Faculty Member, Faculty of Health and Social Care
Lecturer in Sociology
About
My research interests include historical sociology (with a substantive interest in Italian culture, or English representations thereof), epistemology, ontology, social and cultural theory and cultural sociology. I am strongly influenced - and not only positively - by Marx, Freud, the later Wittgenstein, Sartre, Kierkegaard, Schopenhauer, Bourdieu, Elias, de Maistre and Leopardi as well as my mum, whom to this day retains an uncanny ability to read people and situations with a degree of sensitivity and psychological insight that make Goffman look like Jeremy Clarkson.
The more I read the less I think I know where my research interests lie (inevitably). Moreover, I feel that the late modern drive towards specialisation is an highly unfortunate one, thus, contra Weber, I find myself completely unable to derive any intellectual or existential satisfaction from the process of becoming an expert. Unsurprisingly then, my research interests are broad and in some cases disparate. I think of myself as both an advocate as well as critic of sociological modes of analysis. Specifically, I am interested in the relationships between sociology, philosophy and the humanities as well as the constitution of those disciplines both on their own terms but also in relation to one another. I end by reiterating that I find the notion of becoming an 'expert' in some arbitrary theoretical or substantive area as tedious as it is unrealistic.
I am an avid reader of world literature. I look very forward to the day that Dostoevsky is no longer my favourite writer (but not too soon I hope!).
Contact Information
http://iws.rgu.ac.uk/social/aboutus/page.cfm?pge=45409
The Robert Gordon University
School of Applied Social Studies
Garthdee Road
Garthdee
Aberdeen
AB10 7QG
01224 263210