Essex Sociology Research Newsletter Autumn 2022
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Our Research Students
Assistant Lecturer Chris Cunningham
In August I received news that I was peer-nominated for an Excellence in Education Award, in relation to my work as an Assistant Lecturer on SC104: Introduction to Crime, Law and Society.
A short piece was published in WONKHE, which both relates to my thesis, and is inspired by my life experiences and interests: ‘Universities should offer campus stopping places’.
I delivered a presentation to Albert Sloman Library staff, entitled Institutional Insights from a Researcher’s Journey. The presentation was an overview of my PhD thesis, which explores the relationship between the concept of social mobility, and university practices of widening participation. Higher education policy positions me as a ‘disadvantaged student’, which equates to me being a ‘target’ of widening participation, so my presentation spoke about the relevance of both critical policy sociology and auto-ethnographic research methods within the context of my thesis. My findings help to shed light on the institutional culture of English universities, which for university staff members, can offer an insight to the power dynamics that help shape the environment within which they spend much of their lives.
I began a new role as Research Assistant in Essex Business School, working on an evaluation project in relation to a local Housing Association. The library has seconded me for one year to work on the project. I continue to work within my other role within the Digital Innovation and Technology Services Section, alongside my other roles within the Department of Sociology, namely, Assistant Lecturer, and working as part of the Outreach and Admissions Team.
Find out more about Chris Cunningham
Assistant Lecturer Norman Riley
In early October I presented my paper ‘PC-ravaged clowns or plant-powered pioneers? UK newspaper portrayals of veganism in 2020’ at the Conference of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists. The paper is based on a content analysis I carried out for my MA Sociological Research Methods dissertation and came about through the encouragement of my MA and PhD supervisor, Katy Wheeler. The paper has been accepted for publication in the Journal for Critical Animal Studies, pending revisions, and I hope to see it published by the end of the year.
Find out more about Assistant Lecturer Norman Riley.
Our Academic Staff
Professor Sandya Hewamanne
Sandya has been elected the vice president of the American Institute for Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS), for a three year term. She is the first person outside of an American university to be elected to a major AISLS position.
Find out more about Professor Sandya Hewamanne
Professor Pam Cox
I’m scoping follow-on activities for my recent project on the history and future of victims’ rights and working on an article on child victims of crime with Ruth Lamont (Manchester Law School). In my capacity as a councillor and portfolio holder, I’m leading Colchester’s work to mark and most the most of our new city status, including refreshing campus, community and business connections. I’ll be addressing some of this in our upcoming Sociology in Action seminar on Thurs 10 November at 4.00pm. Carlos Gigoux will also speak at this event about the work of our Centre for Migration Studies with local refugee groups.
Find out more about Professor Pam Cox.
Professor Róisín Ryan-Flood
I have a new edited book out this month, Queering Methodology: Lessons and Dilemmas from Lesbian Lives co-edited with A. Rooke, published by Routledge.
I received a small grant from the British Academy for a new project about donor conception families called 'Off Grid Donor Identity Disclosure: what happens when people trace their egg or sperm donor through social media or genetic testing?' Using photovoice interviews, this project will investigate the experiences of those who are affected by donor identity disclosure, experiences which are rarely heard in the public sphere.
I was recently interviewed for the Understanding Society podcast about my online dating research in relation to a discussion of online romance fraud. The podcast will be out in November.
I will be speaking at the conference ‘Postdigital Intimacies and the Networked Public-Private’ at Coventry University in November about my research on queer digital intimacy and online dating.
Find out more about Professor Róisín Ryan-Flood
Professor John Preston
I gave an invited keynote presentation: ‘Adult education in states of exception: back to the ‘qualitative turn’?’ at the German Educational Research Association Conference (Adult Education section) Jahrestagung der DGfE-Sektion Erwachsenenbildung Jahrestagung der Kommission Qualitative Bildungs- und Biografieforschung (DGfE), at the University of Flensburg, Germany, 15th September 2022.
