Dr Ellie Suh

Dr Ellie Suh

Department of Social Policy, Sociology and Criminology
Assistant Professor in Social Policy

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Ellie Suh is an Assistant Professor of Social Policy who joined the department in January 2024.

Her research interests include economic inequality and the role of policy in reducing it. She studies the interaction between individuals and socio-economic and policy structures, as well as the various mechanisms through which economic inequality can be reproduced throughout one's life course and across generations. Ellie is expanding her research to examine wealth disparities through an intersectional lens, with a particular focus on gender, ethnicity, and class. She is also a keen research methodologist, applying sophisticated quantitative methods to explore new aspects or dimensions of economic inequality.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2020
  • PGCert in Higher Education, High Education Academy, 2018
  • MSc in Social Research Methods, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2012
  • BA in Business (Accounting), University of Technology, Sydney, 2005

Biography

Dr. Ellie Suh is an Assistant Professor of Social Policy, focusing on understanding and addressing economic inequality and wealth disparities. Her work examines the interaction between individuals and broader socio-economic structures, emphasizing how policies and societal factors influence asset-building opportunities, social mobility, and the reproduction of economic inequality. 

Her research has been published in top-tier academic journals, including Ageing & Society and Longitudinal and Life Course Studies. The latter featured one of her articles as one of the five most-read of the year. Ellie is also actively engaged in policy debates and is a founding member of the Social Policy Association (SPA) Pensions Policy Working Group, which is funded by the SPA. 

Before joining the department, she was a Research Fellow at the Centre on Household Assets and Savings Management (CHASM) at the University of Birmingham, where she led the Wealth and Assets Inequality research theme. She also worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, where she researched the concepts of money and cost-effectiveness in the context of Children’s Services and secured a grant to establish a social enterprise for a cost calculator. Ellie earned her PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), where her research explored how social class and origin shape young adults' economic outcomes, contributing to inequalities that persist across generations.

Postgraduate supervision

Wealth inequalities, social and economic mobility, long-term saving and pension policy, assets and debt, gender and finance, intergenerational transfers.

Research

Research interests

Economic inequalities, economic sociology, life course, financial wellbeing, quantitative methods. 

 Current projects

Ellie is participating in the Children’s Information project  which explores the use of data at the local authority level to inform policies for children and families. 

Other activities

Ellie is one of the organising members of the Social Policy Association (SPA) Pensions Policy Working group.

Publications

View all publications in research portal