Professor Tina Miller

BA, MSc, PhD

Professor of Sociology

School of Law and Social Sciences

Role

Tina Miller is a Professor of Sociology. Her research and teaching interests include motherhood and fatherhood transitions, constructions of gender and identities, masculinities, reproductive health, narratives, qualitative research methods and ethics and she regularly publishes in these areas. Tina has lived and worked in the Solomon Islands and Bangladesh as well as Oxford and has a particular interest in cultural dimensions and the situated nature of everyday experiences. Tina has been engaged as an expert advisor by the World Health Organisation (Geneva), think tanks and political parties in the UK, most recently giving evidence to the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee hearing on Fathers in the Workplace (March, 2017) and at the EU (October 2018). She has presented her work in many countries, including Chile, Australia, India and Argentina. She regularly participates in TV and radio programmes in relation to her research and publications on motherhood, fatherhood and managing paid work and care in contemporary family lives.

Tina was awarded a British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship in 2015, which focused on the topic of 'Managing modern family lives: public understandings and everyday practises of caring and paid work'. Her CUP monongraph based on the findings from this project was published in August 2017 (Making Sense of Parenthood:Caring, Gender and Family Lives). Tina is currently completing a new research project on 'Transition to First Time Motherhood: A New Generation' and beginning a new BA funded project, Being a father and a refugee: Comparing men’s fatherhood and family ‘integration’ experiences in the UK and Sweden.

Teaching and supervision

Courses

Sociology (BA (Hons))

Modules taught

U26173 'Gendering Intimate Relationships'
U26125 'Sociology of Health and Illness
U26199 Undergraduate dissertation supervision
PhD Supervision

Supervision

Tina is currently supervising PhD students who are working in the following areas:

Equality duty and lone mother experiences
Migration experiences with a focus on legal and social statuses and disrupted/continued familial practices

Research Students

Name	Thesis title	Completed
Luke Holmes	Exploring experiences of Vietnamese labour migration in the UK and Vietnam: dominant discourses and migrants’ lived experiences	Active

Research

Tina Miller is Professor of Sociology at Oxford Brookes University. Her research expertise includes a focus on significant transitions in family lives, including transitions to motherhood, fatherhood and parenthood. Using qualitative, longitudinal research and narrative analysis, her research has contributed to theorisations of gender through paying particular attention to temporal dimensions in everyday family practices. Tina has written four Cambridge University Press monographs, edited other sociological and methodological collections and published multiple journal articles focused on unfolding experiences of motherhood, fatherhood, and more recently refugee experiences in new country settings. Her work traces and challenges the often taken-for-granted structural and gendered constraints which pattern everyday expectations and experiences across familial caring and working landscapes. In 2019 the British Academy project on which Tina was PI ‘Being a Father and a Refugee’ was shortlisted for ‘Research project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’ in the national Times Higher Education (THE) Awards.

Tina has worked in advisory roles with political parties and think tanks in the UK and Europe (EU) as well as the World Health Organisation (WHO). She regularly presents her research at invited Keynote sessions in international conferences, including in Australia, Chile and the US.

Tina’s research has been shared with public audiences through collaborations with the BBC, where she has recently authored and presented three Radio 4 Analysis Radio Programmes, based on her research:

Research impact

Tina has submitted Impact Case Studies to:
REF 2014 UoA 21 'Gender, Parenthood and Public Policy'
REF 2021 UoA19 'Shaping national and international policy on gender, family caring and parental wellbeing'

