15th February 2024 13:00-14:00| D422, Newman Building, School of Sociology: TWO SPEAKERS
Dingxin Zhao, University of Zhejiang
Title: Changing patterns of social protest in Post-Mao China
Abstract: This talk argues that collective actions in post-Mao China have developed in three overlapping phases. The first phase, between 1976 and 1989, is characterized by the large-scale state-centered protests. The second lasts roughly between 1992 and 2002. Protests of this period tend to be small-to-medium in size, local and economic-oriented. The third phase started around 2002 and lasts until 2012. In this period, protesters gain significant rights consciousness, protests are increasingly proactive and grow a populist tendency, and some protests (particular the on-line protests) have experienced a tendency of repoliticalization. This talk provides an interpretation of this pattern and speculates about the future development of collective actions in China.
Bio: Dingxin Zhao is director of the Center for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, and chair of the Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University. He is also Max Palevsky Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Chicago. His research covers historical sociology, political sociology, social movements, social change and economic development. His interests also extend to sociological theory and methodology. Zhao has publications in journals such as American Journal of Sociology, American Sociological Review, American Behavioral Scientist, Social Forces, Mobilization, and Sociology. He is the author of awards-winning books The Power of Tiananmen (2001) and The Confucian-Legalist State (2015) in English, and several other books in Chinese. His current research project is on the epistemological and ontological aspects of social science methodologies.
15th February 2024 13:00-14:00 | D422, Newman Building, School of Sociology
Yanfei Sun, University of Zhejiang
Title: Popular Religion in Post-Mao China
Abstract: This talk will examine the situation of popular religion in post-Mao China, by focusing on a major form of popular religion, the territorial cult. The post-Mao revitalization of the territorial cult is not simply the resurrection of tradition after a hiatus of suppression. Rather, the religion has assumed a changed character in the process of its resurgence. This talk will analyze the pattern of these changes and the structural forces behind. It will also explore the effect that the Chinese government’s promotion of traditional Chinese culture in the last decade has on the territorial cult.
Bio: Yanfei Sun is currently associate professor of sociology at Zhejiang University. She graduated from University of Chicago with a PhD in sociology in 2010. She was a Mellon Research Fellow of Columbia University Society of Fellows (2010–2013), a visiting associate professor at Harvard University, and a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Her research mainly concerns the intersection between religion and politics, particularly religious changes, religious toleration, secularism, and religious nationalism. From September 2023 to July 2024, she is a fellow at the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).
30th November 13:00-14:00 | D422, Newman Building, School of Sociology
Sara O'Sullivan, University College Dublin
Title: Talking the Talk? The First Year of Gender Pay Gap Reporting in Ireland
Abstract:Two key legacy features of labour markets globally are a sexual division of labour (Connell 1987) and a persistent gender pay gap. One policy solution that has been implemented in the past decade across the OECD is gender wage gap reporting. Making data on pay available publicly potentially increases awareness of the problem, something that proponents see as likely to increase organisations’ efforts to close the pay gap (OECD 2023).
The Gender Pay Gap Information Act (2021) required organisations in the Republic of Ireland with more than 250 employees to report on their hourly gender pay gap for the first time. Working with a date of their choice in June 2022, organisations were obliged to analyse their pay data by gender and to publish this data in December 2022, either on their website or in some other public forum. The act also required organisations to explain any gender pay gaps and report the actions planned to mitigate them in the report (see Benedí Lahuerta (2022) for a useful overview of the background to the introduction of this legislation).
This research was prompted by the release of the 2022 results and the need to systematically collect baseline data from year one of the GPG reporting cycle. Although there are plans to develop an online reporting system for the 2023 reporting cycle, the 2022 data was only available on individual organisations' websites. In this paper I will give a brief overview of the quantitative data identifying where gender wage gaps are largest and smallest, and pointing to some of the limitations of the data. My primary focus will be on the explanations and actions provided for gender pay gaps in the narrative sections of the reports. I’ll show how organisations use a range of strategies that render gender inequalities invisible. I’ll also identify a number of problematic features of the gender equality initiatives proposed by organisations in the reports (Ryan 2023). I will conclude by considering the value of gender pay gap reporting.
Bio:Sara is an Associate Professor in the School of Sociology, University College Dublin. Her main areas of research are gender, the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and sociology of higher education.
