Sophie De Val
School of Geography and Planning
PhD Candidate
Full contact details
School of Geography and Planning
Geography and Planning Building
Winter Street
Sheffield
S3 7ND
- Profile
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My project aims to understand how damp and mould are experienced in the UK private rented sector (PRS), and what the gendered relations are. This study responds directly to growing concern towards mould, and the dangers it poses to renters’ health, wellbeing, and security.
The study will investigate how domestic (de)territorialisation, gender expression, household damp, and pathogenic domestic mould are entangled. The study aims to address the seeming disjuncture between how mould is perceived and measured as a problem in the rental sectors, exploring mould’s tangible and symbolic properties, and the complex and embodied experiences of living with and sensing it. This approach aims to use experiences of domestic mould as a lens for understanding how commodified housing systems relate to material and imaginative capacities of home, and how these systems are embodied in the form of gender expressions and disease.
My project is part of the University of Sheffield Centre for Doctoral Training in Emerging Urban Inequalities.
- Qualifications
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BSc Sociology and Social Policy (London Metropolitan University), MSc Social Policy and Social Research (University College London (UCL)).
Before starting my PhD, I worked as a researcher on projects broadly related to health inequalities, patient and service user experiences, voluntary and community sector services, and place-based wellbeing. I have worked as a researcher within a research and evaluation consultancy, for a local health and social care advocate, and as a freelancer.
I have also previously worked as a support worker working with people experiencing homelessness and volunteered as an advocate for people seeking access to benefits, housing, and other welfare support.