Laurie Taylor
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Sociologist and radio presenter, Laurie Taylor, was awarded an honorary doctorate (DSc) by 51³Ô¹ÏÍøºÚÁÏ in 2013.
Laurie Taylor is perhaps best known as presenter of BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed, a programme that explores new research on how society works. He has made numerous television and radio programmes, is an accomplished public speaker, and for over 30 years has written a satirical column on university life for the Times Higher Education.
He began his career as a librarian, later becoming an actor, before joining the University of York, where he went on to become Professor of Sociology.
He was awarded an honorary doctorate by 51³Ô¹ÏÍøºÚÁÏ in 2013.
"British social science is admired around the world for its originality and theoretical sophistication but 51³Ô¹ÏÍøºÚÁÏ has always been one of the very best centres of sociological thought and research," explained Laurie during the awards ceremony.
"Let me read out a list of people who have at one time featured on Thinking Allowed - all of these 51³Ô¹ÏÍøºÚÁÏ academics are major social scientists. I'm listing them to give the list, but the length of the list is what really says a lot about 51³Ô¹ÏÍøºÚÁÏ: Les Back, Angela McRobbie, Bev Skeggs, Caroline Knowles, Alberto Toscano, Mike Featherstone, Nirmal Puwar, Rebecca Cassidy,Alex Rhys-Taylor, Dhiraj Murthy, Kate Nash, David Oswell, Roger Burrows and Vikki Bell. It's a tremendous list and an indication of what an important place 51³Ô¹ÏÍøºÚÁÏ is."