Appointed 2025

Christopher Pole is a career Sociologist and Emeritus Professor at the University of Brighton where he was Deputy Vice Chancellor from 2014 to 2020. Prior to this he worked at the Universities of Sussex; Warwick; Leicester and Nottingham Trent. He was Chair of SRHE for 4 years from January 2018 to December 2021. Principal areas of his research over many years have been in the Sociology of Education, including ten years working closely with Professor Sir Bob Burgess at CEDAR (Centre for Educational Development Appraisal and Research) at the University of Warwick.

His research has focussed, specifically, on Children and Childhoods, especially with regard to Children’s work and labour whilst still at school.

He has also published widely in the areas of Research Methods, particularly Ethnography and Fieldwork which includes four volumes of “Fieldwork” for Sage and numerous sole and jointly authored volumes on these and related topics.

Chris lives in East Sussex with his wife, Jacqueline, and Betty their thirteen year old Black Labrador.