Keynote Speakers

Dr Nick Stevenson

Dr Nick Stevenson finished his PhD in SPS at Cambridge University in 1991 on links between the New Left and questions of culture, ideology and politics. Between 1991 and 2001 he worked as a lecturer in the Department of Sociological Studies at Sheffield University. During that time he published Culture, Ideology and Socialism (1995), Understanding Media Cultures (1995), The Transformation of the Media (1999), Making Sense of Men’s Lifestyle Magazines (2001) and an edited collection Culture and Citizenship (2001). He was appointed Senior Lecturer in Sociology in Nottingham in 2001. He has also published Cultural Citizenship (2003) and David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Vision (2006). He also is a member of the editorial board of the BSA journal Cultural Sociology and Keywords. Most recently he published a book length studies on Education and Cultural Citizenship (2011) and Freedom (2012). He most recent research aims explore the relationships between European modernity and culture and he has been looking at issues related the European Enlightenment, the future of social democracy, jazz music and human rights.

His current research focuses on the idea of civil society, the public sphere and more cultural understandings of citizenship. This means that when concerned with political questions we need to address formal issues of rights and responsibilities, but also questions of value, interpretation, meaning, belonging and shared sentiment. He is currently exploring these questions in relation to issues related to human rights, freedom and injustice in the British and more global contexts.

Selected Publications:

• STEVENSON, N., 2012. Localization as subpolitics: the Transition Movement and cultural citizenship International Journal Of Cultural Studies. 15(1), 65-79
• STEVENSON, N., 2012. Cosmopolitan education and cultural citizenship: a critical European perspective Cultural Sociology. 6(1), 113-128
• STEVENSON, N., 2010. Education, neoliberalism and cultural citizenship: living in ‘X factor’ Britain European Journal of Cultural Studies. 13(3), 341-358
• STEVENSON, N., 2011. Education and cultural citizenship Sage.

Dr Darren Langdridge

Dr Langdrige had completed qualitative (hermeneutic phenomenological) research on young gay men’s expectations of fatherhood and research on families where there is sharing of genetic origins information following third-party assisted conception. He had previously carried out research on the construction of sadomasochistic sexual identities and the motivation for parenthood. He is also have interests in psychotherapy and psychotherapeutic research and he is a UKCP accredited existential psychotherapist. This enables him to bring together his theoretical work on existentialism, phenomenology and hermeneutics with people practically engaged in constructing and reconstructing their identities.

His forthcoming book  ´Sex-Sexuality-Citizenship: Beyond the Boundaries of Belonging´ (Oxford University Press) explores the relationship between sexual citizenship and identity, and will be a key reference in his presentation at this conference.

Selected Publications:

• Langdridge, D. (2013, forthcoming). Sex-Sexuality-Citizenship: Beyond the Boundaries of Belonging. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Langdridge, D. (2012, in press). Existential Counselling and Psychotherapy. London: Sage.
• Barker, M. & Langdridge, D. (Eds.) (2010). Understanding Non-monogamies. New York: Routledge Research.
• Barker, M., Vossler, A. & Langdridge, D. (2010). Understanding Counselling. London: Sage / Milton Keynes: The Open University.
• Langdridge, D. & Barker, M. (Eds.) (2007). Safe, Sane and Consensual: Contemporary Perspectives on Sadomasochism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Langdridge, D., Barker, M., Reavey, P. & Stenner, P. (2012). Becoming a Subject: A Memory Work Study of the Experience of Romantic Jealousy. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 13(2), Art. 5.

Dr Chris Gifford

Dr Chris Gifford joined the University of Huddersfield in 2006 and became Head of Department of Behavioural and Social Sciences in 2011. He is a political sociologist and his research and writing explores the impact of global and trans-national conditions on states, citizenship and politics. He completed his doctorate at the London School of Economics on the subject of Britain and European Integration and has gone on to publish widely in this area. He is interested in what makes the UK stand out in its relations to, and with, the European Union and its history as a Eurosceptic state.

Chris’s interest in how global and European developments are mediated by policies and processes at the national level informs his work on citizenship. He has completed comparative work on citizenship education with colleagues from Europe and Japan. He is an Executive Committee Member of the European Thematic Network CiCe (Children’s Identity and Citizenship in Europe) and, its sister association, CiCea. He is a member of the British Sociological Association and the Political Studies Association. At Huddersfield, Chris works alongside colleagues as part of the Centre for Research in the Social Sciences and the Academy for the Study of Britishness.

Selected Publications:

• Gifford, C., Mycock, A. and Murakami, J. (2013) ‘Becoming citizens in late modernity: a global-national comparison of young people in Japan and the UK’ Citizenship Studies .
• Gifford, C. and McGlynn, C. (2013) ‘‘It’s very difficult to enable choice’: Citizenship education for welfare professionals in challenging times’ Citizenship Teaching and Learning , 8 (3), pp. 295-308.
• Halsall, J., Gifford, C. and Gill, S. (2013) ‘The UK’s ad hoc Multiculturalism and the Re-assertion of Britishness’. In: Diversity, Intercultural Encounters, and Education. London, UK: Routledge.
• Gifford, C., Halsall, J. and Gill, S. (2012) ‘The UK’s Ad Hoc Multiculturalism and the Rise of Britishness’. In: Diversity, Intercultural Encounters, and Education. : Routledge.