One piece of advice that I was given as a PhD student was to think about what my ‘home’ journal was – the academic journal that I feel my research fits most closely into. For me, this was – and still is – The Sociological Review, for its ambitious and activist-oriented re-thinking of sociology for the 21st century. I was thrilled, therefore, to co-run a workshop at the journal’s conference last July, with my wonderful colleague Tiffany Page from The 1752 Group/University of Cambridge. At the conference, we recorded a podcast about our work with The 1752 Group, which you can listen to here.
In addition, I have also recently reviewed Christy Kulz’s brilliant book Factories for Learning for The Sociological Review blog. Christy and I were PhD students at Goldsmiths together, both supervised by Bev Skeggs. Christy’s PhD research – and now her book – were on a flagship academy school in London, looking at how race, class and gender inequalities were reproduced within the school, and how academisation facilitated this. I was always envious of her research, both because she was doing such a politically urgent piece of research, and also because she was doing it so well. The book is a brilliant read – a masterclass in carrying out ethnography with young people – and you can read my review of it here.
Dr Anna Bull 