Sue Westwood

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Profile

Biography

Dr Sue Westwood
BSc (Hons), MSc (Geront), MSc (IntPsych), DipCnsPsych, PGDip (Gender, Sexuality & Human Rights), GDL, PhD (Law), FHEA

Senior Lecturer

I joined York Law School as a Lecturer in 2018 and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2021. I had previously taught law at Keele University, Coventry University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong, had been a research fellow/research associate at several universities, including the University of Surrey and the University of Oxford, and also a Visiting Scholar at Emory Law School, Atlanta, USA.

My previous research has focused on LGBTQ+ ageing in regulatory contexts. I am currently re-aligning my research focus to women, ageing and (in)equality in regulatory contexts relating to the gendered spaces of home, care, work and retirement. My approach is feminist, intersectional and relational, with an emphasis on remedying gender/age discrimination and disadvantage in later life. I am interested in legal pluralism, particularly in how legal rules operate (potentially differently) in the (feminised) closed care contexts of home care, residential care and nursing home care.

Research

Projects

Research projects under development

Does the law need to change in order to provide better protection from menopause discrimination? (Peer-review journal article under development)
The case against Advance Directives on Intimacy: a gender-based argument (Peer-review journal article under development)
The impact of the recent pension changes on women born in the 1950s and the (in)equality implications of gender-blind ageing policies including fiscal ones. (Research project proposal under construction)
Revisiting 'the woman question' (again): how do cisgender and trans women understand the meaning(s) of 'women' and identifying as a woman, particularly in the context of the (resisted) trans campaigns in support of being able to self-identify in law? (Research project proposal under construction)
Developing a good practice guide on working with LGBT+ people affected by dementia, with Dr Liz Price, University of Hull in collaboration with Jessica Kingsley Press

Previous research projects

Older LGBT+ People and COVID-19: This project, in collaboration with Professor Trish Hafford-Letchfield (University of Strathclyde); and Dr Michael Toze (University of Lincoln): explores the impact of COVID-19 on older LGBT+ people.
Religious Freedoms, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Rights in Older Age Care Spaces (J.B. Morrell-funded): identifying the key issues in relation to how religious freedoms, sexual orientation and gender identity rights are navigated in older age care spaces.

Publications

Selected publications

For a full list of publications see York research database

Peer-reviewed journal articles

Hafford-Letchfield, T., Toze, M. & Westwood, S. (2021) Unheard voices: A qualitative study of LGBT+ older people’s experiences during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. Health and Social Care in the Community

Westwood, S., Hafford-Letchfield, T. and Toze, M. (2021 frth) Physical and mental well-being, risk and protective factors among older lesbians /gay women in the United Kingdom during the initial COVID-19 2020 lockdown. Journal of Women and Aging.

Toze, M., Westwood, S., and Hafford-Letchfield, T. (2021 frth) Social support and unmet needs among older trans and gender non-conforming people during the COVID-19 ‘lockdown’ in the UK. International Journal of Transgender Health.

Westwood, S. (2020) The myth of ‘older LGBT+’ people: Research shortcomings and policy/practice implications for health/care provision. Journal of Aging Studies, 55, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2020.100880

Westwood, S., Willis, P., Fish, J., Hafford-Letchfield, T., Semlyen, J., King, J., Beach, B., Almack, K., Kneale, D., Toze, M. and Becares, L. (2020) Older LGBT+ Health Inequalities: Setting a research agenda. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, doi: 10.1136/jech-2019-213068.

Monographs and edited collections

Westwood, S. (Ed) (2021) Death Rights: Regulating the endings of life. Abingdon: Routledge.

Westwood, S. (Ed) (2018). Ageing, Diversity and Equality: Social justice perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge. [Successfully nominated by Routledge for the Knowledge Unlatched Open Access scheme]

Westwood, S, and Price, E. (Eds) (2016) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans* (LGBT*) Individuals Living with Dementia: Concepts, practice and rights. Abingdon: Routledge.

