All seminars take place in Arts Block, room D418 from 1:00 – 2:30 (unless stated otherwise)Semester One
Thursday, 14th September
Pathological Integration: How East Europeans Use Racism to Become British
 Speaker: Dr. Jon Fox (University of Bristol)
Abstract: Pathological Integration: How East Europeans Use Racism to Become British

Wednesday, 20thSeptember
Theorising Changes in Violence
Speaker: Prof. Sylvia Walby (Lancaster University)

Thursday, 28thSeptember
Apology and Forgiveness in Restorative Justice
Speaker: Dr.Meredith Rosser (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Seminar Abstract and Dr. Meredith Rosser Bio available here

Thursday, 12thOctober
Pierre Bourdieu: Theorist of the Iron Law of Social Reproduction?
Speaker: Dr. Bridget Fowler (University of Glasgow)
Abstract: Pierre Bourdieu: Theorist of the Iron Law of Social Reproduction?

Thursday, 19thOctober
How 'Black Deficit' Entered the Academy
Speaker: Prof. Robbie Shilliam (Queen Mary University of London)

Thursday, 16thNovember
Rituals of Exclusion? Identity, Ideology and Inequality in the Centenary Commemorative Speeches of the 1916 Rising
Speaker: Ryan Nolan (UCD)

Thursday, 23rdNovember
Can Human Rights Defeat Nationalism?
Speaker: Dr. Lea David (UCD)

Thursday, 30thNovember
Difficult Encounters: Stops, Searches and Police Legitimacy
Speaker: Prof. Ben Bradford (University of Oxford)
https://www.ucd.ie/sociology/newsandevents/seminarsandconferences/

Cultural Policy Observatory Ireland announces a special issue on cultural policymaking and research on the island of Ireland for the peer-reviewed academic journal Cultural Trends.
Since 1989, Cultural Trends has been an important space that brings together and showcases empirically grounded research on cultural policy with a particular focus on arts, culture, heritage and media.
The critical consideration and investigation of cultural policy on the island of Ireland has long been missing from international debates and discussion.
This Special Issue has presented an opportunity to review how researchers across different disciplines approach and understand culture as a distinct area of public policy in Ireland.

Read the Special Issue here: https://culturalpolicyireland.org/2017/07/31/cultural-trends-special-issue-on-ireland/ ​

An update has been mailed to all current members on SAI work and plans for 2017-18. If you have not received your members update, please check your membership is current. You can join at the above link. If you wish to change the email address for receiving updates, please email us at sociology.ie@gmail.com 
​Read the members update here 

From October we will be launching a new webinar series, which will allow sociologists to share developments in sociology in Ireland without the expense and time commitment of travel, giving you access to research and teaching expertise amongst our membership on a regular basis.

We are now seeking proposals for this series, which will involve a 20-30 minute presentation online and discussion with the online audience for the rest of the 60 minute webinar.
Attendees can register for each webinar up to 24 hours in advance, and continue the discussion on Twitter afterwards.
Webinar presentation and attendance is open to all SAI members, and we encourage sociologists at all stages of their career to consider presenting their work in the series.
​
Proposals should be submitted using the form below: 
​

Trinity College Dublin will host a conference on academic freedom and higher education on 12 September, entitled 'Freedom of speech and Higher Education: The case of the academic boycott of Israel'. The conference is hosted by the MPhil in Race, Ethnicity and Conflict in the Department of Sociology, and will include a public lecture the night before the conference. 

The Sociological Association of Ireland welcomes this move by Dr David Landy and the team at TCD to organise such a timely and relevant event. 

Full details of the Conference are at https://academicfreedomconference.wordpress.com/ 
You can also read this article by Dr Landy on the background to the Conference in a recent issue of the University Times 

You may also be interested to read a recently published report by the University and College Union (UK) on academic freedom in the UK and across the EU  

“Football, Politics and Popular Culture”: 2017 Annual Conference of The Football Collective

 
'The Football Collective' is a dedicated International network of over 200 academics and practitioners across a range of disciplines (Sociology, Business Management, Economics and Finance, Political Science, Gender Studies, History, Social Media and Fan Studies, Corporate Governance, Musicology etc). Through sharp analysis and research it has provided a platform for thought provoking critical debate in football studies.
 
Football has always been political. For example, on 13th May 1990, just weeks after parties favouring Croatian independence had won the majority of votes in an election, a riot between the fans of Dinamo Zagreb and Red Star Belgrade marked a game in the Maksimir Stadium. Zvonimir Boban, the Zagreb captain and future AC Milan star kicked a police officer who had allegedly been mistreating Croatian fans. Some argue that this moment marked the end of Yugoslavia, with a devastating Civil War following soon afterwards and many of the protagonists on that day swapping the terraces for the front lines.
 
