Rosalind Gill

Staff details

Position

University Research Leader

Department

Media, Communications and Cultural Studies

Email

R.Gill (@gold.ac.uk)

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Rosalind's work focuses on power, inequalities and the relationship between culture and subjectivity

Rosalind is Professor of Inequalities in Media, Culture and Creative Industries, and works across two Goldsmiths's departments/schools- Media, Communications and Cultural Studies (MCCS) and the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE). Her research addresses some of the most important and challenging issues of our time: why do inequalities remain so intractable even after decades of attempts to ameliorate them; how is work being transformed by new technologies and new modes of management or governance; what is the relationship between culture and subjectivity- namely how does what is 'out there' in media and popular culture affect what is 'in here', in our deepest and seemingly most private and intimate experiences of selfhood.

Research interests

My research has made contributions to several key fields and debates: inequalities and working conditions in media and creative fields; new media and new technologies; appearance pressures and the beauty industry; sexting, sexual harassment and the 'sexualisation' of culture; gender, sexuality and intimate life; feminism and postfeminism; the psychic life of neoliberalism including the feeling rules that require confidence, resilience, vulnerability, etc.
I have held grants from all the major research councils in the UK, as well as from Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, and Europe. A major EU COST grant is now a vibrant book series about how new digital technologies and virtual work are transforming work. The 30th book in the series (co-edited with Ursula Huws) will published in autumn 2025, focussing on racial platform capitalism and the gig economy.
Current grants include: #MeToo: A Culture Shift? (led by Sue Jackson and funded by Marsden Trust); young people's experiences of selfie-editing (led by Julia Coffey and funded by the Australian Research Council); young people's everyday experiences on social media (solely led by me); and emerging understandings of mental distress among young people (led by me with Sarah Riley and funded by the British Academy)

Featured publications

2022: Confidence Culture
Co-authored with Shani Orgad this book sets out a critique of the way confidence is promoted to women as a panacea for injustice

2023: Perfect: Feeling Judged on Social Media
Written for a broad audience this book explores what 'life on my phone' feels like for young women today

2017: Aesthetic Labour: Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism
A landmark collection, co-edited with Ana Elias and Christina Scharff

2025: Coffey, J., Dobson, A., Kanai, A., Gill, R., & White, N. (2025). Cinch, filter, erase: Virtual bodies and the editable self. New Media & Society,
The latest paper from our project about everyday photography and selfie editing

2015: Gender and Creative Labour
A key book about inequalities in the CCIs, co-edited with Bridget Conor and Stephanie Taylor

Publications and research outputs

Book

Confidence culture Orgad, Shani; and Gill, Rosalind . 2022. Confidence culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 9781478014539
Discourse analysis: text, narrative and representation Gill, Rosalind . 2008. Discourse analysis: text, narrative and representation. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. ISBN 9780335217342
Gender and the media Gill, Rosalind . 2007. Gender and the media. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745612737

Edited Book

Creative Hubs in Question: Place, Space and Work in the Creative Economy Gill, Rosalind ; Pratt, Andy C.; and Virani, Tarek E., eds. 2019. Creative Hubs in Question: Place, Space and Work in the Creative Economy. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783030106522
Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism Elias, Ana Sofia; Gill, Rosalind ; and Scharff, Christina, eds. 2017. Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism. London: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137477644

Book Section

Young bodies, images, and social media White, Niamh; Dobson, Amy; Coffey, Julia; Gill, Rosalind ; Kanai, Akane; and Hawker, Kiah. 2024. Young bodies, images, and social media. In: Johanna Wyn; Helen Cahill and Hernan Cuervo, eds. Handbook of Children and Youth Studies. Singapore: Springer. ISBN 9789814451963
“Stay Woke. Make Moves” Branding for a Feminist Future Amidst Pandemic Precarity Curran-Troop, Hannah; Gill, Rosalind ; and Littler, Jo . 2022. “Stay Woke. Make Moves” Branding for a Feminist Future Amidst Pandemic Precarity. In: Joel Gwynne, ed. The Cultural Politics of Femvertising: Selling Empowerment. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 141-162.
Neoliberal Beauty Gill, Rosalind . 2021. Neoliberal Beauty. In: Maxine Leeds Craig, ed. The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 9-18. ISBN 9780367246570

