Congrats to Özge for passing her PhD viva!

Congratulations to our student Özgecan Kesici-Ayoubi who passed her PhD viva this term. Well done! Her research titled "Attaining Modernity through Nationalism: The Kazakh Alash Orda Movement" was supervised by Prof. Malesevic. Below is an abstract of the PhD thesis:

Title: Attaining Modernity through Nationalism: The Kazakh Alash Orda Movement

The analysis of the first Kazakh national movement, the Alash Orda movement, has traditionally been confined to strictly historiographic interpretations. By broadening the analysis through macro-sociological lenses, this dissertation examines the modes in which Kazakh nationhood was first conceptualised by a Western educated elite in the Kazakh Steppe. It argues that the Alash Orda movement resorted to nationalism in an attempt to speed up the process of modernising the nation. This argument is developed through an in-depth analysis of the literature on the legacies left behind by the Kazakh intellectuals. It demonstrates that the modernist intellectuals built upon previous Kazakh intellectuals’ work in promoting self-awareness and enlightenment. Moreover, their modernist ideas are exemplified through the discourse around sedentarisation of the traditionally nomadic Kazakhs, and increased self-determination of women. The thesis also examines the practice of nationalist movements that are traditionally engaged in myth-making and national history writing, and provides an analysis of the cultural and national ‘infrastructure’, in the forms of national education or literature that the intellectuals envisioned for Kazakh nationhood. Finally, it examines the demise of the movement and the legacies it left behind for modern Kazakh nationhood. Modernity was not achieved with the emergence of the movement. However, with the implementation of the Soviet Nationalities Policy, a layering process took place. The foundations of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic were placed on understandings of Kazakh nationhood that the Alash Ordists had previously envisioned; modernity later ensued with the establishment of the Soviet Union. The dissertation hence argues that nationalism is not necessarily the result of modernity, but rather, could strategically be deployed as an attempt to attain modernity.

Podcast receives university-wide SPARC funding

Our student-led sociology podcast "Dublin Calling" (Soundcloud, iTunes, RSS), where students and staff from our faculty talk with famous sociologists about their work, but also about the life and struggles of PhD students and early career researchers, just received university-wide SPARC funding. Huge congrats to our PhD student Mark Doyle who played a crucial role in this application! The funding will be used to develop the podcast more and secure its funding for the next two years.

The aim of the SPARC programme at UCD is to help students and staff bring to life ideas for improving the university experience or the wider community. It gives students and staff a unique opportunity to work as equal partners and to stand-out amongst their peers as innovative thinkers and leaders. By working in partnership staff and students will not only achieve meaningful project results, they will also have the opportunity to develop and enhance their working relationship and come to a greater understanding of each other’s roles within the university.

Congrats to Oskar Milik for passing his PhD viva!

Huge congrats to our PhD student Oskar Milik for passing his PhD viva last week. Oskar's thesis is titled "Protecting Face in Virtual Life: Identity and Interaction in Online Digital Games" and he was supervised by Associate Professor Aogan Mulcahy. Below is a summary of his project.

Title: Protecting Face in Virtual Life: Identity and Interaction in Online Digital Games

This project looks at heavily invested players in Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games in order to see what aspects of self are projected through the computer screen, and what is left anonymous. It takes the form of a dramaturgical and ethnomethodological analysis of self-declared “hardcore” players and organizations in the online digital MMO games World of Warcraft and EVE Online. Drawing on the works of sociologists and game researchers, this project focuses specifically on the most invested players in order to see how the virtuality of their online interactions causes changes in the way the individual projects and maintains identity as well as how social control mechanisms are formed. Data was collected over a period of five years from 2011-2016 with primary sources of data being recordings taken of organizational events and speeches as well as ethnographic notes taken through participant observation.

The analysis of this data leads to three distinct outcomes that are valuable for the discipline of sociology as well as research in digital games. First, it shows that by focusing on either character-based interactions in-game or on out-of-game personality features of the player, studies performed on digital games have either studied physical-world respondent information or online linguistic interaction. In response, it presents the concept of persona to try to unify the anonymity of character-based interaction with the permanence of player-based traits. Second, this project shows how systems of social control are created and maintained through complex player-designed systems using both in-game and out-of-game resources to provide a meta-game reputation for players interested in “hardcore” play. Finally, this project highlights the challenges that in-game leaders face, and their efforts to overcome these, in trying to construct and maintain social order and social structures in a virtual environment.

