Phd Success in the Sociology Department

Many congratulations to Alex Black and Alejandra Jaramillo Vazquez who both passed their vivas (with minor corrections) just before Christmas.

Alejandra Jaramillo Vazquez

Alex Black

Awarded a PhD: Biotechnology and Cord Blood Banking

Many congratulations to Ros Williams for being awarded her doctorate.

Ros completed her thesis under the guidence of Nik Brown and funded by the White Rose Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) and based in the Science and Technology Unit (SATSU) within the Sociology Department.

Ros's research was part of the 'Rethinking the social production, locus and impact of bioscience' network focusing on the social, political and economic dimensions of the biotechnology industries with an emphasis on umbilical cord blood banking.

Funding for a Phd in Sociology

The Department of Sociology is able to offer funding for a PhD including fees and a stipend from Oct 2016. If you wish to find out more and apply the application date is 14th Febuary.

Click here for more information: Funded PhD

ESRC PhD funding available

The Department of Sociology holds funding for PhD's to begin 2016/17. 

Check out the link to the department website for more information.

Postgraduate News

Clare Jackson reflects on: Is pursuing an academic career worth it?

Over the next few weeks the blog is going to run a series of 'Meet the Staff of the Sociology Department' posts. In this first post Clare Jackson reflects on her the trials and tribulations of pursuing a career in academia as a mature student:

'So what should you do when you are the mother of four children aged sixteen to one, have a full-time job and up against the challenges of mid-life?  Do a PhD.  Of course!  Then, two years in to the part-time doctorate, decide that you love it so much that you’re going to throw in your nice secure full-time job, sell your house, move your family across the country and take up temporary work to pay the bills.  Insane?  Probably.  Worth it?  Definitely!

So it was that in 2005 I came to the Department of Sociology at York to start a part-time PhD using Conversation Analysis to study how gender is made relevant in talk.  In 2007, I moved from Carlisle to York, embracing a very uncertain future of temporary contracts as a Teaching Fellow in the department.   Another four years of study followed as well as a number of anxious summers when I wondered whether my contract would be renewed.  It was.  In 2012 I got to wear the silly floppy graduate hat of doctor-ness and earned the right to use a non-gendered form of address; Dr. Jackson.  In 2013, I was appointed lecturer in Sociology, and now have four children, a full-time job, and am still facing challenges of (late) mid-life… and I have a crazy, wonderful dog named Alfie.  I still do not earn what I did in 2007 when I gave up that nice, secure job.  But, I’ve been on an amazing journey and have inspired my four brilliant daughters to believe that anything is possible, and that achievement is not only for the young. 

The rewards of being Dr someone are many.  I got to completely terrify my new GP, who had assumed I was a medic of some kind.  I’ve never been treated with such respect in a medical encounter!  I did confess… eventually. I get to teach subjects I am passionate about, especially Conversation Analysis.  For the uninitiated, this involves listening to conversations, transcribing them in great detail and analysing them, searching for regularities so that we can describe how talk is organised in a way that permits us to make sense to each other.  It’s amazing!  The sheer orderliness of interaction is a beautiful thing.

I also get to research topics I am passionate about.  My current research focusses on decision-making that gets done in talk between healthcare professionals, women and their birth-partners in the labour ward.  We know that labouring women often want to be involved in decisions about how they give birth but that this does not consistently happen.  My research team are intending to record and analyse the interactions that take place during labour in order to describe how decisions are initiated, who initiates them and how they are responded to.  In preparation for making a bid for funding, we have been working on the data available from the Channel 4 programme, ‘One Born Every Minute’.  A clear finding from this (admittedly small and heavily edited) dataset, is that one way in which decisions are initiated by Healthcare professionals is through use of the phrase ‘we need to ….’.  In a sense, this formulation closes down the opportunity for women to decline whatever is being asserted as a ‘need’.  However, women can and do resist.

