BA Politics, International Studies and Gender

MA Social Research

 

As my PhD research indicates I am particularly interested in the processes of class re/production, my Masters dissertation entitled Constructing the ‘Self’ and Psychologising the ‘Other’: Sixth form pupils group work on  chavs’ deliberately focused on a site of the re/production of ‘chavs’ rather than on ‘chavs’ themselves in a  political move designed to bring attention to and possibly disrupt relatively hegemonic practices of class  re/production.  As founder of Warwick Anti Sexism Society (WASS) I continue to think about the ways in which my feminist activism is or could be linked to my role as a research student. This feeds into my burgeoning interest into radical pedagogy, the social construction of masculinities and a wide range of issues central to feminism.

Graduated lives: equal opportunities, meritocracy and class travel in women’s experiences of graduate employment

The British higher education system has never before been accessed by so many women from a relatively wide range of socio economic backgrounds.  Both working and middle classes are graduating and securing gainful employment. Despite fears in the1990s (Scase and Brown, 1994) that degree status was in decline and underemployment of graduates was on the increase, continuous research refutes such claims (Elias and Purcell, 2004). The growing importance of this area of study is acknowledged by the large scale mixed methods studies funded by the ESRC which are exploring a number of issues relating to the burgeoning graduate class such as gender, what is already clear is that women’s lives involve complex relationships to family and work life.  What is under researched is the impact of graduate’s intra classed identities; my research seeks to further our understanding of the complex ways in which classes and gendered identities operate in graduate employment.

 

Parker, A. and Lyle, S. (2005) ‘Chavs and meterosexuals: new men, masculinities and popular culture’. Sociology Review Vol 15: 1. 

 

Guest Lecturer for The Social Construction of Masculinites and Gender, Culture and the Popular Media.