Visiting Researcher and Reproductive Justice in Britain and South Africa

We're delighted to have Ryan du Toit visiting the department from South Africa for this term.  Ryan is a PhD student and Researcher from the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction (CSSR) programme at Rhodes University.  He forms part of a collaborative research team involving Merran Toerien, Sian Beynon-Jones and researchers from Rhodes University, headed by Professor Macleod, who also visited York earlier this year. 

The overarching aim of the research project, which is funded by the British Academy, is to critically examine how pre-abortion consultations are conducted in the public health sector in both South Africa and in Great Britain. It is envisioned that the findings from both contexts can be used to develop a ‘reproductive justice’ framework for thinking about abortion practices. 

During his visit he will be attending courses in conversation analysis and engaging in data sessions held by the department of Sociology. You can read more about the CSSR @ https://www.ru.ac.za/criticalstudies/about. Ryan will also be talking about the wider project as part of the department of Sociology's Unpolished Papers programme on November 18th from 3-4pm.  

Catriona Macleod, Sexuality and Reproduction

We were very fortunate to have a visit from Professor Catriona Macleod last week - a distinguished South African academic, who is simultaneously a SARChI Chair, head of a vibrant programme of Critical Studies in Sexuality and Reproduction, Professor in Psychology, and editor-in-chief of the International Journal, Feminism & Psychology.  Professor Macleod visited the Department of Sociology at York as part of a British Academy International Partnership and Mobility award, held jointly with Dr Merran Toerien and Dr Sian Beynon-Jones (both lecturers in Sociology at York).  Her visit included running a workshop on Research as a Social Activity, delivering a seminar entitled 'Adolescent Pregnancy': Feminism and Reproductive Justice, and taking part in a spirited discussion group about the promises and pitfalls of combining various forms of discursive psychology with conversation analysis.   

We are delighted to have had this opportunity both to learn from Catriona's extensive research experience and to be inspired by the way she goes about being an academic - combining intellectual rigour, careful empirical work, a critical voice and a host of strategies for getting that voice into the world beyond academia.  And despite her very busy schedule, she remains an enormous amount of fun!  

For a great commentary on the workshop from one of our recent graduates, see:

http://snippetsofasmilingsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/

For more on Catriona's work, see: https://www.ru.ac.za/psychology/people/academic/professorcatrionamacleod/

For more on the Critical Studies in Sexualities and Reproduction programme, see:

https://www.ru.ac.za/criticalstudies/

Catriona is also helping to organise the forthcoming International Society of Critical Health Psychology Conference, at which Dr Clare Jackson and Dr Merran Toerien (from Sociology at York) will be speaking.  See: http://ischp2015.co.za/  

Watch this space for more on that!

BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grants Success

Congratulations to both Prof Paul Johnson and Dr Xiaodong Lin who have both been awarded British Academy small research grants for their projects on 'Faith in Policing: The Co-Production of Crime Control' and 'Revisiting rural-urban migrant men in China: exploring aspirations, youth and masculinities' respectively.

These grants are available to support primary research in the humanities and social sciences.

Grant Success - Brian Loader and Sian Beynon-Jones

Congratulations to Sian Beynon-Jones who is CoIlaborator on a newly awarded AHRC network 'Regulating time: New perspectives on law, regulation and temporalities', starting in February.  

The project is led by Emily Grabham at Kent Law School.

  

Congratulations are also offered to Brian Loader who has been awarded a British Academy small research grant to run the following symposium, 'Streets to Screens: Mediating Conflict Through Digital Networks' on 7th November.