Dr Laura Fenton

School of Medicine and Population Health

Research Associate

ScHARR staff Dr Laura Fenton
Profile picture of ScHARR staff Dr Laura Fenton
l.m.fenton@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 2980
Regent Court (ScHARR)

Full contact details

Dr Laura Fenton
School of Medicine and Population Health
Regent Court (ScHARR)
30 Regent Street
Sheffield
S1 4DA
Profile

I joined the Sheffield Alcohol Research Group in 2021. I’m currently working as the lead qualitative research associate on Youth Drinking in Decline (Y-DiD), a Wellcome Trust funded mixed methods project which examines changes in youth drinking cultures over recent decades.

Before joining ScHARR I worked at the University of Manchester on the  ESRC funded Girlhood and Later Life project (PI: Professor Penny Tinkler), which explored the youth transitions of women born in the United Kingdom  between 1939-52, and the implications of youth experiences for later life. Both this and my current role build on research experience I gained through my PhD, which I completed in the Department of Sociology at the University of Manchester in 2018. My Phd thesis examines the changing place of alcohol in the day-to-day lives of three generations of British women. 

Qualifications
  • PhD in Sociology, University of Manchester
  • Masters of Sociology, York University (Canada)
  • Honours Bachelor of Arts, University of Toronto (Canada)
Research interests

In broad terms, my research interests include alcohol, youth, gender, the life course. social change, and creative biographical methods. I am particularly interested in using biographical and related qualitative methods to better understand people’s changing relationships to alcohol across both biographical and historical time.

Publications

Books

  • Pennay A, Caluzzi G, Fenton L, Holmes J, Livingston M, Raninen J & Törrönen J () . Routledge.

Journal articles

  • Peeters M, Ter Braak J, Hagemeijer F, Voogt C, Kersbergen I, Holmes J, Fenton L, Kurten S, Groefsema M & de Looze M (2025) . International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction.
  • Wilkinson S & Fenton L (2025) . Children's Geographies, 23(2), 189-203.
  • del Río S, Hall SM, Ackerley E & Fenton L (2025) . Dialogues in Human Geography.
  • Fitzgerald N, Angus K, Howell R, Labhart H, Morris J, Fenton L, Woodrow N, Castellina M, Oldham M, Garnett C , Holmes J et al (2025) . Addiction, 120(4), 655-668.
  • Tinkler P, Fenton L & Lang L (2025) . Ageing and Society, 45(2), 253-275.
  • Stevely AK, Gray LA, Fairbrother H, Fenton L, Henney M, Kersbergen I & Holmes J (2024) . PLoS ONE, 19(6).
  • Lang L, Fenton L & Tinkler P (2024) . Women's History Review, 33(5), 626-641.
  • Fenton L, Fairbrother H, Whitaker V, Henney M, Stevely AK & Holmes J (2024) . Drug and Alcohol Review, 43(3), 675-684.
  • Caluzzi G, Fenton L, Holmes J, MacLean S, Pennay A, Fairbrother H & Törrönen J (2024) . New Media & Society, 26(10), 6120-6140.
  • Tinkler P, Fenton L & Cruz R (2024) . The Sociological Review, 72(1), 37-57.
  • Stevely AK, Gray LA, Fairbrother H, Fenton L, Henney M & Holmes J (2023) . Preventive Medicine Reports, 36.
  • Fenton L & Tinkler P (2023) . Contemporary British History, 37(3), 339-366.
  • Fenton L, Fairbrother H, Whitaker V, Henney M, Stevely A & Holmes J (2023) . Journal of Youth Studies, 27(7), 1006-1022.
  • Pennay A, Törrönen J, Herold MD, Fenton L, MacLean S, Caluzzi G, Fairbrother H, Frank VA, Samuelsson E & Holmes J (2022) . International Journal of Drug Policy, 108.
  • Burgess A, Yeomans H & Fenton L (2022) . The British Journal of Sociology, 73(4), 903-918.
  • Stevely A, Vashishtha R, Fairbrother H, Fenton L, Henney M, Livingston M & Holmes J (2022) . European Journal of Public Health, 32(3), 354-359.
  • Tinkler P, Cruz R & Fenton L (2021) . History of the Human Sciences, 34(3-4), 266-289.
  • Fenton L (2019) . Sociology, 53(5), 977-978.
  • Hall SM, Ackerley E, Briggs A, Fenton L & del Rio SL () . AGORA Magazine, 39(3).
  • Woodward S & Fenton L () . Frontiers in Sociology, 6.

Book chapters

  • Dias-Lewandowska D, Fenton L, Goodman S & Kümin B (2022) , Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication (pp. 501-522). Routledge
  • Fenton L, Markham C & Wilkinson S (2022) , Youth Beyond the City (pp. 116-134). Bristol University Press
  • Yeomans H, Fenton L & Burgess A (2022) , Alcohol, Age, Generation and the Life Course (pp. 151-176). Springer International Publishing
  • Thurnell-Read T & Fenton L (2022) , Alcohol, Age, Generation and the Life Course (pp. 1-25). Springer International Publishing
  • Dias-Lewandowska D, Fenton L, Goodman S & Kümin B (2022) , Routledge Handbook of Intoxicants and Intoxication (pp. 501-522).
  • Cruz R, Tinkler P & Fenton L (2021) , Bioinformation Worlds and Futures (pp. 54-74). Routledge
Professional activities and memberships

I am a member of the British Sociological Association, and a former co-convenor of its Alcohol study Group. I am also a member and former social media officer of the Drinking Studies Network.