Oh, and I also get to do lots and lots of admin.  I am leader of the pathway for Sociology with Social Psychology, Chair of Mitigating Circumstances Committee and the departmental Exams officer.  This means that I am involved with almost all aspects of students’ progress from admission to graduation.  I am new to the exam role, and have quickly discovered that it’s not going to put me at the top of any popularity poll; I seem only to write demanding emails to colleagues stressing the urgency of some very tight deadline.  This means, many of emails begin with ‘we need to…’.  My colleagues can and do resist… for a while.'

PhD Student Lecture Series

After the PhD away day, it was decided amongst the PhD students that we should showcase our own research contributions to the department through a PhD lecture series. After approaching PhD students in our department, Alex Simpson, Piotr Maron and Holly Steel all offered to contribute to the first "PhD Open Lecture Series" which all are welcome to attend. We also intend to have all lectures chaired by PhD students. 

The point behind this was to try and give ourselves experience of giving lectures beyond the seminar experience we get through leading seminar groups. It also demonstrates to the department and the wider university how active, diverse and - most importantly - interesting our own research contributions are.

Depending on the success of this term's lecture series, it may be feasible to add extra lecture slots in. Currently, though, the endeavour is incorporated into the Sociology PhD curriculum along with our PhD seminars in which we spend time with academics in the department who offer advice on topics such as the REF, authoring articles, and preparing for Confirmations. 

I hope over the academic year that those PhDs involved more generally in social sciences across campus might like for their own work to be show-cased in the PhD Open Lecture Series. If they are interested, they can email me at rgw511@york.ac.uk.

PhD and research degree Graduands - July 2014

We would like to offer our congratulations to our students who are graduating with PhD and other research degrees on Friday 18 July:

• Triona Fitton - The Quiet Economy of the Contemporary Charity Shop. (Prof Sarah Nettleton)
• Melahat Sahin-Dikman - A Bourdieusian Lens onto Professions (Prof Mike Savage)
• Nermeen Sayad - Kassam - Young Egyptian activists perceptions of the potential of social media for mobilisation (Brian Loader)
• Graham Geddes - Keyboard Warriors: The production of islamophobic identity and an extreme worldview within an online political community (Dr Rowland Atkinson) and
• Joanna Wolton (MA by Research) - Can you care for a profit? A micro-ethnographic exploration of the lived realities of formal care workers for the elderly. (Prof Sarah Nettleton)

A PhD Lunchtime treat

Many thanks to Hyangmi Choi (2nd year PhD Communication Studies) for preparing a lovely Korean lunch in the Graduate Village.  Many students and staff attended and we particularly enjoyed the pancakes although all the sushi was delicious as well.

PhD Success

We are pleased to announce that three of our PhD students have met the requirements for the award of Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology and the awards have been approved by the University Standing Committee on Assessment:

• Dr Triona Fitton (The quiet economy: an ethnographic study of the contemporary UK charity shop)
• Dr Graham Geddes (Keyboard warriors: the production of Islamophobic identity and an extreme world view within an online political community)
• Dr Melahat Sahin-Dikman (A Bourdieusian lens onto professions: a case study of architecture)

Jack Denham - Overseas Fieldwork Funding Success

Jack Denham (PhD student) has been awarded £1900.00 by the White Rose DTC on behalf of the AQC in order to undertake fieldwork in the USA.

The trip will start with a visit to America's biggest crime museum in Washington DC. Two days are set-aside for an ethnography of the museum and another for follow up interviews. The middle part of the trip is the longest accommodating a visit to America's biggest murderabilia convention, followed by one week set aside for interviews with contacts made at the event.

During this week, a trip to the 'Dime Museum', a popular murderabilia collection in Indianapolis, will also be made. Finally, the trip accommodates a visit to a crime museum in Hollywood boasting the largest murderabilia collection in the world over two days again. This trip has been arranged with the assistance of a gatekeeper with access to many interviewees during the week stopover in Indianapolis.

This trip will contribute a physical dimension to the networks addressed in Jack's proposal, providing valuable first-hand visual data as well as invaluable contacts in this industry. This exposure will also help with an understanding of the value of criminal culture to the consumer - data collected here will form the bulk of the research for his PhD.

Congratulations Jack!