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

Fiction and Social Theory

Dave Beer has edited an E-special issue of the journal Theory, Culture & Society on 'Fiction & Social Theory'. The issue brings together 11 articles from the TCS archive. He's also written a detailed editorial introduction to the issue. The articles are all open access for a limited time. Below is a brief abstract for the issue:

This E-Special issue brings together a range of articles from theTheory, Culture, & Society archive that directly explore the relations between fiction and social theory. Each article develops a different perspective on these relations, yet they all share a common interest in probing at the different ways in which fiction might enrich and provoke our conceptual imaginations. These articles ask how theory might be used to understand or illuminate fiction, whilst also considering how theory might be extended, challenged or informed by fictional resources. In general terms, the articles take three types of overlapping approach. First, there are those that use fiction to extend the imagination of social theory. Second are the articles that use fiction as a documentary resource and platform for theorizing. And, finally, there are those articles that use theory to reanimate and re-examine fictional forms. In exploring these three intersecting branches the pieces illustrate the different ways in which fiction and social theory might interweave in our thinking. The articles gathered here provide frameworks, ideas and resources through which the reader might continue to think imaginatively and creatively about the social world.

The issue is available here http://tcs.sagepub.com/site/especials/fiction-social-theory.xhtml

New Editorial Board Member of Work, Employment and Society

Dr Xiaodong Lin has been elected to join the Editorial Board of the British Sociological Assocation (BSA) journal Work, Employment and Society. 

This international peer-reviewed journal of the BSA, analyses all forms of work and their relation to wider social processes and structures, and to quality of life. It embraces the study of the labour process; industrial relations; changes in labour markets; and the gender and domestic divisions of labour. It supports contemporary, historical and comparative studies and both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

10th Anniversary of Civil Partnerships

Sue Wilkinson has recorded an interview with WDR, Germany’s biggest public broadcaster, for a programme commemorating the 10^th anniversary of the introduction of civil partnerships for same-sex couples in the UK, under the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

In the interview, she talked about the ‘segregated system’ of marriage and civil partnership, and reflected on the legal case she and her wife, Celia Kitzinger, brought to the High Court in 2006, with the support of Liberty and Out!Rage (see http://www.equalmarriagerights.org).  Although the Court deemed Sue and Celia’s (legal Canadian) marriage a civil partnership in the UK, it was finally recognised as a marriage in England & Wales in March 2014, following the  passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

Sue and Celia have also published a series of academic articles in this area, including the relationship between marriage and civil partnership (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 2004) and the rhetorics surrounding marriage equality (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 2004).

Sue’s interview will provide the framework for the programme, which will be broadcast on WDR on 21 December 2015 – the 10^th anniversary of the day the first civil partnerships took place in England & Wales.

Death and Culture Conference 1st-3rd Sept 2016

Ruth Penfold-Mounce (Sociology) along with Jack Denham (Sociology), Julie Rugg (Social Policy) and Ben Poore (TFTV) are running a three day international conference at York on 'Death and Culture'

Call for Papers:
How can we, as academics, understand cultural responses to mortality?

Is every response to death – over time and over place - uniquely personal or essentially the same?

This conference focusses on the impact of mortality on culture, and the ways in which the very fact of death has shaped human behaviour, evidenced through thought, action, production and expression. The conference seeks to re-engage with the study of mortality as an academic enterprise, supported by evidence and framed by theoretical engagement. No discipline is excluded and we are encouraging researchers including postgraduates to contribute who might not consider themselves death scholars, with work that overlaps with death and the dead.

We welcome contributions on topics such as but not limited to:

·         Death, film and television

·         Fame and death

·         Historical death

·         The dead in place and space

·         Law, death and the dead

·         Art and death

        Commonplace death

Confirmed keynotes include Prof Jacque Lynn Foltyn (National University, California), Prof Sarah Tarlow (University of Leicester) and Dr Michelle Aaron (University of Birmingham)

For more details visit: york.ac.uk/death-and-culture

Please note more information will be added soon regarding conference details.

A review of the Marginal Death Symposium December 2015

The Marginal Death Research: Doing Edgework symposium on Wed 2nd December was a dynamic and exciting day with stimulting papers and discussion.

Follow the link for a review of the day: Marginal Death

Encountering Corpses in Manchester

Ruth Penfold-Mounce is speaking at the new public event -  Encountering Corpses II - on Saturday 19th March 2016.

Held in the Manchester Crematorium Old Chapel the day will include tours of the Crematorium facility, a visit to the Greater Manchester Police social centre for lunch and a display on policy pathology in the area.

Ruth will be part of a panel on (Sub)Cultural Encounters - Mountaineer corpses, celebrity bodies and preserved tattoed skins

Follow the link for more details and to book your ticket:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/encountering-corpses-ii-tickets-19842731143

Conversation Analysis Short Courses: How long are they and how much do they cost?

The new series of short Continuing Professional Development courses in Conversation Analysis launching in 2016 are proving hugely popular. See below for outlines of the courses and the costs:

Conversation Analysis: An Introduction (1 day: £75)

Wed 20 January 2016; Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Find out more about conversation analysis (CA) and the kinds of issues it can be used to address.  No prior experience needed.

An Introduction to Conversation Analysis and its use in Medical Settings (1 day £75)

Fri 26 February 2016; Merran Toerien and Robin Wooffitt

For health services researchers, and others with an interest in communication in health care, who wish to find out more about conversation analysis (CA) as applied to medical interaction. No prior experience needed.

Developing Conversation Analytic Skills 1: Turn-taking (3 days £360)

Tues 26 – Thu 28 April 2016; Clare Jackson, Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Core foundational training in conversation analysis (CA).  Intensive course, limited to a maximum of 12 participants, offering a systematic grounding in the domain of turn-taking.  Intended for those with some prior familiarity with CA. 

Developing Conversation Analytic Skills 2: Sequence Organisation (3 days £360)

Tues 3 – Thurs 5 May 2016; Sue Wilkinson and Merran Toerien

Core foundational training in conversation analysis (CA).  Intensive course, limited to a maximum of 12 participants, offering a systematic grounding in the domain of sequence organisation.  Intended for those with some prior familiarity with CA.

For further info/registration please contact: sarah.shrive-morrison@york.ac.uk

New Professor in the Sociology and Criminology

The Sociology Department is thrilled to announce the appointment of Professor Maggie O'Neill who is moving from Durham University in April 2016 as a Chair in Sociology (Criminology).

Professor Maggie O'Neill

Maggie has research interests in:

• cultural and critical criminology
• innovative methodologies
• race, crime and justice
• asylum, migration and diaspora
• sex work
• social justice and cultural citizenship
• critical and feminist theory

Follow her on twitter: @maggieoneill9