The Affective Life of Neoliberalism: Constructing (Un)Reasonableness on Mumsnet Ehrstein, Yvonne; Gill, Rosalind ; and Littler, Jo . 2019. The Affective Life of Neoliberalism: Constructing (Un)Reasonableness on Mumsnet. In: Simon Dawes and Marc Lenormand, eds. Neoliberalism in Context: Governance, Subjectivity and Knowledge. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 195-213. ISBN 9783030260163
Surveillance is a feminist issue Gill, Rosalind . 2019. Surveillance is a feminist issue. In: Tasha Oren and Andrea L. Press, eds. The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminism. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 148-161. ISBN 9781138845114
Introduction Pratt, Andy C.; Gill, Rosalind ORCID logo ; and Virani, Tarek E.. 2019. Introduction. In: Rosalind Gill; Andy C. Pratt and Tarek E. Virani, eds. Creative Hubs in Question: Place, Space and Work in the Creative Economy. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 1-26. ISBN 9783030106522
Hip Hub? Class, race and gender in creative hubs Virani, Tarek E.; and Gill, Rosalind . 2019. Hip Hub? Class, race and gender in creative hubs. In: Rosalind Gill; Andy C. Pratt and Tarek E. Virani, eds. Creative Hubs in Question: Place, Space and Work in the Creative Economy. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 131-154. ISBN 9783030106522
Trending now: feminism, sexism, misogyny and postfeminism in British journalism Gill, Rosalind ; and Toms, Katie. 2019. Trending now: feminism, sexism, misogyny and postfeminism in British journalism. In: Cynthia Carter; Linda Steiner and Stuart Allan, eds. Journalism, Gender and Power. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 97-112. ISBN 9781138895324
Affirmative advertising and the mediated feeling rules of neoliberalism Gill, Rosalind ; and Kanai, Akane. 2019. Affirmative advertising and the mediated feeling rules of neoliberalism. In: Marian Meyers, ed. Neoliberalism and the Media. New York: Routledge, pp. 131-146. ISBN 9781138094420
Discourse Gill, Rosalind . 2018. Discourse. In: Michael Kackman and Mary Celeste Kearney, eds. The Craft of Criticism: Critical Media Studies in Practice. New York: Routledge, pp. 23-34. ISBN 9780415716291
Beyond individualism: the psychosocial life of the neoliberal university Gill, Rosalind . 2018. Beyond individualism: the psychosocial life of the neoliberal university. In: Marc Spooner and James McNinch, eds. Dissident Knowledge in Higher Education. Regina, Canada: University of Regina Press, pp. 193-216. ISBN 9780889775367
Confidence is the new sexy: remaking intimate relationality Gill, Rosalind . 2018. Confidence is the new sexy: remaking intimate relationality. In: Ruth Fine; Yosef Kaplan; Shimrit Peled and Yoav Rinon, eds. Eros, Family and Community. Hildesheim, Germany: Georg Olms Verlag, pp. 255-276. ISBN 9783487154558
Girls: Notes on authenticity, ambivalence and imperfection Gill, Rosalind . 2017. Girls: Notes on authenticity, ambivalence and imperfection. In: Meredith Nash and Imelda Whelehan, eds. Reading Lena Dunham's Girls: Feminism, postfeminism, authenticity, and gendered performance in contemporary television. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 225-242. ISBN 9783319529707
‘I Matter and so Does She’: Girl Power, (Post)feminism and the Girl Effect Koffman, Ofra; and Gill, Rosalind . 2014. ‘I Matter and so Does She’: Girl Power, (Post)feminism and the Girl Effect. In: David Buckingham; Sara Bragg and Mary Jane Kehily, eds. Youth Cultures in the Age of Global Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 242-257. ISBN 9781349435517
Power and the Production of Subjects: A Genealogy of the New Man and the New Lad Gill, Rosalind . 2003. Power and the Production of Subjects: A Genealogy of the New Man and the New Lad. In: Bethan Benwell, ed. Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 9781405114639
Justifying Injustice: Broadcasters' Accounts of Inequality in Radio Gill, Rosalind . 2001. Justifying Injustice: Broadcasters' Accounts of Inequality in Radio. In: Caroline Mitchell, ed. Women and Radio: Airing Differences. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 137-151. ISBN 9780415220705
The tyranny of the 'six-pack'? Understanding men's responses to representations of the male body in popular culture Gill, Rosalind ; Henwood, Karen; and McLean, Carl. 2000. The tyranny of the 'six-pack'? Understanding men's responses to representations of the male body in popular culture. In: Corinne Squire, ed. Culture in Psychology. London: Routledge, pp. 100-117. ISBN 9780415243544
Discourse analysis Gill, Rosalind . 2000. Discourse analysis. In: Martin W. Bauer and George Gaskell, eds. Qualitative Researching with Text, Image and Sound: A Practical Handbook. London: SAGE Publications, pp. 172-190. ISBN 9781446205389