I also gave a presentation ‘Artificial Intelligence and existential threat in the capitalist university: a critique of dominant theoretical paradigms’ at the British Educational Research Association conference, University of Liverpool, 7th September.
I was awarded a British Academy Small Grant ‘Reconstructing capitalism after a nuclear war: post-attack planning in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1970s and 80s’.
Find out more about Professor John Preston.
Dr Isabel Crowhurst
At my end, one of the highlights of the past few months has been the return to ‘in person’ conferences and research events. I very much appreciate the accessibility of online meeting, and I hope they keep on going, but meeting in person offers other opportunities for networking, meeting people and discussions that I had missed. Over the Summer I attended the Law and Society conference and the European Society of Criminology conference where I presented papers on my developing research interest in reputational risk and morality in fintech.
I also published two chapters, one on sex work and taxation, in an edited collection on prostitution in Italy (Prostituzione e lavoro sessuale, edited by Giulia Garofalo Geymonat and Giulia Selmi). This is my first ever publication in Italian, and it has been one of the most difficult to write! A second chapter I co-authored with May-Len Skilbrei (University of Oslo), entitled ‘Swedish, Nordic, European: The journey of a ‘model’ to abolish prostitution’ was published in the edited collection Nordic Criminal Justice in a Global Context (Edited by Mikkel Jarle Christensen, Kjersti Lohne and Magnus Hörnqvist, Routledge).
Find out more about Dr Isabel Crowhurst
Dr Kat Hadjimatheou
This summer I spent 10 days as a visiting fellow at the Universitat Pompeu Fabre in Barcelona, with research groups on criminology and political theory. I’m working on a book proposal entitled something like ‘Do we have a right to know about the crimes of others?’ and this was a chance to get feedback. I also submitted grant proposals to ISRF and the BA and have been involved in collaborative grant proposals for the EPSRC and College of Policing. I’ve been invited to be an assessor for EU funding proposals under Horizon2020 and have taken up an external examiner role at the Open University.
I’ve an article coming out in European Journal of Criminology about how victims and survivors of domestic abuse can be empowered through receiving information from police about their partner’s previous criminal history.
I’ve just finished a Home Office-funded research project called ‘Understanding Domestic Abuse Perpetrators’, which used police data and machine learning to cluster domestic abuse perpetrators in Essex. One interesting finding - which I hope to explore in more depth in a future project - was that 13% of perpetrators flagged by police in Essex are female.
Using departmental seed funds, SeNSS student Rasha Hamid and I hosted about 15 academics and practitioners for a 1-day workshop in September, to discuss tensions and dilemmas in achieving accountability and rehabilitation for domestic abuse perpetrators.
This term I’ve been invited to give talks to the Domestic Abuse Research Network, Islington Borough Council’s VAWG strategy board, City University, and Suffolk University. I’ll also be joining a panel with the director of Interpol and the High Sherriff of Essex for an event on Crime, Safety and Justice at the Lakeside Theatre on 7 December.
Find out more about Dr Kat Hadjimatheou.
Professor Nigel South
Had a good summer of conferences in Turin (see photo), Malaga and Vienna and various bits of writing. New paper out on ‘A Convergence of Crises: COVID-19, Climate Change and Bunkerization’ with Lam and Brisman in Crime, Media, Culture, and a chapter with Darren in Linsey’s 2nd edition of the Handbook on Ignorance Studies. And then there’s ‘Desk-rejection - the Sequel’: Back in the Spring Newsletter I mentioned what seemed the slightly odd decision of the editors of Sociology of Health and Illness to desk-reject a paper on ‘Covid, health injustice and Indigenous communities’ as “not suitable” for the journal. It’s about ‘health’ and it’s about ‘illness’ so we could only assume the editors were not very interested in Indigenous communities. Anyway, editors and reviewers at Sociological Review took a more positive view and accepted with minor amendments so it’s now forthcoming as ‘An incorporeal disease: Covid 19, social trauma and health injustice’. Didn’t want to be in SHI anyway….
Find out more about Professor Nigel South.
