Greg Hollin

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Wellcome Trust Research Fellow

Co-lead of the Science, Technology, and Medicine in Society (STeMiS) research theme

Dr Greg Hollin
Profile picture of Dr Greg Hollin
g.hollin@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 468
The Wave

Full contact details

Greg Hollin
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
Profile

Greg joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2022. Following undergraduate and masters degrees in Psychology at The University of Birmingham, Greg undertook a PhD at the Institute for Science and Society in the School of Sociology and Social Policy at The University of Nottingham (2010-2013). In 2014 Greg was awarded a Mildred Blaxter post-doctoral fellowship, based in Nottingham and funded by the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.

In 2016, Greg moved to the School of Sociology and Social Policy at University of Leeds following the award of research funding from the Wellcome Trusts Strategic Support Fund. At the conclusion of this fellowship, Greg took up the position of Lecturer in Social Theory at the same institution. In 2018, he was awarded a Research Fellowship in Humanities and Social Science by The Wellcome Trust (2018-2022) and moved to Sheffield following the award of a Wellcome Trust University Award (2022-2027).

Research interests

Gregs research is primarily informed by Medical Sociology and Science and Technology Studies. A central concern of this research is to explore how the contemporary psy- and neuro-sciences shape the social world.

Gregs work on autism has tried to understand how the condition came to be understood (within certain disciplines) as a form of social disorder and has sought to show that cognitive- and neuro-psychology draw upon particular notions of the social in order to make that claim. This research has had a particular focus upon how autism is mediated through various forms of diagnostic, emerging, and mundane technologies.

In September 2018, Greg commenced project entitled Hard Knock Life: Negotiating Concussion and Dementia in Sport. This project sought to explore the increasing anxiety about the risks associated with concussion suffered during sporting activities and how practitioners understand themselves, their brains, and their conduct given the possibility of brain injury. Gregs current work continues to explore the relationship between traumatic brain injury and neurodegeneration by exploring how different scientific disciplines seek to understand the role that the environment plays in dementia.

Finally, and through a number of collaboratory pieces, Greg has sought to explore the social world as something which is more than human in its composition. This work has explored laboratory beagles and bed bug epidemics, as well as theoretical work in feminist technoscience.

Publications

Edited books

  • Williams R & Hollin G (Ed.) (2022) Complicity: Methodologies of power, politics and the ethics of knowledge production. Oxford: Wiley.

Journal articles

  • Hollin G (2025) . Critical Public Health, 35(1).
  • Hollin G (2024) . Cultural anthropology, 39(4), 485-506.
  • Hollin G (2024) . Anatomical Record.
  • Hollin G & Williams R (2022) . Sociology of Health & Illness, 44(S1), 1-21.
  • Hollin G & Giraud EH (2022) . Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 40(1), 80-98.
  • Hollin G (2022) . Social Studies of Science, 52(2), 149-173.
  • Hollin G (2021) . Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 3.
  • Hollin G (2020) . History of the Human Sciences, 33(5), 167-178.
  • Hollin G (2020) . Social Science & Medicine, 244.
  • Hollin G (2019) . Science, Technology, & Human Values, 44(4), 634-659.
  • Giraud E, Hadley Kershaw E, Helliwell R & Hollin G (2019) . The Sociological Review, 67(2), 357-373.
  • Hollin G & Pearce W (2019) . Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 49(3), 809-818.
  • Hollin G & Pilnick A (2018) . Sociology of Health & Illness, 40(7), 1215-1232.
  • Giraud E, Hollin G, Potts T & Forsyth I (2018) . Feminist Review, 118(1), 61-79.
  • Hollin G, Forsyth I, Giraud E & Potts T (2017) . Social Studies of Science, 47(6), 918-941.
  • Hollin G (2017) . BioSocieties, 12(4), 635-640.
  • Hollin G (2017) . BioSocieties, 12(4), 611-633.
  • Hollin G & Giraud E (2017) . Social Theory & Health, 15(2), 223-240.
  • Hollin G (2017) . Science as Culture, 26(2), 209-231.
  • Giraud E & Hollin G (2016) . Theory, Culture & Society, 33(4), 27-49.
  • Pearce W & Hollin G (2015) . Nature Climate Change, 5(11), 963-963.
  • Hollin GJS & Pearce W (2015) . Nature Climate Change, 5(8), 753-756.
  • Hollin GJS & Pilnick A (2015) . Social Science & Medicine, 143, 279-286.
  • Hollin G (2014) . History of the Human Sciences, 27(4), 98-115.
  • Hollin G & Larkin M (2011) . Children and Youth Services Review, 33(11), 2198-2206.
  • Hollin GJS & Derbyshire SWG (2009) . The Journal of Pain, 10(10), 1058-1064.

