Aidan Kelly, BA (Hons), MA

“One of the ironies of the contemporary academy is that the judgements about the quality of sociological research made by sociologists on the RAE 2008 panel, whose intellectual world is dominated by an anti-positivist stance, are to a high degree predicted by a simple three variable statistical model embodying an opposing ontology and epistemology”

Aidan Kelly

Teaching

I offer a third year option on the BA Sociology degree called ‘Making Data Matter’. My main responsibility at Goldsmiths is to provide post-graduate training in quantitative methods for the Doctoral Training Centre in the social sciences to be established jointly at Goldsmiths and Queen Mary, University of London.  I support the ESRC initiative in quantitative methods and I am interested in supervising students who wish to use of quantitative methods in their doctoral research.

Areas of supervision

I have supervised PhD students in industrial relations, social policy, housing and education. I have supervised dissertations and research reports produced by Masters’ degree students on a wide range of topics.

Research interests

Quantitative Modelling

My research has involved the analysis of the ‘naturally occurring’ data produced for the various research evaluation exercises in the UK.  This data, and the journal citation reports constructed by Thompson Reuters,  have been used to predict the outcomes of the 2008 RAE for Business and Management Studies and for Sociology. Also, this data has been used to validate the judgements of journal quality published as the Association of Business Schools guide to Journal Quality.

Selected publications