Workshop: Irish synthetic population database

Associate Professor Diane Payne and colleagues at UCD are initiating a project to build a synthetic population database for Ireland. Different kinds of digital data, including social media data, geo spatial data etc might be used to enhance the synthetic database planned.

The workshop takes place at UCD on 24th -25th November 2016. This is an interdisciplinary project and we are happy to explore opportunities for research collaboration. If you would like to attend the workshop on some or all of Thursday/Friday this week, it would be helpful if you could email tara.byrne@ucd.ie to let her know your attendance.

Conference report on Shklar Symposium

Jointly funded by Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and University College Dublin, organized by Samantha Ashenden (Politics, Birkbeck) and Andreas Hess (Sociology, UCD) and held at Birkbeck College on 29th October 2016 

This one-day symposium brought together a nucleus of people with the purpose of presenting papers for a planned volume, ‘A political companion to the work of Judith N. Shklar’ (with Penn Press). In this endeavor they were joined by scholars and postgraduate students from Birkbeck and elsewhere. The day began with presentations from Bernard Yack (Brandeis University) and Tracy Strong (Southampton) on Shklar’s use of literary sources. The ensuing discussion was followed by Kamila Stullerova’s (IR, Aberystwyth) paper about Shklar’s notion of realism, which led to a lively exchange about the role of ideas in international politics and relations. Philip Spencer’s (Politics, BIrkbeck) paper about the applicability of Shklar’s idea of ‘putting cruelty first’ and how it contributes to our understanding of the crime of genocide was equally well received. The afternoon saw two more presentations, one by Samantha Ashenden (Politics, Birkbeck) about political obligation and its links to our understanding of law, and one by Andreas Hess (Sociology, UCD) about the notions of civil disobedience in Shklar’s late lectures on political obligation.

Participants agreed that the day provided for an excellent conversation, with diverse papers demonstrating several overlapping themes that will deepen the planned collection. In short, the symposium contributed greatly to fostering dialogue between the contributors to the book. It really set the ball rolling for that project, and in addition it offered postgraduate students from politics, philosophy and psycho-social studies at Birkbeck and elsewhere a taste of political theory in action. Several participants commented that it was the best academic seminar they had participated in for a long while.

Video: Masterclass on Crisis in Journalism

Barbara Górnicka (UCD Sociology PhD graduate) publishes a book on nakedness

Barbara Górnicka presents a sociological investigation – both historical and contemporary – into the problems surrounding naked bodies. She draws on her own participation in a nudist swimming club and goes on to study the often very complex and paradoxical emotions that have been associated with nakedness in the Western world for centuries. The book provides answers not only to why we find exposing our naked bodies shameful, but also why we find it sexual and erotic in the first place. It looks beneath taboos surrounding nakedness today and offers a theoretical explanation for their development over time. On the basis of her historical analysis, the author demonstrates that it was not until the late nineteenth or twentieth century that we began to see nudity as erotic.

Dr. Barbara Górnicka completed her doctoral degree in sociology at University College Dublin.

Nakedness, Shame, and Embarrassment: A Long-Term Sociological Perspective from Springer.

Dr. Watson on RTE Radio on 20th anniversary of TG4

Dr. Iarfhlaith Watson was talking on the Irish speaking radio show about the 20th anniversary of TG4. You can hear Iarfhlaith from 5min 20sec: http://rte.ie/r.html?rii=b17_21080316_2130_31-10-2016

Podcast with Prof. Jeffrey Alexander (Yale)

We just finished recording the second episode of "Dublin calling", the student-led podcast of the School of Sociology at UCD. In this podcast episode our PhD students, together with Dr. Thomas Grund and Dr. Andreas Hess, talk with Prof. Jeffrey Alexander (Yale University) about his recent work on journalism, but also about academic life in general and his early days interviewing Jim Morrison.

Click here to get the RSS feed or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes

UCD School of Sociology podcast now on iTunes!

"Dublin Calling", the podcast of our PhD students at the School of Sociology, is now on iTunes. In this podcast our students talk with famous sociologists about their work, career and about sociology in general. Find instructions for subscription below.

