Liam Wignall

Liam Wignall is a senior lecturer in Psychology at the University of Brighton and co-Editor-in-Chief of Psychology & Sexuality and co-Editor for the Oxford University Press book series Sexuality, Identity, and Society. Prior to Brighton, he was a senior lecturer in Psychology at Bournemouth University.

He is a member of the British Psychology Society, a Fellow of the International Academy of Sex Researchers, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. He is a research affiliate for the charity The Loop, and for the Centre of Positve Sexuality. He is on the management board and international lead for the Centre for Transforming Sexuality and Gender.

Liam's work primarily focuses on the identities, experiences and behaviours of sexual minorities. He specialises on the impact of the internet and the role of community participation for non-heterosexual individuals who engage in kink and BDSM practices. Specfically, he has published on how the internet is used by kinky gay and bisexual men as a way of generating kink identities, connecting with others, and forging communities online and offline. He has also documented the development of the kink subculture of pup play, demonstrating how the internet is embedded into origin narratives and serves as a tool for connectivity. His sole-authored monograph on these topics, Kinky in the Digital Age, was published with Oxford University Press in 2022. His edited book, The Power of BDSM, was also published with Oxford University Press in 2023.

His work also explores different aspects of sex and sexuality, including sexual consent, non-exclusive sexualities, pornography consumption, sexul risk behaviours, social deviance and the interface of sexuality with illicit drug use, and the overlap between kink and neurodiversity. He has published over 30 artciles on on these areas in leading international journals, including Archives of Sexual Behaviour, Journal of Sex Research, Sexual Medicine, Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, British Journal of Sociology, and Culture, Health and Sexuality. 

In addition to being co-Editor-in-Chief for Psychology & Sexuality and the Oxford University Press book series Sexuality, Identity, and Society, Liam is a member of the editorial board for Journal of Sex Research and Journal of Positive Sexuality. He has edited a special issue in Current Opinion in Psychology on Sexual and Gender Diversity in the 21st Century.

Liam is regualrly invited to speak nationally and internationally, including University of California, Santa Cruz, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Johns Hopkins University, Maryland.

Liam is interested in supervising students in the following areas: kink/BDSM identities/practices/behaviours (especially in relation to non-heterosexual populations); sexual health and well-being; sexual identities/behvaiours/subcultures and cross-overs with the internet; the overlap between BDSM/kink and neurodiversity, with a focus on autism and/or ADHD. 

Liam has a longstanding collaboration with the kinky social networking site Recon.com, writing regular blog posts and presenting his work at their community events, and conducting annual research on kink communities.

He has discussed his research on various podcasts, including the British Psychology Society, the Free Sex podcast, and the Sex and Psychology podcast. His work has also been featured by national and international media, including The Conversation, Cosmopoliton, and Mashable.

Liam dlivers regular talks focused on sharing academic research findings with a diverse range of audiences, including Seed Talks and at Recon Events.