Sara Lynne Arber (born 19 March 1949) is a British sociologist and Professor at

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its Royal Charter, royal charter in 1966, along with a Plate glass university, number of other institutions following recommendations ...

. Arber has previously held the position of President of the British Sociological Association (1999–2001) and vice-president of the

European Sociological Association The European Sociological Association (ESA) is an academic association of European sociologists with over 2800 members. It is a member of the Initiative for Science in Europe and the International Sociological Association. History ESA was establis ...

(2005–2007). She is well known for her work on

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

and

ageing Ageing (or aging in American English) is the process of becoming older until death. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi; whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biol ...

, inequalities in

health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

and has pioneered research in the new field of sociology of sleep.

Career

Arber was born on 19 March 1949 in

Chingford Chingford is a suburban town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The centre of Chingford is north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walt ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, and raised in

Thames Ditton Thames Ditton is a suburban village on the River Thames, in the Elmbridge borough of Surrey, England. Apart from a large inhabited island in the river, it lies on the southern bank, centred south-west of Charing Cross in central London. Thame ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

. She graduated from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

with a

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

in Sociology 1972. She went onto postgraduate study at

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

and

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

before joining the Sociology Department of the University of Surrey as a lecturer in 1974. She obtained her PhD by publications from the

in 1991. She was made a Professor there in 1994, she acted as Head of Department (1996–2002) and Head of the School of Human Sciences (2001–2004). She has served on various committees of the

Economic and Social Research Council The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fundi ...

(ESRC) since 1984 and was a member of the Grants Assessment Panel (2008–2012). As well as presidency of the British Sociological Association, she has also acted as President of the

International Sociological Association The International Sociological Association (ISA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to scientific purposes in the field of sociology and social sciences. It is an international sociological body, gathering both individuals and national sociol ...

Research Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly or other form of organization. A committee may not itself be considered to be a form of assembly or a decision-making body. Usually, an assembly o ...

on Sociology of Ageing (2006–2010). She was a member of the 2014 REF (

Research Excellence Framework The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is ...

) Panel for Sociology.

Work

Ageing and gender

One of Arber's main areas of research has been in the field of the Sociology of Ageing and how gender inequalities develop in later life. Much of the seminal work in this discipline was developed together with Jay Ginn, such as ''Connecting Gender and Ageing'' in 1995 which won the

Age Concern Age Concern is the banner title used by several charitable organisations specifically concerned with the needs and interests of all older people (defined as those over the age of 50) based chiefly in the four countries of the United Kingdom. I ...

prize for best book on Ageing in 1996 and ''Gender and Ageing: Changing Roles and Relationships''. In 2000 she established and is co-director of the '' Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender'' (CRAG) at University of Surrey. She is co-editor of ''Contemporary Grandparenting: Changing Family Relationships in Global Contexts''.

Sleep

Sara has been pioneering empirical research on the sociology of sleep since 2001. Recent research was done through SomnIA (Sleep in Ageing), a four-year collaborative research project including researchers from sociology,

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

neuroendocrinology Neuroendocrinology is the branch of biology (specifically of physiology) which studies the interaction between the nervous system and the endocrine system; i.e. how the brain regulates the hormonal activity in the body. The nervous and endocrine ...

, engineering,

nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

and medicine. The SomnIA research covered various aspects of quality of sleep including amongst older people in care homes. Professor Arber has analysed survey data on the sleeping habits of 14,000 households finding that one in 10 people are using medication to assist in getting to sleep, and women have more problems getting to sleep than men. She has also researched "The biomedical and sociological effects of sleep restriction" for an EU

Marie Curie Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie (; ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), known simply as Marie Curie ( ; ), was a Polish and naturalised-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was List of female ...

research project focused on the effects of lack of sleep on health and wellbeing.

Honours

In 2000, Arber was elected into Academician of the Academy of the Social Science (AcSS): in 2014, after a change in name, she became a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Science (FAcSS). In 2008, she was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA), the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences. In 2012, she was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

(FRSA). Sara was awarded the British Society of Gerontology Outstanding Achievement Award 2011 for her research on ageing. In 2017, Arber received the British Sociological Association Distinguished Service to British Sociology award, given annually to an "outstanding individual who has contributed most to the discipline by leading an extraordinary life as a sociologist".

Selected works

* * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arber, Sara 1949 births Living people British sociologists Alumni of the London School of Economics Alumni of the University of London Alumni of the University of Surrey Academics of the University of Surrey People from Chingford Presidents of the British Sociological Association University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts alumni Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences British women sociologists Medical sociologists