Section: Staff Profiles

Kate Orton-Johnson

Name
Dr Kate Orton-Johnson
Title
Sabbatical: 2010-2011
Organisation
Sociology, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
6.25 Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK
Telephone
+44 (0)131 651 1230
E-Mail
Research Interests
E-learning,Cultural Sociology,Internet research,ethnography,Technology and society,Leisure studies,popular culture,digital culture,new media
URL
http://www.sociology.ed.ac.uk/staff_profiles/orton_johnson_kate
Office hours

Please note that I will be on maternity leave from October 2011.  During this time I will not hold regular office hours - please e-mail to arrange an appointment.

Qualifications
  • MSc in Sociological Research Methods (University of Surrey)
  • PhD (University of Surrey)
Research Interests
  • Cultures of technology and technologies of culture
  • Internet research & Innovative/online methodologies
  • Ethics & practicalities of ICTs as research tools & research sites
  • Cultures of learning & e-learning
  • Online leisure and technological mediations of leisure practices
  • Gaming & intersections of ‘real' & ‘virtual'
  • Sociology of (online) humour

I am also a QSR trainer and consultant for NVivo CAQDAS software.  

I have recently completed a 3-year e-learning project developing web-based modules for postgraduate training in social research methods (http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/elearninggallery/). This project built on my PhD research which studied the impact and use of digital resources in higher education exploring how students use and consume technology for learning. The project was commended in the 2009 C-SAP and Professional Association Awards as an innovative use of e-learning providing flexibility in methods teaching for postgraduates.

I am currently co-editing a collection with Nick Prior called Rethinking Sociology in the Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan) which will assess the methodological and conceptual challenges faced by the discipline as it confronts digitalised social landscapes.

Current PhD supervision:

Lucy Nicholas: Poststructuralist gender identity in Queer e-perzines and blogs

Sam Friedman: Festival culture and humour

Kirsti McGregor: Gender and web 2.0 

Orlando Villalbos: Gaming and the Internet in Costa Rica 

Liapeng Matsau: Higher Education in South Africa

Madeline Breeze: Gender identities, sport and roller derby

Götz Harald Frommholz :The Labour Market Perspectives of The Kitchen-Furniture Industry in East Westphalia

Esje Stapleton: Postructuralist and Extended Mind Philosophy

Liang Cheng: Music Communication and Social networking in China

Mengyao Yuan: China and the Internet

Clara O'Shea: The construction and experience of mental disorder in digital spaces. 

Recent Publications

(forthcoming) Rethinking Sociology in the Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan) (edited with Prior, N)

(Forthcoming) Knit, purl, upload: digital mediations of craft in Rutter, J.  & Vanden Abeele., M. (eds) New Technologies and the Changing Landscapes of Leisure.

(2010)  Ethics in online research; evaluating the ESRC Framework for Research Ethics categorisation of risk. Sociological Research Online 14(4) 

(2009) 'I've stuck to the path I'm afraid' Exploring student non-use of blended learning. The British Journal of Educational Technology. Volume 40, Number 5, pp 837-847 (11) [online early edition available here]

(2008) 'Give me a website and I'll wipe out a rainforest'. Student constructions of Technology and learning. The International Journal of Learning. Volume 14 Issue 12 pp 161-166

(2007) The Online Student: Lurking, Chatting, Flaming and Joking. Sociological Research Online (shortlisted for the 2008 Sage Prize for Innovation and Excellence) 12(6)

(2006) 'Using the Internet' (with Nina Wakeford and Katrina Jungnickel) in Gilbert (ed) From Postgraduate to Social Scientist: A Guide to Key Skills. London Sage.



 

 

 

 

 

  

Topics interested in supervising

I welcome enquiries about supervision of research in the areas of culture / technology, Internet research and innovative methodological uses of web technologies, cultures of learning and e -learning. I am currently supervising projects relating to these research interests with students working on gaming, gender and web 2.0, humour, gender identities and roller derby, Queer e-perzines and blogs and HE in South Africa.

If you are interested in being supervised by Kate Orton-Johnson, please see the links below for more information:

PhD in Sociology

This page was published on 17 October 2011


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