Joanna Malone
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow

Profile

Biography

Joanna is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the department and joined the Department of Sociology in January 2022 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate.

Joanna is a qualitative researcher and is interested in religion, non-religion, ageing, social and cultural change, the life course, and end-of-life.

Joanna is a rep for sociology in the York Research Staff Forum (YRSF) and co-directs the Religion & Spirituality in Society & Culture Lab in the Department of Sociology. Joanna is a member of the British Sociological Association and the Sociology of Religion Study Group (SocRel, British Sociological Association).

Joanna previously worked as an Associate Lecturer, specialising in the Sociology of Religion, at the University of Kent, a Research Coordinator at Canterbury Christ Church University, and a Research Assistant at Anglia Ruskin University. Joanna was previously the Co-Deputy Editor of the NSRN Blog and a committee member in the Sociology of Religion (SocRel) BSA Study group, acting as Early Career Researcher and Postgraduate Liaison Officer.

Research

Overview

Joanna is currently undertaking a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, entitled ‘Living and Dying Well in Old Age: Spiritual Needs in a Non-Religious Future’. Her work investigates how changing religious landscapes impact upon the spiritual, emotional, and pastoral needs of older adults who are non-religious and how ideas around flourishing and living and dying ‘well’ are shifting.

Joanna joined the Department of Sociology in January 2022 as a Postdoctoral Research Associate on a three-year Leverhulme Trust funded project, Becoming Citizens of ‘Post-secular’ Britain: Religion in Primary School Life, PI Anna Strhan (York), Peter Hemming (Surrey), and Sarah Neal (Sheffield). This study aimed to investigate the role of religion in the work that schools do to foster notions of citizenship and national identity, how children and their parents experience these processes, and what this means for children’s sense of belonging in wider society.

Publications

Selected publications

• Malone, J. (Forthcoming) Lived Experiences of Non-Believing Older Adults: Changing Landscapes of Belief. Bloomsbury.
• Malone, J., Strhan, A., Hemming, P. & Neal, S. (2026) Institutionalising Non-religion? Locating Non/Religion in a Welsh Primary School. Sociological Research Online
• Malone, J. (2026) Researcher Emotions and Positionality in Ethnographic Research: Reflections From Research in Primary Schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly
• Hemming, P.J., Strhan, A., Malone, J. and Neal, S. (2025) Schooling citizenship and character in a therapeutic society. The Sociological Review.  
• Strhan, A., Malone, J., Hemming, P., and Neal, S. (2025). Affective engagements with religion and citizenship in English primary schools. British Journal of Sociology of Education
• Malone, J., Strhan, A., Hemming, P. and Neal, S. (2025). Exploring Religion and Citizenship in Primary School Worlds. REtoday.
• Malone, J. (2023) The importance and limitations of ‘Choice’ in child-rearing practices for non-believing older adults, Religion, 53(2), 335–357
• Malone, J. & Dadswell, A., 2018. The Role of Religion, Spirituality and/or Belief in Positive Ageing for Older Adults. Geriatrics