Professor Anna Sergi
I have been invited to participate at Interpol’s General Assembly and speak in front of representatives from law enforcement from 195 countries, in New Delhi, India, 18-22 October. The panel I am contributing to is going to be precisely on strategic partnerships between law enforcement and academia, with a specific focus on operational capacity enhancement.
The case I contributed to as expert witness in court, R v Perre, in South Australia, has finally reached a verdict of guilty and a sentence has been published in October 2022. It’s the longest-running trial in Australia’s history.
For more on the case: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-10-07/domenic-perre-sentenced-over-nca-bombing/101510538
And some extra commentary: https://www.smh.com.au/national/often-studied-rarely-prosecuted-how-the-mafia-gets-away-with-it-in-australia-20220609-p5asjj.html
Dissemination
In the past few months I have been engaging in the dissemination of my book Chasing the Mafia. 'Ndrangheta, Memories and Journeys which was published in June 2022 with Bristol University Press in their Non-Fiction series.
I have sat down for interviews and podcasts such as:
- Deep Dive with The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (3 episodes!)
- Discussing 'ndrangheta with Anna Sergi on Sitdownnews podcast
- How Ndrangheta Became the "Amazon of the Mafia" on Mobsters Inc channel
- Chasing the Mafia with The Focus, SAGE International
I have continued contributing to news commentaries around a range of events. See for example
- Vice magazine
- The Times
- https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/drug-gangs-use-remote-airfields-to-land-heroin-and-cocaine-hbjwtp6dp
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/88qa3a/calabrian-mafia-ndrangheta-port-cocaine
I have attended a conference in beautiful PISA (ITALY) for the ECPR Standing Group on Organised Crime in July 2022 as a panellist but also keynote speaker in a roundtable dedicated to organised crime, insecurity and conflict.
I have also attended a conference in beautiful MALAGA (Spain) for the European Society of Criminology in September 2022 as a panellist, where I also had an Author meets Critics for my book Chasing the Mafia.
Publications & Research
Together with co-author Prof Alberto Vannucci, we have finalised and submitted our manuscript to Routledge titled Shifty Brotherhoods. Mafia, Deviant Masons and Corruption in Italy for publication in 2023.
I am battling and barely surviving the peer-review process. I currently have 3 sole author and 2 co-authored articles under review, hopefully I can give some good news on these soon upon publication!
A Chapter I co-authored with L. Storti and Y. Zabyelina titled ‘Private Port Authorities and Organized Crime’ has been published in the edited volume The Private Sector and Organized Crime by Routledge edited by Y. Zabyelina and K.L. Thachuk.
I have submitted two funding applications, one to the Leverhulme Trust and one to the British Academy for two different research projects; one would take me to Ireland and the other to Australia, wish me luck!
Other
I have led and very much enjoyed a Q&A at the Garden Cinema, a little independent cinema in Covent Garden in London after the movie A Chiara was released in England in July.
I will lead a Q&A after the show Bum ha i piedi bruciati, an Italian theatre show about the life of judge Giovanni Falcone, killed by the Sicilian mafia, together with the director and actor in the show, on 12 November at Young Actors Theatre in London.
Find out more about about Professor Anna Sergi.
Dr Anna Di Ronco
I recently presented my research on the policing of eco-justice movements at two criminological conferences: the 50th annual conference of the European Group for the Study of Deviance and Social Control, and at the annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology. At the first of these two conferences, I was also invited to talk at a roundtable focused on corporate crimes and environmental victims.
In past few months, a special issue I co-edited was published in the open access Journal Criminological Encounters. The special issue focuses on green crimes, harms and conflicts in rural areas and communities, and is available open access.
A chapter I co-authored (with X. Chiaramonte) also got published in an extremely interesting edited volume focused on Environmental Restorative Justice, available here.
On 14 October I also hosted a fantastic roundtable on local experiences in crime prevention with different stakeholders, including the Essex Police, the City and Police of Antwerp, and the Regione Emilia Romagna/Forum Italiano per la Sicurezza Urbana. All presenters highlighted the need to rely on evidence-based practices, making sure that communities are listed to and that public spaces are inclusive to all. The event was funded by the ERSC IAA.
