Dr Sam de Boise

Dr. Sam de Boise has been awarded a four year postdoctoral position in the School of Music, Theatre and Art at Örebro University, Sweden. He will be leaving the department of Sociology at York at the end of July. The postdoc will be looking to build on his doctoral thesis (Masculinities, Music Emotion and Affect) and recent research into gender and music and aims to explore inequalities through cross cultural differences in music use in the UK and Sweden. He wishes to thank all of his colleagues and friends for their help and support during his time at York.

MA - Bridge Scholarships for 2014 Entry

Thanks to generous donations from alumni, the University is able to offer four scholarships for certain postgraduate programmes.

The scholarships are available to Masters students applying for entry in Autumn 2014.

• The scholarships are worth up to £10,000 each, 
• The scholarships are tenable for up to one year.

Eligibility and Availability

In order to be eligible you must:

1. Have applied for place on a full time Masters programme in the relevant department.
2. Expect to begin your Masters studies in October 2014
3. Have or expect to obtain a first or upper second class honours degree or equivalent prior to commencing the Masters programme.

Application procedure and deadline

Potential applicants should discuss their interest and request an application form with Alison Taylor at sociology-pg@york.ac.uk

It is essential that you submit your application for a place on your selected programme of studies as soon as possible, as we anticipate these scholarships will be allocated by the middle of June 2014.

The deadline for application is Friday 2 May 2014

Postdoctoral Research Associate, Science and Technology Studies Unit

A 3 year full-time post-doc position is available in SATSU to work on a new ESRC-funded project on regenerative medicine. Click on the University Jobs page for more details.

The position will involve working closely with the Director of the Unit on a newly funded ESRC research project in the sociology of the biosciences, focusing on the field of regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies: ‘Regenerative medicine and its development and implementation: an analysis of emergent value systems and health’.

Celebrating Same-Sex Marriage Equality Report and Photos

On Friday 28th March 2014, the Sociology Department held an event to mark the commencement of provisions in the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 that enable same-sex couples to solemnise marriage in England and Wales and give legal recognition to same-sex marriages solemnised overseas.

The event was organised by Dr. Paul Johnson and Prof. Celia Kitzinger on behalf of the whole Department, as a platform on which to showcase its research on sexualities and marriage. Well over 100 people attended the event and heard short talks by Paul, Celia, Prof. Stevi Jackson (Centre for Women’s Studies) and Maddie Boden (LGBTQ officer at YUSU).

The event was opened by Dr. Jane Grenville, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. As the photographs taken by Alison Taylor (Department of Sociology) show, the event was both interesting and fun!

All photographs are copyright of Alison Taylor

Contesting ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ difference in emotions through music use in the UK

A new article, written by Dr. Sam de Boise, published in the Journal of Gender Studies, looks at claims which have emphasised gender and sex differences in emotions. Such disparities in experience have often been explained with reference to either biological differences or socialisation into discrete 'gender roles'. 

Analysing quantitative and qualitative survey data about personal experiences of music from 914 respondents (male = 361; female =553), it outlines the particular problems associated with both ‘hardwired’ and ‘socialisation’ accounts.

 In looking at music listening, which is often so explicitly concerned with emotional experience, the article demonstrates how context, age and experience intersect with gender to produce a much more complex picture of emotions than most accounts which treat gender as static or singular.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09589236.2014.894475#.UzLV7s4ZqkM

Public lecture to be delivered by Nick Hardwick, HM Chief Inspector of Prison

Ruth Penfold-Mounce with David Honeywell has been awarded money from the Jim Matthew Fund to support a public lecture to be delivered by Nick Hardwick, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. 

Nick will be speaking on 8th October 2014 at 6pm in the Auditorium, Research Centre for the Social Sciences. Drinks and canapes will be served after the lecture.

The lecture will focus on: Nelson Mandela: “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.”

How do we know what happens inside our jails? This talk will describe the history and role of HMI Prisons and set this in the context of the UK's obligations arising from its status as a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). It will argue for the importance of independent, human rights based inspection not just as an accountability mechanism but as a preventative process. 'Knowing' what happens changes what happens. The talk will also discuss current inspection findings, focussing mainly on the adult prison estate and consider the impact of current policy including 'Transforming Rehabilitation' polices, resource constraints, population pressures and restrictions on prisoners' regime and privileges. It will assess the extent to which the system is coping with the pressures these factors create.

Shades of deviance marketing

Rowland's new book 'Shades of Deviance' has just been released. This is a key reading for his second year undergraduate module - Crime, Culture and Social Change and for anyone interested in crime and deviance. Follow the link for a full author interview: http://www.routledge.com/u/shades/ or visit the the Routledge website: Criminology and Criminal Justice homepage