The British Sociological Association

Gaby Harris is in her first year of her full time, ESRC funded PhD at LSE, after completing her masters there in the International Inequalities Institute in 2016. A member of the sociology department, Gaby also remains an active member of the III; broadly speaking her research interests are in cultural class distinctions and social inequality. Her research will explore how fashion brands become agents of symbolic violence amongst young people in London, the way in which brands become classed and racialised and how this is experienced.

Owen McGill - I am a PhD Student at the University of Strathclyde, School of Education. My research is centred on female autistic experiences of the Criminal Justice and Prison systems, highlighting a significantly lacking and ignored narrative within academic and practice knowledge. This is being approached through conceptualising gender identity for autistic females both out with and within these settings, while progressing a knowledge base of the cyclical nature of prison systems in terms of ‘Othering’ and discourse.

My wider research interests involve progressing and promoting autistic input into developing and conducting research, developing voice within practice, gender identity formation and experiences and development of neuro and gender diverse specific practice/knowledge for Criminal Justice Systems.

I have previously completed BSc (Hons) Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University before going on to complete MSc Autism at University of Strathclyde. I then took the leap to sociological based research, inspired through both my work in care and engagement on social media to focus on voicing experiential narratives and lived experiences.

Twitter handle: @omcgilius

Lauren O'Connell is a full-time sociology PhD student at the University of Essex where she also works part time as a lecturer in social work. Lauren was awarded an ESRC scholarship in 2016 for her doctoral research which explores the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, and identity. Lauren is also using her research to develop a novel personal-experience based methodological approach. Prior to beginning her PhD, Lauren completed a masters in social research and a PGCE, and taught in an FE college.

Lauren's wider interests relate to such areas as symbolic interactionism, the sociology of diagnosis, experiential knowledge and critical psychology.

Emma Seddon - Emma is a 0.75 + 3 ESRC funded PhD student in Sociology and Social Research at Newcastle University. A translator herself, her mixed methods research will use a novel social ontology to explore the professional identity construction of translators. This occupational cohort is seeking professional status, while facing the challenges of an unregulated market and the advent of new technologies. She is primarily interested in how translators construct their identities in different settings, and how the organisation of translation work impacts their construction. Her research interests include: the sociology of professions, work and gender, precarity, self-employment, and new materialism.

Emma has an academic and professional background in languages and translation. She undertook a Post-Graduate Diploma in Sociology and Social Research at Newcastle prior to starting the PhD as part of her ESRC studentship.