Today, Professor Steve Yearley steps down as Director of IASH, replaced by Professor Lesley McAra.
Steve Yearley was appointed for his five-year term in 2017, during which time he oversaw the 50th anniversary of the Institute's foundation, manoeuvred IASH through the choppy waters of the COVID-19 pandemic, and led the creation of the Institute Project on Decoloniality. 329 Fellows visited IASH during his Directorship from over 40 countries. More than £1.3m was divested in stipends to support research at Edinburgh. IASH organised 542 events, from concerts and lectures to visual art exhibitions and book launches. Steve holds the Chair in the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in Science, Technology and Innovation Studies. He is well known for his work in social studies of science and in environmental sociology. He is particularly concerned with areas where these specialisms overlap: for example in environmental controversies with a pronounced scientific element (such as with recent disputes over the safety or otherwise of GMOs and the emerging concerns around synthetic biology) or, for example, in attempts to foster public engagement in technical decision-making in environmental areas (for instance, through his work on citizen engagement in urban air-quality issues). Having moved to Edinburgh in 2005 with an appointment in Sociology, Steve soon took over the role of Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum. He then moved to STIS in 2013, before being offered the IASH Directorship in summer 2017.
Lesley McAra is Professor of Penology in the Law School at the University of Edinburgh, and Assistant Principal Community Relations (academic lead for the University’s civic responsibility strategy). She has just completed her term as the inaugural Director of the Edinburgh Futures Institute (driving a challenge-led trans-disciplinary programme of research, education and engagement on the applications of data driven innovation for social benefit). Lesley’s main research interests lie in the general areas of the sociology of punishment and the sociology of law and deviance, with a particular focus on juvenile justice and the aetiology of youth crime. For the past 24 years she has been Co-Director (formerly with David J. Smith and now with Susan McVie) of the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, a longitudinal programme of research on pathways into and out of crime for a cohort of 4,300 young people. In 2013, Lesley was recipient (with Susan) of the Howard League Research Medal which celebrates high quality research from ‘new thinking’ and ‘radical researchers’ who have changed penal policy and practice; this was followed in 2016 with the award of the Chancellor’s medal for research impact, and in 2019 with the ESRC prize for outstanding public policy impact. A former President of the European Society of Criminology, Lesley was awarded a CBE for services to Criminology in the 2018 New Year’s honours list and in 2021 she was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.