News

25th November 2015, 11:00 to 17:00

WT0.05, University of Warwick

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This workshop and symposium will explore the, mostly implicit, conceptions of the human, humanity and human nature that underpin various contemporary conceptions of social life. In the context of much-publicised post-human futures, this is an invitation to reconsider the idea that social life itself is predicated on the fact that human beings are capable of such collective existence. Humans are beings who have a continuity of consciousness so that they see themselves as themselves throughout their life; human are beings who negotiate a multiplicity of sometimes contradictory identities and recognise each other as members of the same species, and they are also beings who can create and interpret cultural artefacts. Crucially, humans are beings who can deploy a sense of self-transcendence so that they are able to look at the world from somebody else’s point of view and thus conceive new social institutions.

The main focus throughout the day will be on how questions about the human are encountered in social theory and social research and what are the various implications and challenges of taking these seriously in our work. The day of activities will be divided into two parts. During the morning, we will have a participatory workshop for PhD students and early-career researchers. The goal of the workshop is to help participants negotiate the sometimes abstruse scientific, philosophical, moral, and even theological underpinnings of asking questions about ‘the human’ in the context of their own research projects. Dr Daniel Chernilo (Loughborough University) will offer a general overview of this field of enquiry as well as reflect on its various implications. We will also invite participants to reflect on their own research projects by making a brief (10-minute) presentation of their research projects and how questions about the human have been or are expected to be encountered within them. We’d like to ask all participants to reflect in advance on conceptions of the human and how they pertain to their projects. Uncertainty here is not a problem, in fact it will be a useful contribution to discussions on the day! In the afternoon, we will have a symposium in which Dr Mark Carrigan, Professor Margaret Archer and Daniel Chernilo will engage with questions of the human as they unfold in their own work on digital sociology (Carrigan), the morphogenetic society (Archer), and philosophical sociology (Chernilo).

To register your interest, please contact D.Chernilo@lboro.ac.uk and Mark@Markcarrigan.net with a brief description (500 words or less) of your research and how questions of the human are relevant to it by October 31st, 2015. The event is free but places are limited. Travel bursaries are available for those in need of it, please ask for more details.

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Toxic Expertise: Environmental Justice and the Global Petrochemical Industry

ERC PROJECT LAUNCH, WITH WINE AND NIBBLES

4 November 2015, 5pm-7pm

Zeeman Building (Mathematics) Room MS.04

Dr Stella Chatzitheochari will be speaking at a free ESRC seminar in London on Monday 9th November from 9.30am-12.00pm.

The seminar, organised by Centre for Longitudinal Studies at UCL Institute of Education, is hosted as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, in collaboration with the Anti-Bullying Alliance.

For further information and to book your ticket, visit the website now.

The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce that Professor Deborah Lynn Steinberg has guest edited a special issue of Body and Society 2015 ‘Estranged Bodies: Shifting Paradigms and the Biomedical Imaginary’ http://bod.sagepub.com/content/21/3.toc and that this has just been published.

You can find out more and watch her at the following links:

On Sky News on the migration crisis in Europe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpWZcPE0KUo&feature=youtu.be

On Sky News on protests in Ferguson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AFC5ET96SY

In The Conversation on public opinion and the migration crisis https://theconversation.com/public-opinion-on-the-refugee-crisis-is-changing-fast-and-for-the-better-47064

On The Huffington Post Blog on British policy on the migration crisis http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/hannah-jones/on-british-values-and-building-fences-calais_b_8016626.html

Warwick Sociology lecturer Eric Jensen recently appeared on the internet-based television news programme Huffpost Live to discuss the sociological implications of the now infamous killing of Cecil the lion in Zimbabwe. You can watch here: http://live.huffingtonpost.com/r/segment/cecil-the-lion-trophy-hunting-/55b77c0b78c90acf34000011

The ESRC has now opened its fifth annual call for applications for the Future Research Leaders Scheme with a deadline of 29^th September 2015. Full details of the FRL scheme, including eligibility requirements and other guidance, can be found here.

The Sociology Department is seeking to nominate a limited number of outstanding candidates. We will be running a preliminary internal competition as part of a wider University screening process in order to determine which candidates the Department will be supporting in the competition.

In the first stage of this process, applicants seeking a Sociology nomination for this scheme should send the following items to Professor Gurminder K Bhambra (g.k.bhambra@warwick.ac.uk) by 31 July 2015:

(1) A 2/3 page summary of their research proposal (to include sections on methodology, skill development and impact following ESRC guidance on these issues in their detailed guidance for applicants)

(2) A 2 page CV following the ESRC guidance

(3) A 1 page statement from the applicant's prospective mentor (who must be a permanent member of Sociology academic staff) in support of application, including its scientific quality and fit with Departmental research profile and expertise.

In the second stage of the process, nominated candidates (who will be nominated at the discretion of the Head of Department & Research Director), will receive feedback on their applications by 3 August and will be requested to submit their applications to the University selection process, with the support of the Department, by 6 August 2015.

It is with great pleasure that the Department of Sociology can announce that Professor Margaret S. Archer has published a new book with Professor Pierpaolo Donati on 'The Relational Subject'.

The Department of Sociology is pleased to announce that Professor Deborah Lynn Steinberg has just published a new book on Genes and the Bioimaginary. Genes and the Bioimaginary examines the dramatic rise and contemporary cultural apotheosis of ‘the gene’. In this book she traces not only the genetification of modern life but is also a journey through the complex relationship between science and culture.
 

A report by Dr Eric Jensen (Sociology, University of Warwick) and doctoral researcher Carli Rowell (Sociology, University of Warwick) on Higher Education Academy-funded project on engaged teaching practices within UK sociology has just been published:

https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Engaged%20teaching%20within%20the%20Social%20Sciences.pdf

This report discusses the potential and challenges of embedding engagement with civil society organisations within the higher education curriculum and teaching practice in sociology and other social sciences.