26th October 13:00-14:00| D422, Newman Building, School of Sociology
Multiple speakers, the full program is as follows;
Conor Keogh
Title: Gambling in context: gambling behaviour and the role of social networks
Abstract: Disordered gambling poses a significant challenge to affected individuals, their social
connections, medical practitioners, addiction counsellors, and researchers (Churchill and
Farrell, 2008). This study examines disordered gambling through the contextual lens of social
networks. To date, few studies have situated disordered gambling within specific social
contexts and have investigated the importance of social relationships in the context of the
different stages of gambling addiction. Indeed, whilst individuals might gamble alone
(Bernhard, Dickens, and Shapiro, 2007; Dow Schull, 2014; McBride and Derevensky, 2009),
first exposure to gambling often occurs through others, and continues through shared
experiences with peers (Reith and Dobbie, 2011, 2013). In terms of recovery, friends, family
members, and other network ties can usually provide help for gamblers in need and
encourage them to overcome gambling addiction, often at a significant personal cost (Petry
and Weiss, 2009; Fulton, 2015; Penfold and Ogden, 2023).
Drawing on a mixed method approach, this study underlines the importance of understanding
gambling disorder in terms of social context and the roles that individuals, such as family
members and friends, play at different stages of gambling addiction. It is argued that future
preventive campaigns are best placed to consider and to target the role and importance of
social networks in the context of gambling disorder.
Bio: Conor Keogh is a PhD Candidate in the School of Sociology, University College Dublin. His
main areas of research are gambling behaviour, gambling addiction, social networks, and
educational inequality.
Nada Yehia
Title: Between Hospitalities and Hostilities: Cultivating Refugees’ Agency in Humanitarian
Encounters.
Abstract: This research enlists critical hospitality studies scholarship as a reflexive lens to examine
how humanitarians who have experienced displacement gain access to and navigate the landscapes of
international humanitarian organizations as aid workers. It explores the tensions and contradictions
arising in their negotiations of hierarchical ‘structures of admissibility’ and working conditions. In
particular, it focuses on the clashes between the constructions of refugees as ‘victims’, ‘aid recipients’
and ‘guests’ on the one hand, and the inherent agency of their work as gatekeepers, service providers
and frontliners on the other. In the latter roles, because of their close proximity to and extensive
knowledge of local cultures and traditions, these humanitarian practitioners carry great responsibilities
in relation to welcoming and granting organizations access to their communities and leading the
delivery of services.
Informed by decolonial and critical race theories, the research employs an autoethnographic
methodology that incorporates a variety of data collection and analysis practices. These include
participant and digital observation, oral history interviews, thematic analysis, critical race theory
methods of counter-storytelling and arts-based practices. The methods adopted critically explore the
experiences of 13 interlocutors who have worked in international humanitarian organizations across
the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and southeast Asia. Their personal journeys vary - from those
who have directly experienced forced migration or have intergenerational legacies of forced
migration, to those who have not experienced displacement but have closely worked with
humanitarians who have. Composite counter-storytelling techniques illuminate interlocutors’
trajectories and their agential constructions against the backdrop of ‘stock stories’ that reflect on the
hierarchical structures. Arts-based techniques are used to critically explore the commonalities and
intersections of their differing circumstances and positionalities. Together, these techniques counter
mainstream narratives and towards reimagining and ‘re-existing’ humanitarian action ‘otherwise’.
Bio: Nada Yehia. I’m a PhD researcher and humanitarian practitioner, from Cairo Egypt, based in the
School of Sociology, at University College Dublin. My research interests relate to humanitarian
action, forced migration, decolonial theory, critical race theory, critical hospitality studies, and
qualitative research methods. Besides working on the research, I guest lecture at University College
Dublin and teach Sociology at Dublin City University. Before joining the PhD program, I did NOHA
Erasmus Joint Master of International Humanitarian Action and worked as a humanitarian practitioner
on the inclusion of marginalized populations in emergency settings around the Middle East, East
Africa, and Southeast Asia.
20th October 10:00-15:00| D422, Newman Building, School of Sociology/(opens in a new window)Zoom Link
Towards Anti-Fascist Praxis: Decoding Fascist Education in the Age of Neo-Liberal Capitalism
Multiple speakers, the full program is as follows;
10.15am- Steven Loyal presenting "Policing the Crisis and the Rise of the Right"
10.50am- Kieran Allen on "What is Fascism"
11.25am-David Landy on "Fascism, free Speech and Academia"
Research at the UCD School of Sociology
The School of Sociology is successful in attracting major research funding for research projects and a number of staff are involved in providing research leadership and/or are the key partners in these projects. The School of Sociology has strong research links with a number of academic schools in cognate disciplines, as well as the Geary Institute, the Institute of Criminology, the Institute of British Irish Studies, the Dublin European Institute, UCD Clinton Institute, the Humanities Institute and a range of other research centres and institutes within UCD and external to the university.
You can view faculty profiles and research interests here.