Fiona Devine is a Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester. Her research interests focus on social stability and social mobility with specific reference to social class and educational inequalities in the UK and the US. She is the author of a number of books including Affluent Workers Revisited (1992), Social Class in America and Britain (1997) and Class Practices: How Parents Help Their Children Get Good Jobs (2004). She was a member of the Governing Council of the Economic and Social Research Council and Chair of its International Advisory Committee between 2003 and 2007. She was awarded an OBE for Services to Social Sciences in the 2010 New Years Honours List.