New website in development
This website is slightly out-of-date, apologies - I'm just in the process of a complete website redesign, and the new version will be launched shortly. In the meantime, please see my Kings website and in particular my blog, Inequalities.
About me
I am currently a Professor in Social Science and Health in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at King's College London, and co-leading the 'work, welfare reform and mental health' programme within the Centre for Society & Mental Health. I was also co-lead of the 'Welfare at a (Social) Distance' project, which was an ESRC rapid-response project looking at the benefits system during Covid-19.
Until July 2022 I was a Reader in Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Kent, where I helped co-found the University of Kent's Q-Step centre. For a time in 2015-16 I was also on secondment as a Policy Advisor at the Department of Work and Pensions.
For the first part of my career I was just called 'Ben Baumberg' - the 'Geiger' was added in March 2016. I have a wide range of research interests, currently focused on:
- Disability, the workplace, and the benefits system (see Disability page);
- Attitudes around benefits and 'scroungers' (see Social Attitudes page); and
- The relationship between evidence and policy (see On Social Science page).
A complete list of all my academic publications, non-academic writing, qualifications and positions is available here. If you're interested in studying at King's at undergrad or postgrad level then look at our website; I'm also very happy to co-supervise research students on any of my research interests - just send me an email if you want to explore this.
Getting in touch
I'm always happy to hear from potential collaborators / research students, or from people who are just interested in my research. You can email me at ben.geiger [at] kcl.ac.uk . To hear about any new research/writing, then follow me on Twitter, my Google Scholar profile, ResearchGate or academia.edu - or to avoid any of these, simply come back to this website periodically! I also write articles at the blog Inequalities that I set up (with others) in 2010, and which I am planning to restart in earnest in 2023.Latest updates
Non-academic writing
Since 2024 I have again been trying to return to regular blogging on the Inequalities blog that I run. I also sometimes post elsewhere - a full list is available here. The post that drew most attention was Let's all be open about what we earn on the Guardian's Comment is Free blog. In this, I argued that one of the reasons that people are relatively relaxed about inequality is that we don't tell each other what we earn. [In the interests of disclosure and not being a complete hypocrite, I'm now on about 58k (for 4 days/wk's work), with wealth of about 300k. Also, for anyone wondering about the role of political ideologies in research, my views are covered here].
Comments and critiques are always welcome - this is what blogging is for!