Westwood, S. (2016) Ageing, Gender and Sexuality: Equality in Later Life. Abingdon: Routledge. [Winner of the Socio Legal Studies Association (SLSA) Early Career Book Prize for 2017]

Book chapters

Westwood, S. (2021). Embodiment, choice and control at the beginning and ending of life: Paradoxes and contradictions. In S. Westwood (ed) Death Rights: Regulating the endings of life. Abingdon: Routledge.

Westwood, S. (2020). Older Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual People: Socio- legal perspectives on healthcare inequalities in later life. In M.A. Jacob and A. Kirkland (Eds) Research Handbook for Socio-Legal Studies of Medicine and Health, part of Law and Society series directed by Austin Sarat (Amherst, US) and Rosemary Hunter (Queen Mary, London), London: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Bishop, J. A., & Westwood, S. (2018). Trans(gender)/gender-diverse ageing: Possibilities for reframing gendered ageing. In S. Westwood (ed) Ageing, Diversity and Equality: Social justice perspectives. Abingdon: Routledge.

Westwood, S. (2018). Which ageing ‘families’ count? Older lesbian, gay and bisexual family forms – relational legal in/exclusions in (older age) family law. In J. Herring and B. Clough, (Eds) Ageing, Gender and Family Law. Abingdon: Routledge.

Westwood, S. and Lowe, J. (2017). The hidden sexualities of older lesbians and bisexual women. In C. Barrett and M. Gott (Eds.). Addressing the Sexual Rights of Older People: Theory, Policy and Practice, pp 56-69. Abingdon: Routledge.

Westwood, S. (2016) ‘Institutions, they’re very straight. My god I hope I don’t have to go into a care home’: Spatial inequalities anticipated by older lesbians and gay men. In: R. Harding R Fletcher and C Beasley (eds) ReValuing Care in Theory, Law & Policy: Cycles and Connections, pp 215-232. Abingdon: Routledge.

External activities

Overview

Sue has collaborated with a wide range of external organisations, including, in the UK,

City of York Council, Yorkshire MESMAC, LGBT Foundation, Opening Doors London, SAND (Safe Ageing, No Discrimination), and Brighton and Hove Switchboard, and internationally, SAGE USA, Fenway Health, Boston and Rainbow Health Ontario.

Memberships

Member of the Socio Legal Studies Association, the Law and Society Association and the Aging, Law & Society Collaborative Research Network of the Law & Society Association
Honorary Secretary and member of the British Society of Gerontology.
Committee member of the British Society of Gerontology’s Special Interest Group in Care Homes Research

Other Activities

Invited reviewer

Peer review journals:

Ageing and Society; American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementia; Canadian Journal for Law and Society; Clinical Gerontologist; Culture, Health and Sexuality; Health Promotion Journal of Australia; Housing Studies; International Journal of Law and Psychiatry; Journal of Academic Development and Education (JADE ); Journal of Human Rights Practice; NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research); Psychology and Sexuality; Psychology of Sexualities Review; Research on Ageing; Social Epidemiology; Social Science and Medicine; Social Theory and Health; The British Journal of Sociology; The Journal of Medical Ethics; The Journal of Nursing Ethics; The Sociological Review.

Book publishers:

Routledge and Policy Press.

Teaching

Undergraduate

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

I have taught/am teaching on the following modules:

LLB Introduction to Law and Society (Year 1)
LLB Legal Concepts (Year 1)
LLB Foundations in Law (Obligations) (Years 1 and 2)
LLB Dissertation (Year 3)

I have designed, and am Module Leader for, the third-year LLB module, Law, Gender and Sexuality (LAW00064H), which is studied by both Law and Social Policy undergraduates. I have a new Module, Law and Emotion, under development.

Postgraduate

I am Module Leader for the postgraduate law optional module, Law, Gender and Sexuality (LAW00072M)

PhD Dissertations

I welcome inquiries from students interested in completing PhDs in my research areas.