Dr Katherine Davies
PhD
Department of Sociological Studies
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
(She/her)
+44 114 222 6479
Full contact details
Department of Sociological Studies
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
Sheffield
S10 2AH
- Profile
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Katherine joined The University of Sheffield as Lecturer in Sociology in 2012. Before moving to Sheffield, Katherine held a number of research posts at The University of Manchester where she worked on two ‘nodes’ of the ESRC’s National Centre for Research Methods.
Katherine completed her PhD at Manchester in 2011 under the supervision of Professor Jennifer Mason and Dr Wendy Bottero. Katherine is an Honorary Fellow of The Morgan Centre for the Study of Everyday Life.
- Research interests
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Katherine's research focuses upon the complexities of personal relationships and she has a long standing interest in qualitatively driven methodological approaches which can capture the lived experience of everyday lives and relationships.
Katherine's previous research has included a study investigating the social significance of family resemblances and a project researching how associations with friends, neighbours, colleagues and the like matter throughout the life course in both positive and negative ways (both projects were completed with colleagues at The University of Manchester).
Her most recently completed project was an ESRC study entitled ‘Under the Same Roof: The everyday relational practices of contemporary communal living in the UK’ which investigated the relational complexities of shared living arrangements including co housing, housing co-ops, private lodgings and shared houses.
Katherine is currently conducting research which explores the ways in which Brexit politics are lived and experienced in everyday family relationships. She is in the process of completing a research project funded by The British Academy entitled 'Talking Politics: Brexit and Everyday (Inter)generational Family Relationships’ which explores the ways people talk about politics, particularly Brexit, in families.
Katherine has secured funding to continue this work in a project titled ‘Brexit, Relationships and Everyday Family Life’ funded under the ESRC’s Governance After Brexit programme. This work will employ creative, ethnographically-inspired methods to capture the ways Brexit politics are experienced within everyday relational life.
Research areas:
- Family relationships and politics;
- Friendship, personal relationships and social change;
- Sibling relationships;
- Everyday life;
- Qualitative methodologies.
- Publications
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Books
- Siblings and sociology. Manchester University Press.
- Shared Housing, Shared Lives: Everyday Experiences Across the Lifecourse. Abingdon: Routledge.
Journal articles
- Sticking together in ‘Divided Britain’: talking Brexit in everyday family relationships. Sociology. View this article in WRRO
- Research relationalities and shifting sensitivities : doing ethnographic research about Brexit and everyday family relationships. Families, Relationships and Societies. View this article in WRRO
- ‘Sticky’ proximities: Sibling relationships and education. The Sociological Review, 67(1), 210-225. View this article in WRRO
- Researching Young People’s Sibling Relationships Using Qualitative Interviews and Focus Groups. Sage Research Methods Case.
- Siblings, Stories and the Self: The Sociological Significance of Young People’s Sibling Relationships. Sociology, 49(4), 679-695. View this article in WRRO
- Critical friendships. Families, Relationships and Societies, 1(3), 311-326.
- Difficult friendships and ontological insecurity. Sociological Review, 60(1), 91-109.
- Knocking on doors: recruitment and enrichment in a qualitative interview-based study. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 14(4), 289-300.
- Interactions that matter: researching critical associations. Methodological Innovations Online, 6(3), 5-16.
- Introduction to the Special Issue. Methodological Innovations Online, 6(3), 1-4.
- Coming to our senses? A critical approach to sensory methodology. Qualitative Research, 9(5), 587-603.
Chapters
- Time matters in shared living, SHARED HOUSING, SHARED LIVES (pp. 98-121).
- The spatial organisation of shared living, SHARED HOUSING, SHARED LIVES (pp. 81-97).
- The economic and material organisation of shared living, SHARED HOUSING, SHARED LIVES (pp. 61-80).
- Shared living in context, SHARED HOUSING, SHARED LIVES (pp. 1-+).
- Shared living and domestic intimacy The challenges of sharing, SHARED HOUSING, SHARED LIVES (pp. 21-37).
- Researching Families and Relationships Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Friendship and Personal Life In May V (Ed.), Sociology of Personal Life Macmillan International Higher Education
- Experimenting with Qualitative Methods: Researching Family Resemblances In Mason J & Dale A (Ed.), Understanding Social Research: Thinking Creatively about Method London: SAGE.
- Friendship and Personal Life In May V (Ed.), The Sociology of Personal Life Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Book reviews
- Identical Twins: Adult Reflections on the Twinship Experience. Contemporary Sociology: A Journal of Reviews, 49(4), 370-372.
- Review of Ebtehaj, F., Lindley, B. and Richards, M. (2006) ‘Kinship Matters’. Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 29(3-4).
Exhibitions
- My Year in Brexit Britain. Online.
Website content
- Our lockdown walks: Physically, but not socially, distanced walking as method.
- 'Brexacerbation' and the embedding of Brexit in Everyday Life.
- Some Families are Trying to Work Out their Brexit Difficulties: They could inspire Boris Johnson.
- Talking Politics? Brexit and Everyday Family Relationships.
Other
- Time Use and Childcare.
- Siblings and sociology. Manchester University Press.
- Research group
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Current PhD students:
- Laura Towers
- Jiaxun Li (supervised with Helen Kennedy)
- Nobuko Terai (supervised with Afua Twum-Danso Imho)
Past PhD students:
- Dr Melanie Lovatt (supervised with Lorna Warren)
- Dr Jennifer Kettle (supervised with Vicki Robinson)
- Dr Sarah Longstaff (supervised with Philip Benson)
Katherine is interested in supervising PhD students in any of her research areas
- Grants
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- 2019-21, ESRC, £248,175. Title: ‘Brexit, Relationships and Everyday Family Life’ PI: Katherine Davies
- 2017-19, British Academy, BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant, £7,568. Title: 'Talking Politics: Brexit and everyday (inter)generational family relationships' PI: Katherine Davies.
- 2013-15, ESRC, £536,355. Title: Co-Investigator, ‘Under the Same Roof: The everyday relational practices of contemporary communal living in the UK’. PI Professor Sue Heath (University of Manchester)
- Teaching activities
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Katherine currently teaches and supervises students at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. All of Katherine's teaching is closely linked to her research activities and she encourages students on her courses to develop critical reflection through carrying out small pieces of research themselves, keeping research diaries and through group discussions and presentations.
Katherine's teaching includes:
- Intimacy and Personal Relationships (Undergraduate)
- Innovations in Qualitative Research (Postgraduate)
- Sociologies of the Everyday (Postgraduate)
Katherine also supervises students taking extended essays and dissertations in Sociology and Social Policy.