My research focuses on risk communication particularly in terms of environmental issues and health. I am author of Media, Culture and the Environment (Routledge) and Media, Environment and the Network Society (Palgrave Macmillan) as well as numerous articles on media and risk communication. As well as my role as Professor of Sociology at the University of Plymouth I am Adjunct Professor in the School of Social Sciences, Monash University, Australia. I have been part of grant awards totalling in excess of £1 million from a variety of funders including ARC, ESRC, ERDF, Health Foundation and the British Academy.
I am a founding member of the International Environmental Communicaiton Association and former Editor-in-Chief of the Routledge journal Environmental Communication. I am currently an Editorial Board member of Environmental Communication and on the International Advisory Board of Environmental Media. At Plymouth, I am the research lead for the Environment, Culture and Society research group. At Masters level I teach a module on 'Media, Culture and the Environment' on the MA Environmental Humanities programme.
I welcome enquiries from potential PhD students.

• Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Manufacture (FRSA)
• Elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS)
• Founding member of International Environmental Communication Association http://TheIECA.org 
• Member of Board of Directors 2013-2017
• Member of the British Sociological Association (BSA)
• Member of International Sociological Association (ISA) and Research Committee on Sociology of Science and Technology
  
• Member of European Association for the Study of Science and Technology (EASST)
  
• Member of European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
  
• Member of European Sociological Association Research Group on Sociology of Risk and Uncertainty (SoRU)
  

• 2014- 2017 Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Communication, official journal of the International Environmental Communication Association www.tandfonline.com/renc
• Editorial Board Member, Journal of Environmental Media, 2019-
  
• 2013-2017 Board member, International Environmental Communication Association (IECA)
  
• 2011- Member of International Advisory Board, International Journal of Climate Change: Impacts and Responses.
  
• 2011-2013 Editorial Board Member of Sociology.
  
• 2009- Editorial Board Member of Environmental Communication
  
• 2008-2011 Associate Board member of Sociology.
  
• 2009- 2016 Associate Editor, International Journal of Technoethics
  
• 2006-2010 Editorial Board Member of Sociological Research Online.
  
• 1996-2000 Book Review Editor for Sociology, journal of the British Sociological Association
  

PhD ‘Sustainable Development: The Reflexive Governance of Risk', Gregory Borne.
PhD 'The Distribution of Attitudinal Attachment to the Male Breadwinner Role: A quantitative study of the Plymouth travel to work area', Suzanne Chamberlain ESRC funded.
PhD 'Managerial Decision Making: A Discursive Analysis', Teri McConville.
PhD 'An Exploration into how Students with Dyslexia identify with their Condition, with Particular Reference to the Tensions which Surround Public and Private Perceptions of Dyslexia’, Deborah Shenton.
PhD 'Metaphors of Health and Disease in Nazi Film Propaganda', Melanie Wright.
PhD ‘[email protected]', Julie Parsons.
PhD 'The Discourses and Lived Experiences of 'Maternal Obesity' and Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) or Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in Pregnancy (T2DM) Rachel Jarvie, ESRC funded.
ResM 'Faith in Practice: A Mixed Method Study Exploring the Impact of Faith Based Organisations in Delivering Voluntary and Community Sector Activities in Cornwall', Lois Wild, ESF funded.   PhD 'An exploration of how agency and socio-cultural milieu support greater or lesser controlled gambling and recovery from gambling addiction', Ed Pyle, Plymouth University.

Media; Environmental Issues; Health Communication; Social Movements; Crime Reporting; Methods

Alison teaches on all three years of the undergraduate programme and is currently Module Leader for:

• SOC3546 Dissertation 
• SOC3547 Media, State and Society
• GOV1000 One Planet: Society and Sustainability
• MSR723 Media, Culture and the Environment

Supervision and Examining
She also supervises undergraduate dissertation students and MPhil, ResM and PhD students.