Lucinda Platt joins CLS

Professor Lucinda Platt has just joined CLS as the new Principal Investigator (PI) of the Millennium Cohort Study. She is taking over from Heather Joshi who has been Director of the study since its inception. She will pick up work on the fifth survey of the children and their parents, which will take place when they are aged 11 in 2012.

Lucinda’s research interests are in ethnicity, child poverty and inequalities. She has published widely in academic journals on these topics and has carried out a range of research reports on ethnic diversity and disadvantage including: for the Equalities and Human Rights Commission on interethnic partnerships, for the Government Equalities Office on women’s economic inequalities, for the National Equality Panel on ethnic pay gaps, and for the Department for Work and Pensions on child poverty and ethnicity. In addition, 2011 will see the publication of her book for Polity on Understanding Inequalities.

She joins the Institute of Education from the University of Essex, where she took up post in 2000 after completing her DPhil in Sociology at the University of Oxford. Prior to her return to higher education, she was a social worker and adult literacy teacher. She will retain an association with the University of Essex leading on the ethnicity strand of the major household panel survey, Understanding Society. She spent 2010 as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Institute for Economic Analysis in Barcelona, working on research projects related to immigration, religion and children’s aspirations.

Lucinda said “I am excited to be taking over the lead on this unique survey with a great international reputation. The study illuminates contemporary children’s lives and circumstances and provides the opportunity to observe what makes a difference to their chances of health, wealth, and happiness as they grow up and into their adult lives.”

For further information on Lucinda’s research and activities see her profile page.