Goldsmiths - University of London

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Mike Michael BA PhD

Position held:
Professor of Sociology of Science and Technology and Director, Centre for the Study of Invention and Social Process

Phone:
+44 (0)20 7919 7706

Email:
m.michael (@gold.ac.uk)

Sociology of science and technology; public understanding of science; sociology of everyday life; animals and society; materiality and culture; design and social science.

I joined the Department in 1998 from Lancaster University where I had been Deputy Director of the Centre for Science Studies and Science Policy. I have a BA in Experimental Psychology from University of Oxford and PhD in Social Psychology from University of Durham. Despite this background in psychology I have managed to transform myself into a sociologist of sorts, even going so far as to serve as Head of the Sociology Department 2001-2004.

Teaching

My teaching reflects my interests in microsociology, qualitative methods and recent theoretical perspectives on materiality. I have offered options in Science and Society, Animals and Society, and Sociologies of Everyday Life.

Areas of supervision

Sociology of science and technology; public understanding of science; sociology of the environment; sociology of everyday life; animals and society; social theory and materiality; sociology and design; biomedicine, biotechnology and culture.

I have successfully supervised over 25 PhD theses. The most recent include:

  • Simon Kiilerich Madsen (Graduated 2007, co-supervised with Finn Olesen, University of Aarhus)
Title: Investment Machines: An STS Study of a Decision Support System in a Retail Bank.
  • Paul Stronge (Graduated 2009, co-supervised with Monica Greco). Title:  Open to Suggestion: Ordering, Risk and Invention in Community Mental Health Work
  • Alex Wilkie (Graduated 2010, co-supervised with Bill Gaver) Title: Turning people into silicon: an ethnography of users and user-centered design

 

Grants & awards

 

Awarding Body 

Value 

Period  

Purpose 

Economic and Social Research Council

~£125k

2001-2003

Xenotransplantation: Risk identities and the human/nonhuman interface (with Nik Brown, University of York)

Economic and Social Research Council

~£142k

2004-2006

Mapping stem cell innovation in action (with Clare Williams Alan Cribb, Bobbie Farsides, Nigel Heaton, Steve Wainwright, King’s College London).

EUROPEAN COMMISSION 6th Framework Programme

~151K EURO

2007-2009

Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship. Fellow, Dr Noortje Marres.

Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Strategic Award

~£800K

2009 -2014

LABTEC - The London & Brighton Translational Ethics Centre. (with Clare  Williams and others).

RCUK Energy Research Programme

~£974K

2011-2014

Sustainability Invention and Energy Demand Reduction: Co-designing communities and practice (with Bill Gaver and Jennifer Gabrys).