Article

All the rage – and other feelings: Young women, sexual harassment and media Gill, Rosalind ORCID logo ; Jackson, Sue; Graham, Katie; Lyons, Antonia; Neha, Tia; Ringrose, Jessica; and Dobson, Amy. 2025. All the rage – and other feelings: Young women, sexual harassment and media. Feminist Theory, ISSN 1464-7001
Intimacy, vulnerability and post-neoliberalism? Gill, Rosalind . 2025. Intimacy, vulnerability and post-neoliberalism? Sexualities, 28(5-6), pp. 1950-1967. ISSN 1363-4607
‘Hang on, why am I editing my photos?’ Disrupting the virtual gaze through selfie-editing workshops Coffey, Julia; Kanai, Akane; Dobson, Amy S; Gill, Rosalind ; and White, Niamh. 2025. ‘Hang on, why am I editing my photos?’ Disrupting the virtual gaze through selfie-editing workshops. Qualitative Research, ISSN 1468-7941

Digital

Against systemic gender injustice, our confidence culture encourages women to blame themselves Orgad, Shani; and Gill, Rosalind . 2022. Against systemic gender injustice, our confidence culture encourages women to blame themselves.

Professional Activity

Submission of evidence to the UK Parliament's Business and Trade Select Committee 'Make Work Pay: Employment Rights Bill' Inquiry Dencik, Lina ; Brand, Jessica; Gill, Rosalind ; Kivotidis, Dimitrios ; and Musgrave, George . 2024. Submission of evidence to the UK Parliament's Business and Trade Select Committee 'Make Work Pay: Employment Rights Bill' Inquiry.

Report

The Modern Corporation Statement on Economics Lazonick, W.; Blankenburg, S.; Froud, J.; O'Sullivan, M. A.; Sauviat, C.; Reberioux, A.; Chang, H-J.; Mazzucato, M.; Thompson, G. F.; Keen, S.; +66 more...Quattrone, P.; May, C.; Lancastle, N.; Czarniawska, B.; Knights, D.; Horn, L.; Talmud, I.; Komlik, O.; Schwardt, H.; Robson, K.; Hines, T.; Wright, R. E.; Houston, M.; Ali Dikerdem, M.; Boland, M.; Djelic, M-L.; O'Rourke, B. K.; Kaul, N.; Holmwood, J.; Kuhn, T.; Ainley, P.; Sherpa, D.; Welch, P.; Reader, K.; Culik, J.; McSorley, K.; Edmond, N.; Fleetwood, S.; M. Fischer, A.; Delalieux, G.; Syna Desivilya, H.; Leech, D.; Loughlin, M.; Maley, W.; Wield, D.; Nissanke, M.; Brown, R.; Addis, M.; Farquhar, S. S.; Cooper, D. J.; Carter, C.; Sabaratnam, M.; Aluchna, M.; Gill, Rosalind ; Bryer, A.; Beusch, P.; Harfoush, N.; Vrolijk, H.; Cooke, B.; Pirson, M.; Jacobs, D. C.; Contu, A.; Chabrak, N.; Ireland, P.; Matthaei, J.; Bavoso, V.; Ali, T.; Massa, L.; Gindis, D.; Smith, M.; Chanteau, J-P.; Coles, R. F.; Palazzi, M.; Martin, R. L.; Willmott, H.; and Veldman, J.. 2016. The Modern Corporation Statement on Economics. Technical Report. The Modern Corporation Project, London.
A qualitative study of children, young people and 'sexting': a report prepared for the NSPCC Ringrose, Jessica; Gill, Rosalind ; Livingstone, Sonia; and Harvey, Laura. 2012. A qualitative study of children, young people and 'sexting': a report prepared for the NSPCC. Technical Report. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC), London.