A PRESTIGIOUS sociology accolade has been awarded to an Essex University academic after she published a highly regarded new study.

Professor Lydia Morris, who has taught at Essex University for more than 30 years, received a joint award after publishing her book The Moral Economy of Welfare and Migration: Reconfiguring Rights in Austerity Britain.

The British Academy awarded Professor Morris with the Peter Townsend Prize, one of a series of awards to academics who work in the field of social sciences, arts, and humanities.

Specifically, Professor Morris’ study explores Britain’s years of austerity from 2010 to 2015, during which time the coalition-led government reformed the welfare system to reduce the budget deficit.

Professor Morris’ book studies the strict controls applied to domestic welfare and international migration, and how the policies were moralised in such a way that they were set in opposition to one another.

The British Academy’s judging panel said her monograph “makes a major contribution to understanding recent policy developments”.

Professor Morris said: “I am pleased to acknowledge the support of my own institution where Peter Townsend was the founding Professor of Sociology, and of the Leverhulme Trust, whose award of a Major Research Fellowship freed me to complete the project.”