You can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes by clicking on the following link:

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/dublin-calling/id1164117317?mt=2

Furthermore, you can also subscribe to the RSS feed of the podcast in any other application:

http://feeds.soundcloud.com/users/soundcloud:users:260551750/sounds.rss

PhD students produce first School of Sociology podcast

Our PhD students, together with Dr. Thomas Grund, produced the first episode of "Dublin Calling", the UCD School of Sociology Podcast. In the first episode they talk with Associate Professor Michael Biggs from the University of Oxford about his work on social movements, but also more generally about academic life and the struggles of PhD students in sociology.

Second PhD forum

Thanks to everybody for a lovely PhD forum event on Wed 5 Oct 2016. Our PhD students regularly organise social events and receptions that bring faculty and students together at the School of Sociology.

Dissemination through art event on 14 Oct 2016

All research students and staff interested in creative practices in their research and dissemination are welcome to attend this free event. The event is hosted by the School of Sociology and the College of Social Sciences and Law and will share some ideas based on case studies and best practice.

DATE AND TIME

Fri 14 October 2016
9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m

LOCATION

UCD Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin

CONTACT

Alice Feldman, School of Sociology and Chair of College of Social Sciences & Law Artist in Residence Programme alice.feldman@ucd.ie

REGISTRATION AND MORE INFORMATION

http://www.ucd.ie/socscilaw/newsandevents/springgayworkshop/

Andreas Hess' review on moral economy in the Irish Times

Associate Professor Andreas Hess just got published in the Irish Times with a review article on Samuel Bowles' new book "The Moral Economy. Why Good Incentives Are No Substitute for Good Citizens" (published by Yale University Press).

Read the full review here.

Prof. Malesevic on BBC Radio about wars

Prof. Sinisa Malesevic from our School of Sociology at UCD was speaking on BBC Good Morning Scotland about wars in the Middle East. Here is your chance to listen to the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vwz9p

Book launch: Amanda Slevin's new book "Gas, Oil and the Irish State"

Many congratulations to Dr Amanda Slevin, who graduated from UCD with a PhD in Sociology in 2013. The launch of her new book, published by Manchester University Press was held in Hodges Figgis and included speeches from guests Fintan O'Toole (The Irish Times) & Professor Kieran Allen (UCD).

For more information about the book see http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781784992743/

Welcome Dr. Creighton and Dr. Flaherty at the School of Sociology!

We are extremely pleased to have two new faculty members at the School of Sociology! Both Dr. Mathew Creighton and Dr. Eoin Flaherty joined our School and University College Dublin in September 2016.

Assistant Professor Mathew Creighton

Mathew graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2009 with a joint PhD in sociology and demography. Before coming to Dublin he worked at the Sociology Department at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and in the Department of Political and Social Science at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

His work is concerned with the causes and consequences of immigration. In the context of destination, he focuses on anti-immigrant sentiment and the implication of social incorporation for health inequality. Currently, his research explores the formation of the “other”, focusing on attitudes toward religion and immigration. In the context of origin, he considers the role of immigration and public policy in schooling and the interrelation of networks, decisions to migrate and health. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals in sociology, demography, public health, history and urban studies.

At UCD, Mathew's office is D407, Newman Building

Assistant Professor Eoin Flaherty

Before arriving at UCD, Eoin spent two years as post-doctoral fellow at the National institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (Maynooth University), and two years as lecturer in sociology at Queen's University Belfast.

His main topics of interest include income inequality, environmental sociology, comparative research, quantitative methods (time series, and pooled time series), 19th century Ireland, famine, common-pool resource systems, historical geography, spatial data analysis, complexity theory, and human ecology. He is always happy to speak with students about these topics.

He studies the socioeconomic and ecological processes which give rise to national and cross-national inequalities. He applies these approaches to the study of top income inequality, the division of national product between capital and labour, and the uneven impact of famine.

At UCD, Eoin's office is D413, Newman Building

Andreas Hess in the Irish Times

Associate Professor Andreas Hess (UCD, School of Sociology) writes in the Irish Times about a new book of Jeffrey Alexander on the crisis in journalism:

The separation of media studies from sociology hasn’t helped to throw light on the state of journalism. The apparent crisis of the profession often seems to be reduced to technological matters and to the question of how to best manage information overload: what to do about the acceleration and virtual omnipresence of information, and how to make sense of Twitter, Facebook, the number of reads (clicks), the endless stream of activists’ and politicians’ blogs or the noise that stems from constant media streaming. It often appears as if journalism’s purpose consists only in fairly reproducing the state of the world in miniature and, if possible, in an instant....

