Dr Suzanne Wilson is a Research Fellow at The University of Lancashire, working with communities to identify effective and sustainable means of fostering social inclusion.

Her expanding research portfolio focuses on how low-income coastal communities, regarded as ‘left behind’, can overcome barriers to participation in civil society. Areas of particular focus are education, community development and democracy. Rooted in participatory action research and citizen social science, the research process itself is recognised as a tool for social inclusion, and her research has influenced significant changes in local policy and practice. Suzanne is a community activist and passionate about equitable education and inclusive communities.

Along with being a primary school governor, Suzanne currently oversees the governance of a number of community organisations, including South Whitehaven Youth Partnership and Cumbria Community Foundation.

 

Dr Suzanne Wilson (BSc, MSc, MPhil, PhD)
Research Fellow in Social Inclusion and Community Engagement

• Deputy Director: Institute for Planetary Resilience and Community Transformation (PACT)
• Centre for Community Connectedness and Co-Operation, University of Lancashire

Recent publications:

• Wilson, S., et al., (2025). BRIDGE: Building Refugee Inclusion and Development through Group Engagement. Policy Brief.
• Wilson, S. (2025). Multiple and Fluid Positionalities in Community Research With Socially Excluded Families: A Case for Reflexive Sociology. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 26(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-26.3.4346
• Naughton-Doe, R., et al., (2025). Exploring perinatal loneliness as a key social determinant of perinatal mental ill health in the UK: findings from a multidisciplinary consensus statement exercise that mapped knowledge about measurement, prevalence, antecedents, impacts and interventions, and agreed future priorities for research, policy and practice, BMJ Open,
• Wilson, S., et al., (2025). Peripherality and Community Cohesion in Predominantly White, Low-Income Coastal Communities: A Response to Call for Evidence: Community Cohesion January 2025, Women and Equalities Committee
• Connected Communities Reports (2020-2023): Ormsgill, Moorclose, Woodhouse, Mirehouse