of dementia on women internationally: An integrative review. Health Care for Women International, 37(12), 1320-1341.
  • Peel, E. (2015) Diagnostic communication in the memory clinic: A conversation analytic perspective. Aging & Mental Health, 19(12), 1123-1130.
  • Peel, E. (2014) ‘The living death of Alzheimer’s’ versus ‘Take a walk to keep dementia at bay’: Representations of dementia in print media and carer discourse. Sociology of Health and Illness, 36(6), 885-901.
  • Peel, E. & Harding, R. (2014) “It’s a huge maze, the system, it’s a terrible maze”: Dementia carers’ constructions of navigating health and social care services. Dementia: The International Journal of Social Research and Practice, 13(5) 642–666.