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Celia Lury (Professor)

Celia Lury (Professor)

Academic profile

I was the founding Director of CIM, which was established in January 2012. I had previously been Professor and Head of Department (from 2007-2010) in the Sociology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London. Prior to that I was in the Sociology Department at Lancaster University, where I was Co-Director of the Institute for Women Studies (with Beverley Skeggs, from 1994-7). I hold a DPhil and MA in Sociology from the University of Manchester and a BA (Hons) in Sociology from the University of York.

Research

My main research contribution is to the development of the interdisciplinary study of culture. I have made a series of studies of cultural change, focusing on the implications of such change for understandings of the person, processes of individualisation and the relations between individuals and groups. I am currently exploring these topics as a member of a collaborative interdisciplinary project called 'People Like You': Contemporary Figures of Personalisation, funded by The Wellcome Trust.

I am also interested in the ways in which 'live' methods contribute to the enactment of social worlds. A current focus involves looking at the role of methods such as ranking, optimisation, and bio-sensing in the making of a topological culture. Recent publications (available under the 'Selected Publications' tab) on this topic include:

  • Problem Spaces: Why and How Methodology Matters
  • Routledge International Handbook of Interdisciplinary Methods
  • 'What is the empirical?'
  • Inventive Methods (co-edited with Nina Wakeford)
  • Measure and Value (co-edited with Lisa Adkins)
  • A Special Issue of Theory, Culture and Society on Topologies of Culture (co-edited with Luciana Parisi and Tiziana Terranova)
Areas of Interest: Gender, Feminist and Cultural Theory, Methodology and Inventive Methods, Media and Cultural Theory, Personalisation, Social and Cultural Change, Sociology of Culture, Branding and Consumer Culture, Numbers and Names.

Teaching

Contact details

Email:

C.Lury@warwick.ac.uk

Phone:

+44 (0)24761 51757

Mailing address:

Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies

Room B0.10

University of Warwick

Coventry

CV4 7AL