Projects

Being a father and a refugee

Publications

Ngcobo Seluleko Eric, Bekaert Sarah, Wignall Ross and Miller Tina , A Scoping Review of Dominant Masculinities within South African Prisons
African Journal of Gender, Society & Development, 12 (5) (2023) ISSN: 2634-3614 eISSN: 2634-3622 A Scoping Review of Dominant Masculinities within South African Prisons Open Access version on RADAR
Miller T, “We’ve Bought a Tens Machine and We’re Trying Aromatherapy and Hypnobirthing”: Being Prepared for Labour and Birth?
Studies in the Maternal 13 (1) (2020) ISSN: 1759-0434 eISSN: 1759-0434 “We’ve Bought a Tens Machine and We’re Trying Aromatherapy and Hypnobirthing”: Being Prepared for Labour and Birth? Open Access version on RADAR
Miller T, Paternal and Maternal Gatekeeping? Choreographing Care
Sociologica 12 (3) (2018) pp.25-35 ISSN: 1971-8853 Paternal and Maternal Gatekeeping? Choreographing Care Open Access version on RADAR
Miller T, Smith H, Establishing partnership with traditional birth attendants for improved maternal and newborn health: a review of factors influencing implementation
BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 17 (2017) ISSN: 1471-2393 Establishing partnership with traditional birth attendants for improved maternal and newborn health: a review of factors influencing implementation Open Access version on RADAR
Miller TA, Telling the difficult things: creating spaces for disclosure, rapport and ‘collusion’ in qualitative interviews
Women's Studies International Forum 61 (2016) pp.81-86 ISSN: 0277-5395 Telling the difficult things: creating spaces for disclosure, rapport and ‘collusion’ in qualitative interviews Open Access version on RADAR
Miller TA, Nash M, "I just think something like the ‘Bubs and Pubs’ class is what men should be having": Paternal subjectivities and preparing for first-time fatherhood in Australia and the United Kingdom.
Journal of Sociology 53 (3) (2016) pp.541-556 ISSN: 1440-7833 "I just think something like the ‘Bubs and Pubs’ class is what men should be having": Paternal subjectivities and preparing for first-time fatherhood in Australia and the United Kingdom. Open Access version on RADAR
Miller TA, Going back: "Stalking", talking and researcher responsibilities in qualitative longitudinal research
International Journal of Social Research Methodology 18 (3) (2015) pp.293-305 ISSN: 1364-5579 eISSN: 1464-5300 Going back: "Stalking", talking and researcher responsibilities in qualitative longitudinal research Open Access version on RADAR
Dermott E, Miller T, More than the sum of its parts? Contemporary fatherhood policy, practice and discourse
Families, Relationships and Societies 4 (2) (2015) pp.183-195 ISSN: 2046-7435 eISSN: 2046-7443
Hinton L, Miller T, Mapping Mens Anticipations and Experiences in the Reproductive Realm: (in) Fertility Journeys
Reproductive BioMedicine Online 27 (2013) pp.244-252 ISSN: 1472-6483
Miller T, Balancing caring and paid work in the UK: narrating 'choices' as first-time parents
International Review of Sociology 22 (1) (2012) pp.39-52 ISSN: 0390-6701
Vieira C, Portela A, Miller T, Coast E, Leone T, Marston C, Increasing the Use of Skilled Health Personnel Where Traditional Birth Attendants Were Providers of Childbirth Care: a Systematic Review
PLoS ONE 7 (2012) ISSN: 1932-6203 eISSN: 1932-6203
Miller T, Falling back into gender?: Men's narratives and practices around first-time fatherhood
Sociology 45 (6) (2011) pp.1094-1109 ISSN: 0038-0385
Miller T, Boulton M, Changing Constructions of Informed Consent: Qualitative Research and Complex Social Worlds
Social Science & Medicine 65 (11) (2007) pp.2199-2211 ISSN: 0277-9536 eISSN: 1873-5347
Miller T, Is This What Motherhood Is All About? - Weaving Experiences and Discourse Through Transition to First-time Motherhood
Gender & Society 21 (2007) pp.337-358 ISSN: 0891-2432 eISSN: 1552-3977
Miller T, Losing the Plot: Narrative Construction and Longitudinal Childbirth Research
Qualitative Health Research 10 (2000) pp.309-323 ISSN: 1049-7323 eISSN: 1552-7557
MILLER T, Shifting Boundaries - Exploring the Influence of Cultural Traditions and Religious Beliefs of Bangladeshi Women on Antenatal Interactions
Women's Studies International Forum 18 (1995) pp.299-309 ISSN: 0277-5395

Miller T, Motherhood: Contemporary Transitions and Generational Change ,
Cambridge University Press (2023) ISBN: 9781009413367
Miller T, Making Sense of Parenthood: Caring, Gender and Family Lives ,
Cambridge University press (2017) ISBN: 9781107104136 eISBN: 9781316219270
Miller T, Making sense of fatherhood: gender, caring and work,
Cambridge University Press (2010) ISBN: 9780521743013
, Making Sense of Motherhood: A Narrative Approach,
Canbridge University Press (2005) ISBN: 9780521543644

Dermott E, Miller T, Being a Father and a Refugee: New social worlds of welfare and integration
in Tarrant A, Ladlow L, Way L (ed.), Men and Welfare, Routledge (2022) eISBN: 9781003178811
Miller T, Making sense of motherhood and fatherhood: Competing moral discourses and logics of caring and work 'choices' in the UK
in Work-Family Dynamics: Competing Logics of Regulation, Economy and Morals, Routledge (2019) ISBN: 1138860077
Miller T, Doing narrative research? Thinking through the narrative process.
in Woodiwiss, J, Smith, K, Lockwood, K. (Eds.) (ed.), Feminist Narrative Research Opportunities and Challenges, Palgrave Macmillan (2017) ISBN: 9781137485670 eISBN: 9781137485687 Doing narrative research? Thinking through the narrative process. Open Access version on RADAR
Miller T A, Qualitative longitudinal research: researching fatherhood and father’s experiences
in Dermott E and Gatrell C (ed.), Fathers, Families, and Relationships: Researching Everyday Lives, Policy Press (2017)
Miller T, Reconfiguring research relationships: regulation, new technologies and doing ethical research
in Ethics in Qualitative Research, Sage Publications (2012) ISBN: 9781446210888

Miller T A, review of Father and Daughter: Patriarchy, Gender and Social Science
Journal of Social Policy 45 (3) (2016) pp.576-578 ISSN: 0047-2794 eISSN: 1469-7823
Miller T, review of Biographical Methods and Professional Practice: An International Perspective
International Journal of Social Research Methodology 11 (2008) pp.84-85 ISSN: 1364-5579 eISSN: 1464-5300
Miller T, review of Perfect Motherhood: Science and Childrearing in America
Journal of Marriage and Family 69 (2007) pp.1368-1369 ISSN: 0022-2445 eISSN: 1741-3737

Media appearances

CoP Show: Expert Women

The BBC Academy’s Expert Women events are part of a campaign to increase the number of expert women presenters and contributors appearing on TV and radio in key under-represented areas including science, history, politics, business, engineering, architecture and technology. The project is a collaboration between the BBC Academy and Broadcast Magazine, with support from BBC Diversity, Creative Skillset, Channel 4, Sky, ITV and the wider broadcast industry.

“The BBC Academy’s Expert Women events are part of a campaign to increase the number of expert women presenters and contributors appearing on TV and radio in key under-represented areas including science, history, politics, business, engineering, architecture and technology. The project is a collaboration between the BBC Academy and Broadcast Magazine, with support from BBC Diversity, Creative Skillset, Channel 4, Sky, ITV and the wider broadcast industry.”