Mark McCormack

Mark McCormack is a Professor of Social Sciences in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Director of the Centre for Equality, Justice and Social Change. Prior to Roehampton he was an Associate Professor at Durham University, where he was also Co-Director of its Centre for Sex, Gender and Sexuality. His research examines how social trends related to gender and sexuality map onto everyday experiences of individuals. A core focus has been documenting how the decrease in homophobia in Britain and the United States influences the experiences of young people, including an expansion of socially acceptable gendered behaviours for male youth and improvement in life experiences of gay and bisexual youth. His work also explores drag cultures, non-exclusive sexualities, consumption of pornography, social deviance and the interface of sexuality with illicit drug use. His research also explores the social impact of COVID-19, with a focus on sexual practices and sexual cultures. 

He has published on these areas in leading international journals including Archives of Sexual Behavior, British Journal of Sociology, Journal of Sex Research and Sociology, across more than 40 journal articles. His first book, The Declining Significance of Homophobia, was published with Oxford University Press in 2012, and The Changing Dynamics of Bisexual Men's Lives was published with Springer in 2016. He is lead author of an introductory textbook, Discovering Sociology, published with Red Globe Press in 2018 with a second edition published in 2021 with Bloomsbury Press. 

Mark has a longstanding collaboration with harm reduction organisation The Loop. The Loop provides drug safety testing, welfare and harm reduction services at nightclubs, festivals and other leisure events. It also provides staff training on drugs awareness, in-house welfare service delivery, the prevention of drug related harm at events, and the delivery of ethical 'front of house' drug safety testing services. Mark is on the Research Action Group of The Loop and supports all aspects of research activity, including data collection and analysis, ethics, staff training and publications. He has published on this strand of research in Contemporary Drug Problems, with other articles under review and in development. 

Mark is a member of the Editorial Boards of Sociology, Journal of Sex Research, British Journal of Sociology of Education and the Journal of Men's Studies. Mark has been invited to speak internationally, including at Northwestern University, SUNY - Stonybrook, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, the University of Malta, and Flensburg University, Germany. He also held a Visiting Associate Professorship at Cornell University in 2014.  

Mark has substantial experience of engaging with the media, and has discussed his research on Thinking Allowed and Woman's Hour on BBC Radio 4, Nightwaves on BBC Radio 3, The Surgery with Aled Jones on BBC Radio 1 and The World Today Weekend on the BBC World Service. He has also appeared on international radio, and his work has been covered in many national and international magazines and newspapers, and he has written for The Independent. He welcomes enquiries from the press and from potential doctoral students, on topics related to sexualities and masculinities from a sociological perspective.