Roy convenes the Economy and Society Research Group in the School. He has published books on French philosophy, the sociology of art and cinema, and cultures of risk. He is a member of the executive editorial board of Theory, Culture and Society, and a board member of the recent journal, Creative Industries. He was guest-editor for the 2007 edition, devoted to cinema, of Symbolism: a Journal of Critical Aesthetics. He was Vice-Chair of the Board of Culture North East (until its demise in April 2009). He is writing a book for Sage on regional and international cultural strategy, based in part on research he did whilst visiting professor at the University of Strasbourg in 2007. An interest in economic sociology came out of his role in Culture North East, and he developed an application of the financial derivatives model with the intent of enabling further control over the the socio-economic impacts of ivestment in culture. This is still part of his research plans, alongside the development of case studies on Berlin, the Viaduc de Millau, Futurism, and the Sage Gateshead.

He would welcome applications from potential PhD students in the sociology of culture, the sociology of risk, the sociology of cinema, and also in applications of recent continental philosophy and sociology.

https://www.dur.ac.uk/sass/staff/profile/?id=746