Find out more about Dr Anna Di Ronco
Dr Carlos Gigoux
Dr Gigoux will be speaking at the upcoming Sociology in Action seminar at 4pm Thursday 10 November about the work of the Centre for Migration studies with local refugee groups.
Find out more about Dr Carlos Gigoux.
Professor Mark Harvey
Professor Harvey has recently published with A. Sharma in Water International on the topic of 'Economies of water in Delhi: a new-Polanyian analysis'.
This paper develops an approach to the emergence of multiple economies of water in India’s capital Delhi, using a neo-Polanyian approach of instituted economic process. The paper argues that water is an ‘uncooperative public good’ and analyses the systems of provision, distribution, appropriation and consumption of water, and the formation of scales of these economies of water. Piped water (legally supplied and illegally diverted, paid and unpaid for), registered and unregistered bore wells, standpipes (legal and illegal), water tankers, street vendors, commercial and public bottled water make up the wide array of water provisioning elements. The paper systematically compares and analyses the spatially divided and partially overlapping economies of water in the planned colonies and slum designated areas in the city. It also describes the dynamics of growth and stagnation of the different economies of water within the waterscape of the capital, as well as widespread water poverty. Entrenched inequalities to both public and market water in different economies of water are symptomatic of the wider political economy, and its pervasive fault lines.
A review of Prof Harvey's book, Climate Emergency: How Societies Create the Crisis was recently published in mandarin in The Taiwanese Journal of Sociology, by former PhD student and now Associate Professor I-Liang Wahn.
Find out more about Professor Mark Harvey.
Professor Colin Samson
I was a keynote speaker for the Indigenous Studies Discussion Group Conference at the University of Cambridge on 22/23 September 2022. My keynote was entitled, Enclosures and Imperial Rights: Reflections on the Privatisation of Collective Indigenous Lands from the Fens to Northern Labrador.
Find our more about Professor Colin Samson.
Professor Pete Fussey
I have been awarded a three-year research project funded by Norwegian Research Council on Digitalization and private economies of knowledge in criminal justice. Led by Katja Franko (Oslo)
Upcoming Presentation:
I am giving the annual public Cambridge ESRC DTP lecture at Pembroke College, Cambridge University 10 November 2022: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/cambridge-esrc-dtp-annual-lecture-2022-tickets-440300670157
I presented a paper on Human Rights and Emerging Technologies in Policing at the European Society for Criminology conference, Malaga in September 2022.
I was invited to roundtable on oversight of digital policing, VUB Brussels in October 2022
Media:
The Guardian ‘UK police use of live facial recognition unlawful and unethical, report finds’, 27 October https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/27/live-facial-recognition-police-study-uk?CMP=share_btn_tw
Participated in The Bunker (formerly ‘Remainiacs’ podcast) AI Spy: The New Frontiers in Surveillance https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/ai-spy-the-new-frontiers-in-surveillance/id1496246490?i=1000581269336
The iNews ‘Inside the preparations for the Queen’s funeral: From rooftop snipers to bomb-proof bins’, https://inews.co.uk/news/preparations-queens-funeral-police-expansion-bomb-proof-1854325
Essex Brighter Futures ‘vlog’ on ‘the rise of suspicion in the digital age’ https://www.essex.ac.uk/blog/posts/2022/10/10/easy-does-it
Find out more about Professor Peter Fussey.
Dr James Allen-Robertson
CommunityMapper
James' research on mapping the ways in which ideologically disparate groups intersect on social media platforms has been praised by the advocacy group 'HOPE not hate' (HNH), for contributions to their work on monitoring and countering far-right recruitment. The project, funded by the ISRF and in collaboration with Dr. Johanna Römer revolves around the development of computational tools to map social media activity, summarising and describing the activities of millions of online users in order to better understand how far-right recruitment operates. As part of this process, we have been working closely with HNH to support their advocacy and reporting work.
