Final call for papers: The Sociology of Contemporary Urban Life: Economies |Cultures| Politics| Aesthetics

The final call for papers for an exciting event titled ‘The Sociology of Contemporary Urban Life: Economies |Cultures| Politics| Aesthetics’ on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th June 2016 has just been announced.

This two-day conference, co-organised by the Department and CURB (Centre for Urban Research), is an attempt to provide a lively, open-minded forum for urban sociologists to gather and discuss the challenges of conducting the craft of urban sociology in a fragmented, hierarchical urban world; an urbanizing planet where the very concept of ‘the city’—traditionally the unit of analysis for urban sociologists—faces unprecedented levels of scepticism.  The title of the conference is a riff on T.J. Clark's (1984) book on Manet and Paris, The Painting of Modern Life. As such, the conference aims to engage the contours of contemporary urban life in a comparable critical manner, using a  multiplex of economies, cultures, politics and aesthetics to explore  our contemporary urban experience/s (with or without the city).  The conference will also address the distinctive role that urban sociology has played, does play and may in the future play within the broader academic endeavour of Urban Studies.

Several leading urban sociologists have already agreed to speak at this event including Fran Tonkiss (LSE), Michael Keith (Oxford), Emma Jackson (Goldsmiths, London), Phil Hubbard (Kent), Ayona Datta (Leeds), David Pinder (Roskilde) and Richard Sennett (LSE) (a public lecture given as part of the York Festival of Ideas).

However, the intention is also to run a limited number of open streams and will be considering abstracts for papers that connect empirically or theoretically with the four interconnecting themes of the event. 

250 word abstracts should be sent to both Gareth Millington (gareth.millington@york.ac.uk) and Daryl Martin (daryl.martin@york.ac.uk) by Friday 25th March please. Decisions on abstracts will be made the following week. We especially welcome contributions from early career researchers. Registration details for non-speakers will be released shortly.

Applicants sought - EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships

The Department is seeking applications from researchers with a PhD (or at least 4 years’ full-time research experience) to apply for an EU Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. In all cases, the fellowship must involve an element of mobility (specified below).  

• European Fellowships are held in EU Member States or Associated Countries and are open to researchers either coming to Europe or moving within Europe.  European fellowships are 12-24 months in length. To apply for a fellowship with York, you must not have been based in the UK for more 12 months of the 3 years preceding the call deadline (14/09/2016).
• Global Fellowships are based on a secondment to a third country and a mandatory 12 month return period to a European host.  Global Fellowships are 12 to 24 months for the outgoing phase, plus 12 months for the return phase in Europe.  To apply for a fellowship with York, you must be an EU / Associated country national or have been resident in the UK for 5 years or more. You must also have spent you must not have spent more than 12 months of the 3 years preceding the call deadline (14/09/2016) in the third country.

In order to be considered, please submit the following documents to Ed Kirby (ed.kirby@york.ac.uk) by 4pm on Friday 27th May:

• A copy of your CV (following the Marie-Curie Individual Fellowship guidelines – see p. 41 of the guide available here) 
• A two page outline of the proposed research project
• Up to 1 page on your proposed mentor, your reasons for this choice and the wider fit between your project and the Department 

It is recommended that you contact your proposed mentor in advance of applying. If you have any questions regarding the process please contact Ed Kirby.

National Student Survey

For any of our hardworking 3rd year students out there.....

Please don't forget to have your say via the National Student Survey - www.thestudentsurvey.com

Filling in the survey does not take long and is crucial to the Department of Sociology as we seek to take on your feedback and improve our programmes. The NSS results are also critical for prospective students so they can get a true insight into what it is like to study here in York.

Good luck with your dissertations and see you at graduation!

Stevi Jackson and a DLitt (Higher Doctorate)

The Sociology Department is delighted to let everyone know that Stevi Jackson has been awarded a DLitt (Higher Doctorate) by York University.

It is a wonderful recognition of Stevi's achievements and will be awarded at the July Ceremony.

2 year Postdoc in Department of Sociology

There is a 2-year postdoc post available in the Sociology Department that is being advertised HERE

The closing date is April 12th. 

Please note this is not a post to work with an individual member of staff, but to devise a program of work associated with one or more of our research clusters. 

Informal enquires can be made to Dave Beer (chair of the appointment panel): david.beer@york.ac.uk

Departmental Seminar on Transforming Museums and Heritage

On Wednesday 16th March at 3pm in W/243 in Wentworth College Sharon Macdonald will talk about her new research project, Making Differences in Berlin. Transforming Museums and Heritage in the 21st Century. Funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation until 2020, the project looks at how cultural, social and natural differences are being made in some of Berlin’s museum and heritage developments. 


A multi-researcher collaborative ethnography of the city’s museums and heritage, the project will investigate, analyse and in some cases contribute to ongoing developments, including the high profile Humboldt Forum in the centre of the city (which will house the ethnological, Asian and University collections, as well as a new exhibition about Berlin itself), the new Museum of Islamic Art and the ambitious new plans for the Museum of Natural History, as well as more small-scale and local initiatives, such as those designed for refugees.


 Making Differences will track and analyse the ways in which notions such as ‘diversity’, ‘biodiversity’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘globalization' and ‘cosmopolitanism’ are variously mobilised, defined and put to work, and the effects that these have. Through comparative international analysis, it aims to understand the challenges and potentials of museums and heritage for more convivial social relationships and understanding.

Abstract Deadline Extension

Sara Lando

Extension for Abstracts: Regulating Time Conference

The AHRC Regulating Time network - a collaboration between the Department (Sian Beynon-Jones) and Kent Law School  (Emily Grabham) - is holding an international conference The New Legal Temporalities: Discipline and Resistance across Domains of Time 8-10 September 2016, University of Kent.

Due to a number of requests to send in 'late' abstracts for this conference (i.e. encounters with temporal resistance!), the organisers are extending the deadline to 1 April 2016. 

Keynote: Carol Greenhouse (Anthropology, Princeton)

Plenary speakers:

• Michelle Bastian (Edinburgh College of Art)
• Sarah Keenan (Law, Birkbeck)
• Justin Richland (Anthropology, Chicago)

Writer in residence: Annabel Lyon (prize-winning author of historical novels The Sweet Girl and The Golden Mean)

Law and governance are intimately entangled with time. This international conference will explore time’s fraught relationship with law, governance and ordering: the use of time in projects of discipline, the significance of time to resistance, the creation of new temporal horizons and experiences through technological innovation, as well as other themes.

The deadline for abstracts has been extended to 1 April 2016. For further information on streams and how to submit abstracts, please see the original call for papers here.