Hanna Andersen

Teams and roles for Hanna Andersen

Research student
School of Social Sciences

I am a PhD student exploring the effects of social polices on LGBTQ+ families. My research aims to reduce social inequalities, providing policymakers with imaginative solutions that recognise and support queer families and kinships. I also hope to support LGBTQ+ activist groups in their work, providing useful analysis and evidence.

I have an interest in creative research methods and how games can serve as a lens through which to explore policy challenges and lived experiences.

My research interests include queer lives, families and relationships, parenting, friendship, the gendered and (cis)heteronormative nature of policymaking, social movements, citizenship, poststructuralist discourse analysis.

Thesis

Chosen families? Exploring the effects of UK family policies on LGBTQ+ parenthood

There is an enduring narrative in the UK of ongoing progressive rights for LGBTQ+ people, but questions abound as to whether these rights are tailored to LGBTQ+ people’s lives, or whether they are simply an accommodation within existing rights frameworks (Carabine, 1996; Lawrence and Taylor, 2019; Gregory and Matthews, 2022). It has been argued that LGBTQ+ people are expected to assimilate into acceptable (read: heterosexual) life courses. This research will focus on LGBTQ+ parenthood and family.

The ‘family’ has always been a core basis for welfare in societies and therefore a concern of social policy scholars (Gregory and Matthews, 2022; Stewart, 2019; Williams, 2021). Within the UK’s mixed welfare economy, there are a range of policies related to the family and parenting including: parental leave and pay; child tax credits, Universal Credit eligibility; funded childcare; and IVF funding. But, as ideas of what constitutes a family are changing, and with no agreed-upon definition, there could be consequences for the impact of policy on people’s life choices (Cornford et al., 2013; Wilson, 2007). The aim of my research is therefore to explore what assumptions are made about ‘families’ within family and parenting policies in the UK and what this means for how queer families build their lives.

PhD (Social Sciences) Cardiff University, 2024 - present
MSc (Social and Public Policy) Cardiff University, 2023 - 2024
BSc (Sociology and Politics) University of Chester, 2020 - 2023

Honours and awards

David Ford Memorial Prize for Sociology, University of Chester, 2023

Professional memberships

British Sociological Association
Social Policy Association

Committees and reviewing

Co-convenor, GASP (Gender and Sexuality) Research Group, Cardiff University, 2025 - Present
Co-convenor, Families and Relationships Study Group, British Sociological Association, 2025 - Present