Goldsmiths - University of London

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  • Sociology on the Radio

    Kate Nash, Beverley Skeggs and Vikki Bell have recently been interviewed about their research on BBC Radio's 3 and 4.

    To listen to a podcast featuring Beverley Skeggs, please click HERE

    To listen to a podcast featuring Kate Nash, please click HERE

     

  • Sociology Masters Prizes 2011/12 

    The Sociology department is pleased to announce that it will be awarding three prizes to MA students in November 2012:

    Goldsmiths Prize for the Best Written Post-Graduate Dissertation in Sociology 2011/2012 (for students taking Critical and Creative Analysis, Gender, Media and Culture, World Cities and Urban Life, Social Research).

    Goldsmiths Prize for the Best Post-Graduate Portfolio Dissertation in Sociology 2011/2012 (for students in Photography and Urban Culture, Digital Sociology, and Visual Sociology).  

    Goldsmiths Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement in a Taught Post-Graduate Degree 2011/2012.

    The prizes are sponsored by the Sociology Department. 

    For further information please contact the Department HERE.

  • Sociology Undergraduate Prizes 2011/12 Logo

    The Sociology department is pleased to announce that it will be awarding
    two prizes in June 2012 for outstanding academic work and outstanding
    academic achievement to undergraduate students in Years 1, 2 and 3.

    Goldsmiths Sociology Prize for Outstanding Academic Work 2011/2012
    C. Wright Mills Prize for Outstanding Academic Achievement in Sociology 2011/2012

    The prizes are sponsored by Polity Press and by the Sociology Department.

    Polity is one of the world's leading publishers in sociology and social theory, with a reputation for innovative, cutting-edge publications.  Polity's authors include internationally renowned sociologists and social thinkers such as Pierre Bourdieu, Zygmunt Bauman, Jeffrey Alexander, Sylvia Walby, John Urry, Nancy Fraser, Manuel Castells and Ulrich Beck.

    For further information please contact the Department HERE.

  • ESRC Doctoral Training Studentships 2011/12

    The ESRC has awarded a Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) to a consortium consisting of Goldsmiths and Queen Mary, both Colleges of the University of London. This ESRC award, which establishes the consortium as one of only 21 Doctoral Training Centres nationwide, recognises the outstanding work being done in research and research training in departments and schools across both institutions. These will be very prestigious awards to support the most outstanding students. Ten ESRC-funded studentships are available each year.

    Applicants wishing to apply for one of these ESRC Studentships via the Sociology accredited pathway (i.e. one of the studentships housed in the Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths College) should complete an application form at http://londonsocialscience.org.uk/studentship.html

    Applicants should e-mail the application clearly headed (in the subject line of the e-mail) ESRC SOCIOLOGY STUDENTSHIPS to sociology-phd@gold.ac.uk

    Applications must be received by 4pm (GMT) on 30th January 2012. Late applications will not be considered.

    If you require more information about the studentships and supervision in MPhil/PhD Sociology and Visual Sociology, please contact Bridget Ward.

  • Responding to the Riots

    Inspired by the spirit of public sociology, sociologists at Goldsmiths College recently took the opportunity to reflect on the events of this past summer, organising an evening workshop to promote dialogue between young people and sociologists on the question of the riots. We asked: How can we make sense of the competing readings and representations of the riots/uprisings? How have young Londoners themselves understood the events and their consequences?

    Hosted by the Centre for Urban and Community Research and the Sociology Society, contributors to the event included speakers from Reprezent 107.3 FM, South London Gallery’s young people’s forum Art Assasins, and staff from the Sociology department at Goldsmiths. Consisting of workshops, presentations, and dialogue between the participants and the audience, discussions focused on different understandings of the summer’s riots/uprising, including responses that have already appeared in the media and those produced by critical engagement with the interplay of social, economic, political, and cultural issues that surround the events. Inverting the common academic hierarchy, the young participants’ knowledge and experience served as a point of departure for understanding the riots/uprisings from which critical responses were developed.

    The event proved to be extremely popular, attracting school teachers, their pupils, artists, activists, educationalists, lecturers, and students from across Goldsmiths departments and beyond. It quickly booked to capacity, which indicates to us the need for such critical dialogue with publics outside the university. While a larger room was need to match the demand to attend, the intimacy of the event was prioritised, enabling real dialogue and active participation between the people of a range of ages, backgrounds, interests and opinions who attended.

  • Professor Roger Burrows joining Goldsmiths

    We are delighted to announce that Professor Roger Burrows will be joining Goldsmiths Sociology very soon in January 2012 from the University of York where he is currently a Professor of Sociology (and was the head of department).  He has worked at York since 1995 and prior to that at the University of Teesside, the University of Surrey, LSE and, what is now, the University of East London.

    His background is in sociology, statistics, social policy and urban studies, but he has also been known to dabble in social and cultural theory.

    His current research interests are in: urban sociology; social media; the social life of methods; and the public life of data. He is the author, co-author or editor of over 120 articles, chapters, books and reports. 

    He was the founding managing editor of Body & Society in 1995, the co-editor of the journal Housing Studies between 2002 and 2005, and the coordinator of the ESRC E-Society Research Programme between 2005 and 2008.

  • New MA/MSc in Digital Sociology launched

    Digital Sociology - now recruiting for 2011-2012

  • Digital Sociology from our 3rd Year Undergraduates

    Please visit the Social Theory website to view an example of some experimental Digital Sociology from our Undergraduate students in the department.  

  • Peake Teaching Award Nominations

    We have just been told that a really impressive number of members of staff in our department were nominated by students for a Peake teaching award this year 2010-11. They were:

    AbdouMaliq Simone, Alison Rooke, Brett St Louis, Brian Alleyne, David Hirsh, David Oswell, Nirmal Puwar, Pam Odih, Bev Skeggs,Vikki Bell, Yasmin Gunaratnam, along with our teaching assistants:  Alex Rhys Taylor, Liam Berriman, Spyros Papaioannou and Thomas Zacharias, which goes to show that even through we are a top research department we are also dedicated to our teaching.

  • The UK Plc Roadshow (THES, 8-14 July 2010)

    Shadowing the speed-dating expats who recruit for British universities, Professor Caroline Knowles finds that their hyermobile lives parallel those of the students they pursue.  Read the full text of the article in the Times Higher Educational Supplement.

  • A manifesto for a new Europe

    The Forum of Concerned Citizens of Europe has published its Manifesto for a new Europe in an open letter to the Guardian (14 July 2010), in which it describes how a new inclusive politics in Europe must embrace and build on at least four core principles:

    1. Diversity as the essence of Europe

    2. An ethos of solidarity and hope

    3. Protecting the commons

    4. Inclusive economy

    As a promoter of the Forum, Les Back participated in its inaugural debate entitled 'Living with Diversity. For a Politics of Hope' at the Centre for Contemporary Culture in Barcelona (4-5 March, 2010).

  • Journey of the sole - My Eureka moment (THES, 31 December 2009)

    Professor Caroline Knowles describes how a photography student's holiday snaps and a trip to the traffic-free streets of Mozambique led her to embark on a project tracing the route to market of the common plastic flip-flop.  Read the full text of the article.