Book chapters

  • Hollin G, Ackermans NL & Smoliga J (2025) The animal within: the ethics and epistemics of bio-inspired solutions to sports concussion crisis In Townsend S, Phillips MG, Osmond G & Olive R (Ed.), Head in the game: Sociocultural analyses of brain trauma in sport Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.
  • Hollin G & Pilnick A (2018) Niemowlctwo, autyzm i pojawienie si spoecznie zaburzonego ciaa [Polish translation of: Hollin, GJS. & Pilnick, A. (2015). Infancy, autism, and the emergence of a socially disordered body. Social Science and Medicine, 143, 279-286.] In Witeska-Mynarczyk A (Ed.), Antropologia Psychiatrii Dzieci i Modzie髒y: Teksty Wybrane [Anthropology of Psychiatry in Children and Adolescents: Selected Texts]
  • Giraud E & Hollin G (2016) , Participatory Research in More than Human Worlds (pp. 163-177).

Book reviews

  • Hollin G (2022) . International Journal of Disability and Social Justice, 2(2), 106-108.
  • Hollin G (2020) . BioSocieties, 15(3), 472-474.
  • Hollin G (2018) . Isis, 109(4), 861-862.
  • Hollin G (2017) . New Genetics and Society, 36(4), 404-405.
  • Hollin G (2017) . Sociology of Health and Illness, 39(6), 980-981.
  • Hollin G (2017) . Science as Culture, 26(3), 413-417.
  • Giraud E & Hollin G (2016) Book review : Thom van Doorens Flight Ways: Life and Loss at the End of Extinction. Somatosphere.
  • Hollin G & Giraud E (2016) Review: Jamie Lorimer, Wildlife in the Anthropocene. Theory, Culture and Society.
  • Hollin G (2016) . History of the Human Sciences, 29(1), 123-127.
  • Hollin G (2014) . Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 18(2), 217-219.
  • Hollin G (2012) . Science as Culture, 21(4), 566-572.

Digital content

  • Zhang Y & Hollin G (2025) The Tragi-Comedy of the Wrestlers World: An Interview with Gregory Hollin.

Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries

  • Hollin G (2016) . In eLS (Encyclopedia of Life Sciences) Wiley.
Research group

At the University of Sheffield, Greg is:

  • Co-lead of the (STeMiS) research theme.
  • An executive member of .
  • A member of (ShARC).

More widely, Greg is:

  • On the steering group for the (STSMN) research network.
  • A member of the .
  • A member of the (EASST).
Grants

Title: On Trend: Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and the Contentious Reimagining of Alzheimer Disease-Related Dementia as Environmental Diseases

Dates: 2022 2027

Funder: The Wellcome Trust

Role: Primary investigator

Value: 瞿319,970

Title: Caring for former athletes who live with neurological disorders.

Dates: 2023 2024

Funder: Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness/Nottingham Trent University

Role: Co-investigator. (Full team: Matthews, C. (PI), Pilnick, A., Hollin, G., Malcolm, D., & Hunter, A.)

Value: 瞿18,000

Title: Vital Circulations: A Framework for Understanding Social Dynamics in and Beyond a Pandemic

Dates: 2021 2022

Funder: White Rose Consortium

Role: Co-investigator. (Full team: Kim, J. (PI), Williams, R. (PI), Brown, N. (PI), Jacob, MA., OConnor, R., Hollin, G., Stark, J., Martin, P., White, L., Chattoo, S., Buse, C.)

Value: 瞿14,945.

Title: Hard Knock Life: Negotiating Concussion and Dementia in Sport

Dates: 2018 - 2022

Funder: The Wellcome Trust

Role: Primary investigator

Value: 瞿187,063.

Title: Institutional Strategic Support Fund Fellowship

Dates: 2016

Funder: The Wellcome Trust/The University of Leeds

Role: Primary investigator

Value: 瞿22,029.

Title: Locating Autism

Dates: 2014 - 2015

Funder: Mildred Blaxter Fellowship from the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness

Role: Primary investigator

Value: 瞿37,971.

Teaching interests

I convene the undergraduate module Sociology of Health, Illness and Medicine (SCS3028). Questions relating to health and illness are amongst the most crucial facing us today and, from before were born until the moment we die, we are profoundly shaped by our engagements with medicine. In this module we examine the ways in which our bodies, minds, and societies are formed through our engagements with, and understandings of, health, illness, and medicine. We explore intersecting inequalities in healthcare provision; patients experiences of ill health and activists fight for recognition; contemporary health crises; and the COVID pandemic. And we will use these critical examples in order to develop a nuanced understanding of the role of health, illness, and medicine within contemporary society.

PhD Supervision

Previous PhD students have studied topics including policy making around cognitive enhancing drugs and the use of queer theory to understand autism spectrum conditions.

I am always interested in supporting future projects that are oriented towards medical sociology and/or Science and Technology Studies, particularly (but certainly not exclusively) if they concern the psy- or neuro-sciencesor subjectivity/mental health more generally. Given that I arrived in sociology via training in experimental psychology Im particularly keen to support applications from those with inter- or alternative-disciplinary backgrounds.