The bodies of clubs, players and fans are enmeshed with politics. Clubs have been born as a result of population upheavals and migration; have been associated with ethno-national and religious communities, and political ideologies and parties to name but a few. In the contemporary context, football continues to be tied to political events and symbols. The ongoing movement of people into Europe has witnessed voices raised by football supporters both in support of and opposition to migration. Racism and anti-racism practices play out on and off the pitch. Broader contemporary international political controversies such as the prohibition of the flag of the Palestinian State, the wearing of symbols such as the British poppy or the commemoration of Irish Independence continue to spark controversy among player and fan communities alike.
 
Football also manifests at times in artefacts of music and broader popular culture. Football chants for example are a sophisticated socio-political activity, which connect to early forms of communication where humans used music, chant, and dance to bond as social groups. ‘Performance’ also has a unique ability to make difference visible and audible, and songs in particular have been shown to have powerful agency in the negotiation of ‘Self’ and ‘Other’.
 
We invite you to join us at the University of Limerick, on Thursday and Friday23rd – 24th November 2017 for the Annual Conference of The Football Collective which is organized in association with the Popular Music and Popular Culture Research Cluster @UL. “Football, Politics and Popular Culture” will bring together interdisciplinaryfootball researchers, academics and students to share research findings, interests, stories, and methods, in order to develop better research and collaboration across the Collective. We will also host guests from outside of the academy. In this conference, we therefore particularly welcome papers that address (but are not limited to) football and the following:
 
·         Migration
·         Racism
·         Islamophobia/anti-Muslim racism
·         Ethno-national formation
·         Conflict (Ethno-national, Ideological, Sectarian etc.)
·         Sectarianism
·         Identities
·         Class politics
·         Gender and Sexualities
·         Fan culture
·         Political songs / chants
·         Its representation in popular culture (including film and literature)
 
The conference is designed to offer opportunities for all to present research, research ideas, potential projects, and innovative methods of data collection or public engagement. Thus it aims to discuss research that (a) has been undertaken, to share findings and gain insight and feedback on data analysis, representation, and potential outputs (b) is being proposed as a potential option for the Collective group to understand an existing issue or (c) has been published, to share findings and discuss future research needs. Please submit a Word document containing your paper title, a 250 word abstract, and author information including full name, institutional affiliation, email address, and a 50-word bio to footballconference2017@ul.ieby6th September 2017. A maximum of 20 minutes will be allocated to each conference paper.Panel proposals (three presenters - 60 minutes) should include a 150 word overview and 250 word individual abstracts (plus author information listed above).We also welcome proposals for workshops, film screenings, performances etc.We particularly encourage submissions from PhD scholars and early career researchers. Notifications regarding acceptance will be sent by 15th September 2017.
 
Conference Conveners:
Dr. James Carr, Dept. of Sociology, University of Limerick.
Dr. Martin Power, Dept. of Sociology, University of Limerick.
Dr Stephen Millar, Popular Music & Popular Culture Research Cluster, University of Limerick.
 
For further information please contact: footballconference2017@ul.ie

 (Un)Making Europe: Capitalism, Solidarities, Subjectivities

13th Conference of the European Sociological Association

Athens, Greece, 29 August – 1 September 2017


Europe can be made or unmade, and this is especially true since the „Great
Recession‟ of 2008. European society, and even the very idea of Europe, is under
threat. First, the inherent contradictions of capitalism are obviously stronger than we
thought: Greece, where the emphatic idea of “Europe” originated, has experienced
severe austerity measures; Europe has seen a deepening of neo-liberal politics,
threats to what remains of the welfare state and increasing inequality.

Second, solidarities are fragmented in and between societies across Europe. The
new world economic crisis formed a context for both the constitution and the
undermining of solidarities. On the one hand, from the Arab Uprisings to the various
Occupy and Indignados movements – and their manifestations at the level of political
parties – we have seen rebellions by citizens demanding political change. On the
other hand, refugees fleeing wars have been denied human rights and their lives
have been threatened by the closure of borders and the lack of a coordinated
European strategy.

Third, subjectivities are formed that do not only result in resistance and protest, but
also in apathy, despair, depression, and anxiety. Authoritarianism, nationalism,
racism, xenophobia, right-wing extremism, spirals of violence, and ideological
fundamentalisms have proliferated throughout the world, including in Europe.
As a result, the promise of Europe and the geographical, political, and social borders
of Europe have been unmade and this „unmaking‟ poses a profound challenge for
sociology and the social sciences more generally.

