Dr Laura Clancy

Lecturer in Media, Lancaster University UK

@Laura__Clancy

I research class inequality, media representations and power. My book, Running the Family Firm: how the monarchy manages its image and our money (2021, Manchester University Press), is about the contemporary British monarchy (1953-present). It uses case studies of key royals (the Queen, Prince Charles, Prince Harry, Kate Middleton and Meghan Markle) to understand the place of monarchy in Britain today. It uses the name ‘the Firm’ to think about the monarchy as a corporation, akin to other corporate giants such as Amazon. My book pulls back the stage curtain of monarchy and exposes what is usually hidden: how it looks vs. how it makes its money and power.

The book was shortlisted for the British Sociological Association Philip Abrams Memorial Prize.

I was shortlisted for the AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinkers Scheme 2023.

I am now writing my second book, What Is The Monarchy For? to be published by Bristol University Press.

My writing and research has been featured in international media outlets, such as BBC Newsnight, The New York Times, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, BBC2, BBC News, BBC Radio 4, Novara Media, ABC Australia, BBC 5 Live, Sky News, NBC News, CNN, France24, the Washington Post, Red Pepper, Tribune, openDemocracy, the Independent, the i, the Sunday Times, the Australian, Al Jazeera, La Figaro, Asahi Shimbun, Tokyo Chunichi Shimbun, Tortoise Media, South China Morning Post. For media enquiries please email l [dot] clancy2 [at] lancaster [dot] ac [dot] uk.

My latest research looks at the role of the Royal Correspondent in reproducing royal news. In particular, it thinks about how the structure of Royal Correspondent reporting, from systems like the Royal Rota to ‘elite networks’ of contacts, reproduce class inequality and royal power. You can find the first published article of this research here. And the second published article is here.

I am currently Co-Director on the ISRF and The Sociological Review funded research project Cultures of Digital Hate. This researches the potential risks for academics in receiving backlash online for their public research and lobbies universities to provide support.