Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy, Departmental Head of Teaching Programmes and PGT Admissions Officer, Deputy Director SCDTP
Athina Vlachantoni is Professor of Gerontology and Social Policy at the University of Southampton
My research interests broadly combine the areas of ageing, gender and social policy.
I joined the Centre for Research on Ageing in 2008 as a lecturer in gerontology, following a year as lecturer in social policy in the Division of Sociology & Social Policy of the University of Southampton. Before that, I completed a PhD in social policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, an MSc Comparative Social Policy at the University of Oxford (Wolfson College) and a BA Social Policy and Politics at Royal Holloway, University of London. Between 2002 and 2004, I worked as a research officer at the Oxford Institute of Ageing at the University of Oxford. Between 2003 and 2004 I was a college tutor in politics at New College, Oxford, and between 2004 and 2007 I worked as an occasional research assistant and as a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Social Policy of the LSE. I am a member of the Social Policy Association and the British Society of Gerontology, and a member of the Council for the British Society of Population Studies. I am also a member of the ESRC Peer Review College, Deputy Editor of Ageing & Society, and Deputy Director (Impact and Collaboration) in the ESRC South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership.
Research
Responsibilities
Publications
Teaching
Contact
Research interests
ESRC Centre for Population Change: I currently work with Prof. Falkingham, Prof. Evandrou, Dr Gomez-Leon, Dr Min Qin and Saara Hamalainen, as part of the second phase of the ESRC CPC, focusing on a) Increasing longevity and the changing life course, and b) Understanding intergenerational relations & exchange. For more information, please visit the CPC website. A recent addition to our programme of work related to the debate on the UK’s referendum on exiting the EU, you can link to a description and blogs on this project through the CPC website, on the website of the UK in a changing Europe, and on the blog of the British Society of Gerontology, Ageing Issues.
ESRC Secondary Data Initiative: I am currently working on an SDAI project with colleagues Dr Feng, Prof. Falkingham, Prof. Evandrou and Ning Wang, which uses mixed methods to analyse data from the National Child Development Study in order to explore informal care provision in mid-life. I also led a second SDAI project (2012-4) on the pension protection among ethnic minority groups in the UK, using the Understanding Society dataset. More information can be found on the CRA's research projects page.
ESRC/DFID ESRA project: This project, which also involved Prof. Evandrou and Prof. Falkingham, was funded through the ESRC/DFID/ESRA initiative, was aimed at identifying the substantive and methodological lessons of research in the area of poverty alleviation and social pensions, and the gaps where research could contribute in the future.
ANR/DFG/ESRC/NWO with ICSSR: As part of an internationally collaborative project funded by the ESRC with colleagues in the Netherlands and India, which in the UK was led by Prof. Evandrou, I explored a range of wellbeing indicators for older persons in the context of a globalizing world using nationally representative datasets. For more information please visit our Centre’s Age-Globe Network page.
EPSRC The Care Life Cycle: I was part of a research team led by Prof. Falkingham, and including colleagues from Demography, Operational Research and Complexity Science, which aimed to develop a suite of models reflecting the supply and demand for health and social care in the UK. As part of Workstream A of this project, I worked within a number of sub-projects producing empirical evidence for the supply of, and demand for, social care, for example the determinants of transitioning into types of long-term care, the determinants of receiving social care, the socio-economic determinants of the disablement process, and the investigation of unmet need for social care. Please visit the CLC website for more details.
ESRC Pathfinders project: Along with colleagues from Southampton, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the University of Witwatersrand/Agincourt DSS and the Africa Centre for Health and Population Studies, in a project exploring the impact of internal labour migration on intergenerational support and wellbeing of children and older people in China and South Africa. For more information visit our Research pages.
ESRC Quantitative Methods project: I was involved, with colleagues from Demography/ Social Statistics and Sociology/ Social Policy in a project entitled ‘Researcher Development Initiative: Quantitative Methods’, which was part of a large ESRC initiative aiming at capacity building in quantitative research methods for social scientists in the UK.
PhD Students
Sara Johnson (co-supervised with Dr Rosalind Willis)
Topic: Battle Ready: Individual cognitive stimulation therapy for dementia – what are informal carers' views and experiences?
