Professor Laurie Taylor

Sociologist and Vice President of Humanists UK

Laurie Taylor is emeritus professor of sociology at the University of York. He is a Fellow of Birkbeck College, University of London, and holds honorary degrees from eight other UK universities. His contributions to social science were recognised in 2003 by his election to the Academy of Learned Societies for the Social Sciences.

Before entering academic life at the University of York, where he went on to become Professor of Sociology, Laurie had eight years industrial and sales experience, worked as a librarian in Liverpool, taught in a London comprehensive school, and was a professional actor with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop Company at Stratford East. He is the author of fourteen books on motivation, change, communication, and personal identity.

Laurie can regularly be heard on BBC R4 presenting Thinking Allowed, a programme, now in its twenty sixth year, devoted to society and social change.