Goldsmiths - University of London

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Kate Nash BSc PhD

Position held:
Reader

Phone:
+44 (0)20 7919 7734

Email:
k.nash (@gold.ac.uk)

sociology of human rights; cultural politics; political sociology; feminist theory; citizenship; social movements; equality and diversity

I did a Sociology degree at City University as a mature student, completing in 1990, and then a PhD in the Department of Government at Essex University, finishing in 1995. I've been teaching in the Department since 1999. Before that I taught at the University of East Anglia, and also at City and Essex Universities and as a tutor for the Open University.

In Spring term 2010 I will be Vincent Wright Chair at Sciences Po, Paris. I am co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy at Goldsmiths, a Fellow of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University, and a member of the Unit for Global Justice in the Department. In 2005 I was a Visiting Scholar at the New School for Social Research, New York.

Teaching

I am currently teaching a third year undergraduate option 'Citizenship and Human Rights', and a postgraduate option called 'Politics, Culture, Change'. I also teach on the first year core undergraduate course 'Modern Knowledge, Modern Power' and on the MA 'Gender and Culture' which is taught jointly between the Department of Sociology and the Department of Media and Communications.

I am currently supervising or co-supervising the following PhD students:

  • Elisa Fiaccadori 'Gender and Race in the War on Terror as a State of Exception' (ESRC funded);
  • Hilde Stephenson 'Knowledge production, documentation, and the construction of a transnational counterpublic in the World Social Forum process'(ESRC funded);
  • Miranda Weigler ‘Is there a Global Imagined Community?’
  • David Rose ‘Visual Sociology and Conspiracy Theories’

I have co-supervised the following PhD students to completion:

  • Laurence Pawley '“Constructing the Audience”: Manifestations of Citizenship in the BBC' (ESRC funded);
  • Jennie Munday 'Crisis in the Countryside? An Investigation of the Countryside Alliance as a Rural Social Movement' (ESRC funded) 2008;
  • Madeleine Kennedy McFoy 'Situated Citizenships, Routed Belongings: Learning and Living French and British Citizenship at School' (ESRC funded) 2007;
  • Rachel White 'Gender Exclusion from the Indy Public Sphere' (ESRC funded) 2006;
  • Heidi Lempp 'Medical Education: the Transition from Student to Pre-registrar Doctor' 2004.

I am especially interested in supervising PhD students working on issues of cultural politics in relation to human rights, citizenship, social movements and media; and on transnational publics.

Research interests

I am currently working on various projects in the sociology of human rights, building on previous work I have done in political sociology and feminist political theory on rights, culture and politics in relation to globalization, citizenship and social movements. IncreasinglyI am interested in thinking about media in relation to political and social theory; the study of how human rights are mediated and what difference that makes to their realization is key to my current research. I am currently also very interested in the emergent possibilities of transnational publics around human rights and other issues, particularly in relation to the consequences of globalization for democracy.

Selected publications

Books

  • The Cultural Politics of Human Rights: Comparing the US and UK Cambridge University Press 2009

  • (Co-editor with Alan Scott and Anna Marie Smith) New Critical Writings in Political Sociology [pdf] Farnham: Ashgate 2009

  • Contemporary Political Sociology: globalization, politics and power Blackwell 2000 (translated into Chinese), Serbian and Arabic

  • Universal Difference: Feminism and the Liberal Undecidability of “Women” Macmillan 1998

  • (Co-editor with Alan Scott) The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology Blackwell 2001

  • (Editor) A Reader in Contemporary Political Sociology Blackwell 2000

Journal articles

Chapters in books

  • ‘Democratic human rights’ in R. Morgan and B. Turner (eds) Interpreting Human Rights: Social Science Perspectives London and New York: Routledge 2009

  • ‘Conventional and Contentious Politics’, introductory essay K. Nash, A. M. Smith and A. Scott (eds) New Critical Writings in Political Sociology, volume 2, Aldershot, Hampshire and Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate 2009

  • 'Cultural Studies and human rights' in Karin Harrasser, Sylvia Riedmann and Alan Scott (eds) Politik der Cultural Studies Vienna: Turia und Kant 2007.

  • 'Out of Europe: human rights and prospects for cosmopolitan democracy' in C. Rumford (ed) Cosmopolitanism and Europe Liverpool University Press 2007

  • 'Cosmopolitan political community: why does it feel so right?' in J. Eade and D. O'Byrne (eds) (2005) Global Ethics and Civil Society Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate (first published in Constellations 10/4 2003).

  • 'Contested Power: Political Sociology in the Information Age' in F. Webster (ed) A New Politics? Culture and Politics in the Information Age Routledge 2001 Reprinted in F. Webster and B. Dimitriou (eds) Manuel Castells Sage Masters in Modern Social Thought vol. 3 2003

  • 'Feminism' in A. Finlayson (ed) Contemporary Political Theory: a Reader and Guide Edinburgh University Press 2003

  • 'Patriarchy and Democracy', entry in Encyclopaedia of Democratic Thought ed. P. B. Clarke and J. Foweraker, Routledge 2001

  • 'Equality and Difference' and 'Liberal Feminism', entries in Encyclopaedia of Feminist Theories ed. L. Code, Routledge 2000

  • 'Beyond Liberalism? Feminist Theories of Democracy' in V. Randall and G. Waylen (eds) Gender, Politics and the State Routledge 1998