Ella Moonan-Howard (ESRC SCDTP scholar, co-supervised with Prof. Maria Evandrou)
Topic: Social networks and well-being in later life: understanding the role of neighbourhood
Maja Palmer (ESRC CPC Scholar, co-supervised with Prof. Maria Evandrou)
Vlachantoni, A., & Palmer, M. (Accepted/In press). Gender and caring in later life. In D. Gu, & M. E. Dupre (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging Springer.
Falkingham, J., & Vlachantoni, A. (2012). Demography. In P. Alcock, M. May, & S. Wright (Eds.), The Student's Companion to Social Policy, 4th edition. (pp. 145-152). Chichester, GB: Wiley.
Vlachantoni, A., & Falkingham, J. (2012). Gender and old-age pension protection in Asia. In Social Protection for Older Persons: Social Pensions in Asia (pp. 120-136). Mandaluyong, PH: Asian Development Bank.
Vlachantoni, A. (2011). Still disadvantaged? Women in modern pension systems. In M. Sargeant (Ed.), Age Discrimination and Diversity. Multiple Discrimination from an Age Perspective. (pp. 65-88). Cambridge University Press.
Falkingham, J., Evandrou, M., & Vlachantoni, A. (2010). Gender, poverty and pensions in the UK. In S. Chant (Ed.), International Handbook on Gender and Poverty (pp. 232-237). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Gomez Leon, M., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., & Vlachantoni, A. (2017). The dynamics of social care and paid work in mid-life. Poster session presented at British Society of Gerontology conference 2017, Swansea, United Kingdom.
Vlachantoni, A., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., & Gomez Leon, M. (2017). The provision of support towards multiple generations. Paper presented at British Society of Gerontology conference 2017, Swansea, United Kingdom.
Gomez Leon, M., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., & Vlachantoni, A. (2016). Dynamics of social care and paid work in mid-life. Paper presented at BSG 2016: The British Society of Gerontology 45th Annual Conference, United Kingdom.
Gomez Leon, M., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., & Vlachantoni, A. (2016). The dynamics of social care and paid work in mid-life. Paper presented at British Society of Population Studies Annual Conference, United Kingdom.
Vlachantoni, A., Feng, Z., Evandrou, M., & Falkingham, J. (2015). Pensions among ethnic elders in the UK. Paper presented at British Society of Gerontology Annual Conference, United Kingdom.
Vlachantoni, A., Shaw, R., Willis, R., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., & Luff, R. (2012). How do we measure unmet need for social care in later life?. Paper presented at 65th Annual Conference of the Gerontological Society of America (2012), .
Vlachantoni, A., & Frericks, P. (2008). Women and pensions. Paper presented at 6th Annual European Social Policy Association Network Conference 2008 (ESPAnet 2008), .
Vlachantoni, A., Wang, N., Feng, Z., Falkingham, J., Mcgowan, T. (Ed.), & Dey, B. (Ed.) (2019). Informal caring in mid-life and its economic consequences. (CPC Briefing Papers; No. 46). Southampton: ESRC Centre for Population Change.
Moreh, C., Mcghee, D., & Vlachantoni, A. (2018). EU migrants’ attitudes to UK healthcare. (Briefing Paper; No. 41). Southampton: ESRC Centre for Population Change.
Falkingham, J., Evandrou, M., Feng, Z., Vlachantoni, A., & Mcgowan, T. (Ed.) (2016). Who are EU migrants in England and Wales? (ESRC Centre for Population Change Briefing Papers; No. 33). Southampton, GB: ESRC Centre for Population Change.
Vlachantoni, A., Shaw, R., Willis, R., Evandrou, M., Falkingham, J., Luff, R., & McGowan, T. (Ed.) (2011). Measuring unmet need for social care among older people. (Centre for Population Change Briefing Paper; No. 3). Southampton, GB: ESRC Centre for Population Change.
Vlachantoni, A., Feng, Z., Evandrou, M., & Falkingham, J. (2014). Ethnicity and occupational pension membership in the UK. (Centre for Research on Ageing Briefing Paper; No. 1). Southampton, GB: University of Southampton.
Vlachantoni, A. (2008). Care credits in European pension systems. (Centre for Research on Ageing Discussion Papers; No. 801). Southampton, GB: University of Southampton.
I contribute to teaching across the MSc Gerontology, MSc Gerontology (Research), MSc Gerontology (Distance Learning), MSc Global Ageing and Policy (Distance Learning) and MSc Social Research Methods programmes.
In 2018-19, I also convene the following modules:
GERO6022 Poverty and social protection around the world (DL)
