Dr Thomas Thurnell-Read

Thomas joined Loughborough University in May 2016 having previously held positions at Coventry University and the University of Warwick. He is a sociologist of consumption and leisure whose research uses drinking culture as a means to examine social and cultural issues relating to identity, belonging and sociability and is internationally recognised as a leading scholar of sociological approaches to the study of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness. He is the author or editor of numerous articles and books and his research has featured in The Observer, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Morning Advertiser and on BBC Radio 4.

Thomas is currently leading a Leverhulme Trust funded project called ‘After Last Orders?: A biographical exploration of the impact of UK pub closures’, which explores the causes of pub closures and analyses the impact of closures at a personal, social and cultural level.

Thomas has over a decade of experience researching alcohol consumption and drinking culture. He is the editor of Drinking Dilemmas: Space, culture and identity (Routledge, 2015) and Alcohol, Age, Generation and the Lifecourse (with Laura Fenton, Palgrave, 2022) and co-author of Intoxication: Self, state and society (With Mark Monaghan, Palgrave, 2023).

Thomas is a founding member of the British Sociological Association’s Alcohol Study Group and has presented his research to diverse audiences in the UK, Denmark, Portugal, France, Sweden, Japan and Taiwan. He has extensive experience of media engagement and public dissemination and his research has featured in The Observer; The Conversation; Vice.com; The Morning Advertiser; and on BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed.

Beyond his work on the social and cultural aspects of alcohol, drinking and drunkenness, his other research interests include ongoing work on men and masculinity with a focus on identity, friendship and wellbeing.

He has held numerous editorial and external examiner roles including on the Editorial Board for the journal Sociology (2016-2022) and acted as an Associate Editor of Annals of Tourism Research. He currently sits on the Editorial Boards of Sociological Review Online and Leisure Studies.

At Loughborough University, Thomas has convened or contributed to a range of modules including: Public Sociology;  Intoxication and Society; Advanced Research Methods A; Consumption Culture and Everyday Life; Sociology Project Dissertation; Advanced Ethnography; and Gender, Sex and Society. 

Thomas’ expertise and commitment in teaching has been recognised by numerous awards including the Extra Mile Award at the Loughborough Academic Awards (2019) and Teaching Innovation (2019) and Research Informed Teaching (2021) awards.

He is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has acts as an External Examiner for degree programmes at London School of Economics and Nottingham Trent University, having previously held External Examiner roles at Royal Holloway, University of London and University of Birmingham.

Thomas welcomes interest from prospective students who wish to develop doctoral level research projects relating to topics such as: alcohol and intoxication; pubs and other drinking spaces; leisure and consumption; men, masculinity and wellbeing.

Current Postgraduate Research Students 

• Junlin Luo: 'Constructing and Reconstructing Middle Class identity in Contemporary China: A discourse analysis of changing consumption of an idealised West in the Chinese lifestyle magazine Yilin'. With Adrian Leguina.
• James Travis: 'Investigating the Relationship Between Skateboarding Subculture and Deviant Behaviour: A Comparative Analysis of Criminal Activity in Designated Skate Parks Versus Non-Skate Specific Spaces'. With Masahiro Suzuki.
• Mads Harbach Butterworth: "The Successes and Drawbacks of Drug Education Within Secondary Schools from an Adolescent Viewpoint via Co-Production." With Mark Monaghan.
• Qianfei Su: "Interaction from the Perspective of Dramaturgy: A Comparative Study of Rural Tourism in China and the UK". With Alena Pfoser.

Completed Postgraduate Research Students 

• Ellie Moore: “Intersectional Spaces of Sobriety and Academic Citizenship within Higher Education Institutions.” With Sophie Cranston and Taimaz Larimian.
• Jingrui Hu: "The consumption of vintage costume jewellery in China and cultural narrative of its producers". With Adrian Leguina.
• David Evans: "A qualitative study exploring managerial and donor perspectives of charitable impact, efficacy, and the effective altruism movement". With Marco Pino. 
• Han Newman: "Exploring female strength and power: an ethnography of strongwoman." With Professor Line Nyhagen 

• Atkinson, A., & Thurnell‐Read, T. (2026). Acting Up and Pushing Back: A Qualitative Study Exploring Women Workers' Resistance to Gender Inequalities in the UK Craft Beer Scene. Gender, Work & Organization.
• Deakin, R., & Thurnell‐Read, T. (2025). The last of England: Banal nationalism and communities of loss in British pub closure media narratives. The British Journal of Sociology, 76(4), 861-872.
• Thurnell-Read, T. (2024). ‘It’sa Small Little Pub, but Everybody Knew Everybody’: Pub Culture, Belonging and Social Change. Sociology, 58(2), 420-436. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00380385231185936
• Thomas, G. M., & Thurnell-Read, T. (2024). Later-life masculinities:(re) forming the gendered lives of older men. Men and Masculinities, 1097184X241231917. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1097184X241231917
• Heřmanová, M., Skey, M. and Thurnell-Read, T. (2022). Cultures of Authenticity. Bingley: Emerald.
• Thurnell-Read, T. and Fenton, L. (2022). Alcohol, Age, Generation and the Life Course. London: Palgrave.
• Thurnell-Read, T. (2021). ‘If they weren’t in the pub, they probably wouldn’t even know each other’: Alcohol, sociability and pub based leisure. International Journal of the Sociology of Leisure, 4(1), 61-78. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41978-020-00068-x
• Thurnell-Read, Thomas, David Robinson, Jan-Peter Herbst, and Prof Karl Spracklen. "Rhythm and booze: contesting leisure mobilities on the Transpennine Real Ale Trail." Mobilities 16, no. 3 (2021): 322-338. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17450101.2020.1820189
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2020. 'Kindred spirits: Doing family through craft entrepreneurship'. The Sociological Review. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120916131 
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2019. ‘A thirst for the authentic: craft drinks producers and the narration of authenticity’, British Journal of Sociology, Early View Version: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12634
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2018. ‘The Embourgeoisement of Beer Changing Practices of ‘Real Ale’ Consumption’, Journal of Consumer Culture, 18 (4), 539-557: https://doi.org/10.1177/1469540516684189
• Thurnell-Read, T. (ed). 2016. Drinking Dilemmas: Space, Culture and Society. Abingdon: Routledge/British Sociological Association Sociological Futures Series.
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2016. ‘‘Did you ever hear of police being called to a beer festival?!’: Discourses of Merriment, Moderation and Responsibility Amongst Real Ale Enthusiasts’. The Sociological Review, 65 (1), 83-99: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12361
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2015. ‘Serious Leisure, ‘Real Ale’ Enthusiasts and the Costs of Getting ‘Too Serious’ about Beer’, Leisure Sciences: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 38(1), 68-84: https://doi.org/10.1080/01490400.2015.1046618
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2014. ‘Craft, Tangibility and Affect at Work in the Microbrewery’. Emotion, Space and Society. 13, 46–54: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2014.03.001
• Thurnell-Read, T. 2012. ‘What Happens on Tour: The premarital stag tour, homosocial bonding and male friendship’. Men and Masculinities. 15(3), 249-270: https://doi.org/10.1177/1097184X12448465