Dr Alistair Fraser joins the University of Glasgow as Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology in September 2015. Prior to this he was Assistant Professor in Criminology in the Department of Sociology, University of Hong Kong. Dr Fraser’s research interests revolve around youth, crime and globalisation, with a focus on youth gangs in a global and comparative context. He has a particular interest in ethnographic and qualitative methods, and has carried out fieldwork in Glasgow, Chicago and Hong Kong. His first book ‘Urban Legends: Gang Identity in the Post-Industrial City’ was published by Oxford University Press in 2015.

Dr Fraser has nine years of experience working as a researcher, principal investigator, and research manager on a variety of funded research projects. Most recently he has acted as co-Principal Investigator on a comparative study of youth leisure in Glasgow and Hong Kong, funded by the ESRC-RGC Bilateral Fund. The study involved extensive fieldwork in communities in both cities, documenting young people’s leisure lives through interview, observation and group discussion. An exhibition of images relating to the project, entitled ‘(Re)Imagining Youth: From Glasgow to Hong Kong’ will soon travel from its current home in Hong Kong to a new exhibition space in Glasgow, as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.

Dr Fraser’s approach to teaching and learning centres on a holistic approach to research, education and scholarship.  At the University of Hong Kong Dr Fraser was course coordinator for two taught postgraduate modules in criminology and two undergraduate courses in sociology, and acted as Chief Examiner and Assistant Director and Dissertation Coordinator for the Masters in Social Science (Criminology) programme. In these administrative roles he was responsible for realigning the curriculum to emphasise more global and comparative perspectives. He was awarded the Faculty of Social Sciences ‘Outstanding Teaching Award’ for the year 2013-2014.

First published: 10 July 2015

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