Current Students and Staff

// University News

15 Jul 2019

Professor Elizabeth Stokoe appointed Associate Pro Vice Chancellor to support REF preparation

photo of Professor Liz Stokoe

The University has appointed Professor Liz Stokoe to a new role as Associate Pro Vice Chancellor to support REF preparation.

The role will support the Pro Vice Chancellors for Research and Enterprise by providing additional academic leadership in the period leading up to the University’s REF submission in late 2020.

Professor Stokoe will also work closely with the Unit of Assessment submission teams.

All universities in the UK participate in the Research Excellence Framework, which takes place every six or seven years across all subject areas.

It results in a significant stream of research income for the University, as well as being an indicator of the reputation of the institution, with consequences for attracting academic and research staff, PhD students, funders and collaborators.

Liz is a Professor of Social Interaction and has been at Loughborough since 2002, based in the Communication and Media Department.

Her research in social interaction is world-renowned and looks at a variety of contexts including police interviews, commercial sales, healthcare settings and even dating. Professor Stokoe has presented talks about her research at TEDx, the Royal Institution, Latitude Festival, Google, Microsoft, New Scientist Live and Cheltenham Science Festival.

She has run hundreds of workshops with service providers across various sectors and trains conversation analysts to create impact with their research. She was promoted to Reader (2007) then Chair (2009) and was Associate Dean (Research) between 2013-2018.

She published a popular science book, Talk: The Science of Conversation, last year.

Talking about her new role, Professor Stokoe said: “I am delighted to be appointed in this APVC role and honoured to be collaborating with brilliant teams of colleagues across our campuses.

“I am especially hopeful that I can leverage my five-year experience as Associate Dean (Research) in the School of Social Sciences to support our REF 2021 preparations across all Units of Assessment as we head towards the crucial final stages.”

Professor Steve Rothberg, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research, added: “I’m delighted that Liz has accepted this role. She is ideally placed to provide both strategic advice and practical support to Tracy and me and to the submission teams. Liz was a major influence during her time as Associate Dean on our approach to REF preparation and it’s great to have her back in the team.”

Professor Stokoe will take up her new role on 1 August 2019.