Apologies for not posting on here for a while, I’ve been so busy lately, but the hard work has paid off, and I’m happy to announce both the launch of my book (!) and the roll-out of a new ongoing seminar series organised with the brilliant British Sociological Association’s Digital Sociology Study Group which I’m very proud to be a contributor to. Details below:

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We are happy to announce the roll out of an ongoing series of discussions hosted by the British Sociological Association’s Digital Sociology Study Group. 

Starting from July 15th 2020, The Digital Sociology Study Group will be hosting monthly discussions, workshops, and book launches with academics, researchers, authors, practitioners, and activists exploring a range of issues around digital sociology. These will be hosted online and available to all who wish to take part. 

The first session, taking place 13:00 – 13:45 on July 15th, will be a book-launch for ‘Designing the Social: Unpacking Social Media Design and Identity’ written by Harry Dyer, a member of the Digital Sociology Study Group and a Lecturer in Education at the University of East Anglia. This will be a 20 minute introduction to the book from Harry, followed by a Q+A. Attendees will be able to purchase the book for a 20% discount from Springer.com using a discount code announced during the event (valid Jul 15, 2020 – Aug 12, 2020). 

We would like to use this launch as a space to also hear from attendees about what you would like to see from these monthly discussions moving forward, so please do come with suggestions and ideas for the group going forward. We hope to make this a useful and accessible series for all levels.

The event will be hosted using Jitsi, a secure, free open-source video-hosting alternative to Zoom with end-to-end encryption. To access the discussion, simply visit meet.jit.si/DigitalSociology. We will be muting cameras and microphones upon arrival. To talk and contribute, simply unmute yourself.

We look forward to seeing and talking to you all, and hope this monthly will be a useful resource moving forward, especially at a time where face-to-face meeting is restricted.

All the best,

British Sociological Association Digital Sociology Study Group

As this year closes in already filling up my diary for 2018… First event London the books for me is a brilliant and rammed one-day event in Oxford about ‘materialities and mobilities in Education’. 

I’ll be presenting my latest about how technology is shaping transitions into higher education. The entire day looks amazing and I’m hoping to catch as many talks as possible. 
Apparently the event is fully booked AND there’s a waiting list… So if you’re coming, I’m looking forward to seeing you there! 
Full details of the day below 
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Monday January 8 2018

Materialities and Mobilities in Education – One-Day Conference

School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QY, UK (Gottman Room)

Kindly sponsored by the Economic Justice and Social Transformation research cluster

9.30 – 10.00am: Registration

10.00 – 11.00am: Welcome and Keynote 1

‘Spatial imaginaries’ and the transition to university: an intersectional analysis of class, ethnicity and place (Michael Donnelly, University of Bristol).

11.00 – 1.00pm: Parallel Sessions

 1a (Gottman Room)

i. Mobile preschools, mobilities and materialities (Danielle van der Burgt and Katarina Gustafson, Uppsala University)

ii. Moving beyond immobility: narratives of undergraduate mobility at the ‘local’ college (Holly Henderson, University of Birmingham)

iii. We’re going on a journey: materialities and mobilities in the Outward Bound Trust (Jo Hickman Dunne, Loughborough University)

iv. Building colleges for the future: pedagogical and ideological spaces (Rob Smith, Birmingham City University)

v. The construction of hypermobile subjectivities in higher education: implications for materialities (Aline Courtois, University College London)

1b (Gilbert Room)

i. Materiality and meaning-making: towards creative mapping praxis on ‘post-conflict’ Belfast (Amy Mulvenna, University of Manchester)

ii. Materiality and the formation of transnational identities among British Ghanaian children schooling in Ghana (Emma Abotsi, University of Oxford)

iii. The school bus as agentic assemblage (Cathy Gristy, Plymouth University)

iv. Learning ‘the feel’ in the wooden boat workshop: material perception as understanding (Tom Martin, University of Oxford)

v. Relational mobilities: global citizenships between international ad local private schools (Sophie Cranston, Loughborough University)

1.00 – 1.30pm: LUNCH (Gottman Room)

1.30 – 2.15pm: Keynote 2

Choreographies of belonging: Reimagining ‘local’ students’ everyday (im)mobiities in Higher Education (Kirsty Finn, Lancaster University)

2.30 – 4.30pm: Parallel Sessions

Session 2a (Gottman Room)

i. International study in the global south: linking institutional, staff, student and knowledge mobilities (Parvati Raghuram, Open University)

ii. Higher education mobilities: a cross-national European comparison (Rachel Brooks, University of Surrey)

iii. Transnational encounters. Constructions of schools and (post)colonialism across continents 1945 – 1975 (Ning de Conick-Smith, Aarhus University)

iv. The space in-between: the materiality and sociality of the international branch campus in China (Kris Hyesoo Lee, University of Oxford)

v. Materialities and (im)mobilities in transnational capacity-building projects in higher education (Hanne Kristine Adriansen, Aarhus University)

Session 2b (Gilbert Room)

i. ‘In two places at once: academics with caring responsibilities, conference mobility and the role of communication devices’ (Emily F. Henderson, University of Warwick)

ii. Data and school spaces – materialisations, circulations and temporalities (Matt Finn, Exeter University)

iii. The role of technology in shaping student identity during transitions to university: how technology is affecting the way students experience and conceptualise the university as a social, academic and physical space (Harry T. Dyer, University of East Anglia)

iv. Making space for academic work (Mary Hamilton, Lancaster University)

v. Materialities and mobilities of the university: widening participation students’ narratives of success (Emma Wainwright, Anne Chappell and Ellen McHugh, Brunel University London)

vi. Between omnipotence and immobility: a comparison of banking, Hollywood and further study as popular pathways amongst graduates from an elite university in New York (John Loewenthal, Oxford Brookes University)

4.45 – 5.30pm: (Gottman Room) Closing Remarks; Book Launch and Wine

Apologies for the lack of posts here lately! It’s been a manic summer full of running around, writing, and planning my next research project, and I’ve already sunk back into the new year teaching schedule…

If you’re curious about some of the things I’ve been doing this summer, you can listen to this podcast I recorded over the summer, or read this article I wrote for The Conversation. I’ll be updating this blog on my new research project as it progresses and evolves.

For now, please find below some information about a brilliant upcoming event in Manchester in a few weeks time. The lineup is brilliant, including some of my favourites;  Deborah Lupton and Huw Davies. I’m busy on the Friday, otherwise I’d be there soaking up the wealth of knowledge, but I hoping others will go and share some of the ideas on Twitter!

 

All the information can be found below!

 

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