Ciaran Acton

Dr Ciaran Acton joined the School of Sociology and Applied Social Studies at Ulster University in 2010 and is currently Course Director and Lecturer in sociology. Before moving to Ulster he was a Research/Teaching Fellow in the School of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work at Queens University Belfast.Dr Acton’s research interests include communication ‘disorders’, conversation analysis, the sociology of disability, and the sport/society nexus. He has examined speech dysfluencies, such as stammering, from a sociological perspective and his research findings have been published in various journals, including Sociology and Stammering Research. One of the distinctive aspects of this work was the application of a conversation analytic approach to a field traditionally dominated by quantitative perspectives and statistical models.His current research adopts a critical perspective on the relationship between sport and identity, and the role of cross-community sport in divided societies. He is also involved in pedagogic research on student engagement and the teaching of undergraduate quantitative research methods.He has co-authored an introductory text on quantitative research methods (SPSS for Social Scientists), published by Palgrave, and is currently co-editing a book for Routledge’s Sport, Culture and Society series (Sport and Contested Identities).Dr Acton has worked closely with various cross-community sporting organisations and a number of stammering support groups, including the British and Irish Stammering Associations. He is a member of the British Sociological Association and the Sociological Association of Ireland, and was awarded Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2016.