It is in this context that the European Sociological Association‟s 2017 Conference
takes place in Athens at the epicentre of the European crisis. The underlying
question for the conference is:
How and where to should a sociology that matters evolve? How can sociology‟s
analyses, theories and methods, across the whole spectrum of ESA‟s 37 research
networks and various countries, be advanced in order to explain and understand
capitalism, solidarities and subjectivities in the processes of the making, unmaking
and remaking of Europe?

We cordially invite sociologists and social scientists from around the globe to
join us in Athens – to attend the conference, to participate actively in the
discussions, and to contribute their own work!

Invited speakers include David Harvey, Margaret Abraham, Gerard Delanty,
Donatella della Porta, Silvia Federici, Eva Illouz, Maria Kousis, Hartmut Rosa,
Markus Schulz, Yanis Varoufakis, Michel Wieviorka, Ruth Wodak and others!
Call for Papers: http://www.europeansociology.org/download/esa2017_CFPs.pdf
Abstract submission deadline: 1 February 2017 (may be extended)

For abstract submission and further information, please visit:
www.esa13thconference.eu

Call for Papers – Men, Masculinities, Gender, Ireland

 
Organising Institutions: Trinity College/Carlow College
 
Location: Carlow College
 
Date: 7th March, 2017

 
Like their counterparts elsewhere, Irish men have historically dominated the main spheres of Irish public life – from politics, to business, to law, to sport, to media. Like many other contexts too, analysis of gender in Ireland was seen as a woman’s issue for a long time. It is only recently that critical attention has centred on Irish men as men and how they (re)produce their privileged gendered positions within a patriarchal society. In independent Ireland dominant versions of masculinity were traditionally defined as rural, Catholic, anti-British, and based around marriage, family and breadwinning. Since Ireland’s European membership in the 1970s, socio-economic modernization has altered this masculine configuration somewhat. Nevertheless, any talk of a gender revolution within the home, the workplace and society more broadly has to be seen as partial and ongoing – traditional Irish masculinity may be waning, that is not to say it has disappeared. At the same time, contemporary Ireland does allow for greater expressions of marginalized, subaltern masculinities, expressions that in the past may have been ignored, silenced, or even punished.
 
This one-day conference seeks to explore both historical and present-day understandings of men and Irish society.
 
Suggested topics may include but are not restricted to:
 
Irish masculinity and (un)employment
Irish masculinity and sexuality
Irish masculinity and emigration
Irish masculinity and health 
Irish masculinity and sport
Irish masculinity and religion
Irish masculinity and revolutionary violence
Town and Country: Rural, urban, and suburban masculinities
Sorting the Men from the Boys: Irish masculinity over the life-course
Men, marriage, family
Masculinity in Crisis?
Rebel Masculinities: Conflict, Crime, Protest
Representations of Irish men on the screen, the page, the stage
Performing Irish masculinity: Home and away
 
 
Please send abstracts to ralphda@tcd.ie by 10th February, 2017.

For more details visit - http://economyandsocietysummerschool.org

SAI Membership Renewal Notice 
 
It has been a good year for the SAI. The annual conference hosted in the University of Limerick was the liveliest and best attended in years. More recently, the annual postgraduate conference drew more than fifty people to Maynooth for a day of discussion and debate. In addition, the membership of the association has more than doubled over the last twelve months and currently stands at 150.
 
While the SAI has made great progress of late there is of course room for growth and improvement. That will depend on the support of sociologists across the island and beyond. The new membership year begins on 1 December and we would encourage everyone to join up or to renew their membership.
 
The membership fee remains at the revised low rates of €55 (full) and €25 (full - reduced).  
 
It has never been easier to join the SAI. Simply visit our recently revamped and much improved association website.
 
You will notice that there is now a payment option that allows your membership to be renewed automatically each year. This automatic renewal option allows the association to have a secure membership from year to year so we would encourage everyone to make this selection where possible. If you took this option last year you will have already received an email to that effect.
 
What are the benefits of SAI Membership?
 
Members will have access to the Irish Journal of Sociology, which has recently moved to Sage Pulications. Those paying the full rate will receive hard copies of three editions of the journal each year. Both rates entail online access to the journal via the Members’ section of the website.
 
Membership is required in order to attend the annual SAI conference.
 
Membership allows free admission to the annual postgraduate conference.
 
Members will be kept up to date with forthcoming events via the website and subscribers’ email list.
 
The future of the SAI depends on the support and participation of all sociologists working in, or on, Ireland. Please take out membership and encourage colleagues and postgraduates to do likewise. Thanks.
 
All the best,
 
Colin Coulter
Membership Secretary
colin.coulter@nuim.ie