In a letter from senior HNH researcher Patrik Hermansson, he states:
"Your theoretical work on ideological transfer as part of the ISRF project, has been a valuable contribution to helping us understand how far-right extremism operates, radicalises, and legitimates itself, online. More practically, the community mapper tool you developed as part of the ISRF funded research has been used to get a greater understanding of the anti-trans movement and its overlap with the far right. Additionally, we have used it to visualise and thereby accelerate our ongoing monitoring work of the broader far-right movements online. This work is still in progress and has not yet been published but it will form an important part of a larger report on anti-LGBT groups and their connections to the far right early next year. The CommunityMapper tool has allowed that project to contain a large and detailed, data focused, section which we could not have done otherwise."
James & Johanna continue to develop this area, with a forthcoming paper on the intersection between contrarian intellectuals and radical traditionalists, and the organisation of a workshop involving academics and stakeholders to better understand the nuances of far-right radicalisation, recognising how it often exploits pre-existing ideological alignments and semantic equivalences.
Find out more about Dr James Allen-Robertson.
Criminology Team at #EUROCRIM2022
Many criminologists from our department went to Malaga to present their research at the Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology (22-24 September):
Eamonn Carrabine, Isabel Crowhurst, Anna Di Ronco, Pete Fussey, Kat Hadjimatheou, Sobie Kaker, Anna Sergi, Nigel South and Jackie Turton. In these two pictures, you can see some of them networking with UK and international colleagues.
Events
- 19 October - Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship
Dr Jacqueline Sanchez Taylor (RHUL), ‘Reflecting on researching sex work and race’, Zoom 4.00-4.50pm. Black History Month - 27 October - Centre for Criminology
Dr Emma Milne (Durham University), ‘Infant killing and the role of the law and courts in England and Wales’. 4-5pm, room 5B.124. - 2 November - Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship
Dr Yvonne Ehrstein (Essex) Negotiating gendered inequalities in online-offline environments: The complexion of anger, connectivity and feminism on and beyond Mumsnet’, 1-1.50pm on zoom. -
3 November - Centre for Economic Sociology and Innovation and Centre for Criminology
Prof Timothy Black (Case Western University, Cleveland, USA) ‘It’s a Setup: Fathering from the Social and Economic Margins’. Chaired by Dr Boróka Bó, Essex Sociology. 2-3pm on Zoom (zoom link circulated soon). - 16 November - Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship
Dr Sarah Lamble (Kent), Fake News, False Experts and Flawed Narratives: Affective attachments in the use and misuse of evidence in the trans prisoner policy debates, Trans Awareness Week (jointly with Law), 1-1.50pm on zoom. Trans Awareness Week (jointly with Law) - 17 November - Centre for Criminology
Dr Milena Tripkovic. ‘Citizenship deprivation in cases of suspected terrorism: the new features of global neo-colonial penality’. 4-5pm, room 5B.124. - 21 November - Centre for Economic Sociology and Innovation and Centre for Criminology
Theorizing Terrorism: a panel discussion featuring Rizwaan Sabir’s book, The Suspect. With Dr Rizwaan Sabir, Liverpool John Moores University, and Dr Lisa Stampnitzky, University of Sheffield. Chaired by Prof Linsey McGoey, Essex Sociology. 4-5.15pm, Room NTC.2.05. Followed by a drinks reception. - 24 November - Centre for Economic Sociology and Innovation
Book launch featuring Professor Sean Nixon’s new book, Passions for Birds. Speakers: Professor Jeremy Mynott, Emeritus Professor, Cambridge; Prof Ted Benton, Emeritus Professor, Essex. Chaired by Dr Maitrayee Deka, Essex Sociology, 5-6.15 pm, room 5B.124. Followed by a drinks reception. - 30 November - Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship
Dr Andrea Tilstra (Oxford) ‘Risk, Medicalization, and Obstetric Interventions’, 1-1.50pm on zoom - 8 December - Centre for Criminology and the Gender, Violence and Abuse Research Group
Essex Criminology Event on Violence Against Women & Girls. With Essex Alumni presenters Professor Aisha K. Gill (University of Bristol) and Jo Todd (Respect UK). 4-5pm, room 5B.124.