Samantha Punch started playing bridge as she finished up her PhD in Sociology. Now she is on the Scottish Women's bridge team. Placing 7th in the 54th European Team Championships, allowed her team to qualify for the Venice Cup for the first time.

Sam is a sociologist at the University of Stirling and is helping them to start the academic study of the Sociology of Bridge. Sam hosted a screening of Double Dummy at the Macrobert Filmhouse in June. In this episode Sam shares how that screening has led to the creation of a university bridge club with people aged 8-78 making appearances.

The University of Stirling is in the process of setting up a crowd funder for the Sociology of Bridge research that Sam is leading. If anyone would like to find out more, including the best way to make a donation (which can be tax efficient), please contact [email protected] or email Sam directly: [email protected]

Sam is also happy to hear from those who would like to be added to the bridge research mailing list (you would be sent a summary 1-2 times a year) or who are keen to participate in future research collaborations. You might like to follow them on Twitter: @soc_of_bridge

She also mentioned the Bridge Zone, which is a 30 minute radio programme dedicated to bridge topics and supported by New Zealand Bridge. You can listen to the recent podcast (or via https://oar.org.nz/event/the-bridge-zone/)

http://accessradio.org/ProgrammePage.aspx?PID=6379a3ce-8450-482c-bad1-6b4cc2574313