Dr Helen Holmes

Dr Helen Holmes is an interdisciplinary social scientist with expertise in the sociology of consumption, materiality and diverse economies, particularly circular economy.

Having completed a Geography BA at Durham University in 2002, she went on to carve out a career in marketing working for Yell PLC and The Co-operative Bank.

In 2005 Helen gained an MA in Human Geography Research at Sheffield University, and remained at Sheffield for the next nine years, undertaking an ESRC funded PhD exploring hair, hairdressing and the practices of women’s haircare (supervised by Prof Nicky Gregson), followed by two post-doctoral positions investigating interdisciplinary collaborations between material science and social science.

Holmes joined Manchester in 2015 as a Hallsworth Fellow based at the Sustainable Consumption Institute (SCI), undertaking a project exploring contemporary forms of thrift.  Following this she became a research fellow of the SCI in 2018, followed by appointment as Lecturer of Sociology in 2020.  Helen is also a member of the Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives, Co-editor-in-Chief of the Sage journal Sociology, and a member of the University Research Ethics Committee (UREC 5).