Pamela Abbott

Pamela Abbott, FAcSS (born 27 June 1947) is an English academic in sociology, gender and development studies. She is Director of the Centre for Global Development and Professor in the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen, and Director of the Centre for Global Development.

Abbott leads the Scottish Government-funded research project Fostering a Social Practice Approach to Adult Literacies for Improving People’s Quality of Life in Western Rwanda. She also leads the Global Health Research Group on promoting children’s and adolescent’s mental wellbeing in sub-Saharan Africa, a project funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

In her writings on feminist perspectives in sociology, Abbott challenges a limited consideration of gender issues within mainstream sociology, and advocates a reconceputialisation and interdisciplinary approach in order to question fundamental assumptions in the discipline.

Abbott's recent research interests focus on quality of life and socioeconomic transitions in societies experiencing transformations following the Arab Spring.