Contact
Biography
I am a cultural sociologist with a focus on the structure and transformation of class inequalities. I received my PhD from the University of Manchester in 2013. Prior to joining the University of Nottingham in 2024, I worked as a Reader and Subject Coordinator of Sociology at Oxford Brookes University.
Since completing my PhD, I have explored the lived experiences of class, particularly by examining the dynamics of taste in areas such as clothing, embodiment, food, feeding, and the arts. I am also interested in how tastes develop in childhood, how they are stratified by cultural intermediaries such as art critics, how these processes vary across time and national contexts, and how broader structures, such as religion and politics, shape the way culture and the arts are valued. My research is underpinned by the belief that seemingly individual evaluative frameworks contribute to the creation of cultural and social boundaries, which in turn reinforce the structural formation and reproduction of inequalities, including but not limited to social class.
I am enthusiastic about engaging with diverse research methodologies. To date, I have utilised a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, including geometric data analysis, regression analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis, content analysis, go-along ethnographic approaches, longitudinal analysis, and constant comparative analysis. Currently, I am developing a project using Photo Voice to document young children's development of taste in the arts.
I have held several leadership roles, including Study Group Convenor for the British Sociological Association's Consumption Study Group (2020-2024) and the European Sociological Association's Consumption Research Network (2012-2017). I also served as a board member of the International Sociological Association's Research Committee on the Body in the Social Sciences (2004-2017). From 2018 to 2023, I was an editorial board member of The Sociological Review, and I served as an Associate Editorial Board Member of Sociology, the flagship journal of the British Sociological Association, from 2020 to 2022. I currently serve on the Managing Editorial Board of Consumption and Society (Bristol University Press, 2022-present) and contribute to the European Centre for the Study of Culture and Inequality (ECCI).
I welcome opportunities to supervise research students whose interests align with mine.
Teaching Summary
Currently I am teaching:
SOCI2046 Classical Sociological Theory - Autumn
SOCI2038 Research Design and Practice (Quants)
SOCI3014 Gender, the Family & Social Policy
I have taught several modules at undergraduate and postgraduate levels across three universities including:
Researching the Social World, Social Differences and Divisions, Contemporary Societies, Structure and Change, Culture and Everyday Life, Research Methods, Introduction to Sociology, Sociology of Body, Consumption, Class, Culture, Sociology of Consumption, Sociology of Fashion
Research Summary
My areas of interest include class inequalities, social mobility, consumer cultures, intergenerational transmission of taste, cultures of parenting, sociology of food and feeding, fashion and… read more
Recent Publications
Current Research
My areas of interest include class inequalities, social mobility, consumer cultures, intergenerational transmission of taste, cultures of parenting, sociology of food and feeding, fashion and sustainability, cultural politics of art, and research methods. I also have additional regional expertise on Turkey and its socio-cultural dynamics.
Over the past 15 years, I have developed several projects, collaborating with colleagues from Ankara University (Turkey), Tampere and Helsinki Universities (Finland), KU Leuven (Belgium), Loughborough University, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and the Czech Academy of Social Sciences (Czech Republic). A summary list of my externally funded research can be found below:
Co-I, 'Transformation of Cultural Fields in Turkey: Cultural Distinction and Islamic/Conservative Taste', The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, 2019- 2021. PI: Prof Ozgur Yaren, Ankara University, School of Communication.
The project explores how religion and politics are reshaping the power struggle in the fields of art in Turkey. It draws on extensive fieldwork with the cultural producers, intermediaries and audiences who identify as Islamist/conservative and employs qualitative interviews and content analysis.
PI, 'Understanding feeding practices: A longitudinal study of feeding, eating and foodwork in families with young children, British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, 2017-2020
This project explores how feeding is understood and practices negotiated in families where different material and cultural resources exist. It draws on an ethnographic go-along method that allowed observations and data collection during food shopping, feeding and domestic organisation of eating in Oxfordshire. The project had a longitudinal design involving three interviews with the same group of families across two years.
Co-I, 'Cultural Distinctions, Generations and Change: A Comparative Study of Six European Countries, 1960-2010', Academy of Finland, University of Helsinki and Kone Foundation, 2013-2017, PI: Prof. Semi Purhonen, Tampere University, Sociology
The project analyses the changes in the cultural coverage of major newspapers from six European countries - ranging from two Nordic countries (Finland, Sweden) to two Western European countries (France, the UK) and finally two Mediterranean countries (Spain, Turkey) - from 1960 to 2010. Through content analysis of samples of the newspapers (N=13,161, the unit of analysis being an article), it examines how the content of cultural pages has changed in the context of internationalisation, digitalisation, democratisation and popularisation.
PI, How Bodies Are Classed: An Analysis of Tastes in Clothing and Bodily Appearances among Women in Turkey, Higher Education Council of Turkey, 2009-2013
The project examines how class and cultural capital shape the ways women cultivate their bodies and experience them in interactional contexts. it draws on multiple correspondence analysis, cluster analysis and constant comparative methods and demonstrates the way privilege remains embodied even amidst the 'postmodern' body culture.
PI, 'Different Facets of Middle Class-ness: A Case Study in the City of Ankara', The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, 2006-2009
This project explored how middle classes in Ankara (Turkey) draw symbolic boundaries and how their boundary work is shaped by their resources and class trajectories.
Future Research
I am currently developing a project which explores how social class shapes children's lived experience of arts in Oxfordshire. This project is built on partnerships I established with Modern Art Oxford, Pegasus Theater, Action for Children's Art (National Charity), and local primary schools. At the same time, I am exploring the changing consumption patterns of elites in the UK using content analysis and a historical perspective, .