Read the full review


http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/is-journalism-really-in-crisis-what-does-the-future-hold-1.2754539

Congratulations to PhD student Roland Adorjani

Congratulations to our PhD student Roland Adorjani (supervised by Dr. Thomas Grund) for winning a prestigious Irish Research Council Enterprise Partnership Scholarship. The enterprise partner is MindBot.inc in Dublin. The project is titled "Social Computing in the Era of e-Health".

Social Computing in the Era of e-Health

The Internet is changing the ways in which we interact in our daily lives and has come to affect even healthcare. From trendy fitness apps to social applications that foster interactions between patients and professionals – transferring what was once face-to-face patient-doctor consultations into the cloud, the past couple of years have taken this trend a step further by introducing online text-based therapy to the world of e-health. An emergent online industry, e-therapy draws large communities, turning the Internet in what has become an alternative, modern-day arena for health treatments.


This research project attempts to study the impact of these novel online e-therapy outcomes, by focusing on the analysis of social text data. Previous research carried out on traditional therapy needs to be followed up by the study of novel, technology-mediated treatment interventions. This thesis proposal introduces a framework that models and quantifies aspects of dialog data in this new e-therapy setting, using data captured from applications that foster interactions between millions of users over online platforms and study their efficacy by using a social computational approach to large-scale conversational data. The target phenomenon, coordination in conversation has been described as a process whereby interlocutors align in a spontaneous, unconscious, and yet adaptive ways. A social mechanism that drives joint outcomes in multiple domains, research on doctor-patient communication has shed light on the adaptive nature of these social behaviours, showing that optimal engagement patterns can be linked to treatment outcomes. The findings of this proposed research are expected to follow up and augment this line of research by approaching e-therapy, a contribution also aimed at shaping the future of e-health systems, including Chatbots.

Masterclass with Prof. Jeffrey Alexander on 22 Oct

Saturday, 22 October, 2016, 10.00-16.00

School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Sociology Seminar Room (D418), Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin.

This Master Class is mainly directed at postgraduate students from those academic disciplines that study media, culture and journalism and to practitioners working in the field. For more information and registration details please contact Andreas Hess, School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4 (a.hess@ucd.ie)

On occasion of the publication of The Crisis of Journalism Reconsidered (Cambridge University Press, June 2016), UCD’s School of Sociology has invited two of the editors, Jeffrey C. Alexander (Yale) and María Luengo (Madrid), and a former editorial board member of the Irish Times, Paul Gillespie, to discuss with us the book’s main themes in this Master Class: the relationship between journalistic practices, democratic culture(s), technological changes and challenges, and how these have impacted on the profession and its ethics. This one-day Master Class is limited to max. 25 participants, so registration is absolutely essential. A small contribution (€20) for catering and to cover some of the costs also applies.

Mike Hout awarded Honorary Doctorate

On 9 September 2016 Professor Mike Hout (New York University, Sociology) received an Honorary Doctorate from University College Dublin. Mike uses demographic methods to study social change in inequality, religion, and politics. His current work uses the General Social Survey panel to study Americans' changing perceptions of class, religion, and their place in society.

Furthermore, we congratulate our student Hang Xiaong for receiving his PhD degree at the same ceremony.

Michael Mann awarded Honorary Doctorate

On May 25 in 2016, Michael Mann, Professor of Sociology at University of California, Los Angeles was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Literature from University College Dublin.

The work of Prof Mann has explored power, state formation, nationalism, genocide, fascism and ethnic cleansing. He is also Honorary Professor and Director of Research at University of Cambridge.

“His magisterial and multivolume series The Sources of Social Power (four volumes published between 1986 and 2013) has made the most profound impact on scholars all over the world,” said Dr Steven Loyal, UCD School of Sociology, in his citation.

“These four books offer a novel and groundbreaking analysis of social power over the past ten thousand years and as such demonstrate a unique analytical skill and achievement that no other contemporary sociologist can match.”