The Sociology Blog is written by students and staff about academic life and study in Cambridge.
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The Possibility of Another World (November 2024) Melz Owusu is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology. This extract from their book Undisciplined: Reclaiming the Right to Imagine (Polity Press November 2024) is reproduced by kind permission of the author and Polity Press. |
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Democracy in Flux: Labour’s Fragility and the Path to Renewal Through Devolution (August 2024) Tallulah Eyres is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, funded by the ESRC’s Doctoral Training Partnership. This blog examines the growing disconnection between British citizens and their democratic institutions, evident in declining voter turnout, widespread social unrest, and a defection from mainstream to populist candidates and parties. |
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When is our turn? Including forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ people in humanitarian responses (May 2024) Ilaria Michelis is a PhD student in Sociology and a Gates Scholar at the University of Cambridge, Newnham College. In this specially written blog, she reflects on the difficulties and dangers faced by forcibly displaced LGBTQI+ people seeking humanitarian assistance. |
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‘If you don’t gamble, you’ll never win’: An exploration of the similarities between gambling and IVF (February 2024) Lorelei Booth is a third year HSPS undergraduate studying sociology and politics at Hughes Hall. She has particularly enjoyed the Sociology of Gender paper and was inspired to write this article by Professor Sarah Franklin’s lectures on reproduction. |
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Boats, Boundaries & Belonging: A Reading of Conservative Anti-Migration Campaigns Through the Gendered Grammar of the Home (November 2023) Caitlin Rajan shows how gendered ideas of the home and domesticity are used as a grammar to make legible the social and cultural fears that political campaigns propagate and harness. |
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Founded for peace, spending for defence: the EU and the invasion of Ukraine (August 2023) This blog by Dr Valentina Ausserladscheider, a recent PhD student at the Department of Sociology, was long-listed for The Loop's Best Blog Prize 2023. Germany recently announced an increase in defence spending, reflecting a broader European shift in response to the war in Ukraine. Using the concept of path dependency, Dr Ausserladscheider suggests that this shift breaks with the founding idea of peace in the European Union. |
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From Cambridge to the World Bank: A PhD Student’s Experience in Global Digital Development (May 2023) Pursuing an internship as PhD student is a great way to gain experience and pursue your goals. Iago Bojczuk, a second year Sociology PhD student, reports on his experience at the World Bank. |
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Crossroads and burning houses – why feminism cannot be colour-blind (October 2020) Without a grasp of the intersecting nature of power, feminism is incapable of genuinely achieving liberation that goes beyond mere inclusion into a rigged system of oppressions, writes Miriam Dzah. |
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Dr Manali Desai, our new Head of Department (September 2020) Dr Manali Desai takes up the chair in Sociology this year, and in doing so becomes the first woman of colour, to our knowledge, to lead a Cambridge department in the University’s 811-year history.
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2020 Coronavirus Pandemic: A Post-Structuralist Approach (August 2020)
The coronavirus pandemic has proved both horrifying and fascinating in almost equal measure, writes Gwen Jones. |
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Authority in Coronavirus: Policing by Consent, or Coercion? (July 2020)
In the piece, first-year HSPS student Zak Macklin considers the role of authority in times of coronavirus through the lenses of major theories of power. |
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The Environmental Impact of the Internet (June 2020)
Third-year sociology student Connie Walsh challenges the view of the internet as "incorpereal" and without environmental impact. |
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Why We Strike (February 2020)
Director of Undergraduate Education Dr Ella McPherson explains the rationale behind the UCU strikes and how students and staff can support each other. (Raven login required). |
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From PhD to Parliament and back: A POST fellowship experience (26 January 2020)
Amarpreet Kaur describes her time at the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) during the second year of her PhD. |
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Welcome to the Jungle: The Cruel Optimism of Amazon's Fulfilment Centres (13 January 2020)
Tom Mayer and Saide Mobayed from the MPhil Sociology programme reflect on a fieldtrip to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre in Peterborough. |
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Chile in Crisis: Analysis from a country on the brink (December 2019)
Affiliated Lecturer Dr Jorge Saavedra Utman reports on the civil unrest from his home country of Chile, which he presents as “a pivotal case in the existence of neoliberalism and the shortcomings of democracy”. |
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"Hearing the voices of women who need to be heard" (April 2019)
Members of the Decolonise Sociology Committee reflect on Angela Davis' historic visit to Cambridge in 2019, where she appeared in live conversation with poet and novelist Jackie Kay. |
