Institute of Education London

Dr Claudia Lapping

• Qualifications and position:
  • MA, PhD
  • Research Tutor
  • Co-Leader of Psychosocial Perspectives on Educational Inquiry Special Interest Group
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Children and Learning
• Department:
  • Culture, Communications and Media
• Summary:
  • I have taught in a range of educational settings, including adult and further education, arts education, and English language teaching.
    
    My current research explores the following areas: the sociology of knowledge; psychosocial methodologies; the recontextualisation of psychoanalytic concepts into social research; theories of subjectivity, discourse and gender; knowledge practices in higher education.
• Teaching:
  • Module leader for EdD Core Course: Methods of Enquiry 1
    Module leader for MA Psychosocial Studies and Education: Theorizing Subjectivity, Discourse and Ideology
    Tutor on EdD Specialist Course: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Education and Educational Research
• Research Projects:
  • The development of a psychosocial methodology for investigating the production of knowledge in higher education (ESRC funded research project)
    This study is concerned with investigates knowledge practices within higher education. It will explore the relationship between academic authors and their practice, and, in particular, the subjective, institutional and intellectual relations that contribute to the production and interpretation of knowledge within higher education. The methodology draws on psychoanalytic approaches, with participants (8 academics in the humanities and social sciences) each taking part in eight interviews over a period of up to two years.
    
    Psychoanalysis in social research: recontextualising concepts and transforming practice (book to be published by Routledge)
    This book explores the complicated relations between psychoanalysis and social research. Each chapter develops a critical account of one central concept or cluster of concepts: discourse and overdetermination; psychic defenses and social defenses; resistance, subjectivity and reflexivity; libidinal economies; and melancholia. By tracing connections and disjunctions in contrasting articulations of these concepts, the book aims to demonstrate how psychoanalytically informed research constitutes methodological transformations that produce new perspectives on social processes.
    
    Discipline, Gender and Institution: an empirical study of in/exclusion in undergraduate American and Political Thought classes PhD completed 2004
• Postgraduate Research:
  • I would be happy to discuss potential doctoral work with students interested in issues of knowledge and subjectivity, post-structural or psychoanalytic approaches, or with an interest in the social and emotional dimensions of educational practice. I am happy to supervise students with a wide range of empirical interests.
    
    Current students:
    
    Mary Maina, EdD
    The cultural practices of international student groups in UK higher education
    
    Lubabatu Amani, M.Phil/Phd
    Women's access to higher education in Nigeria
    
    Jo Metivier, PhD
    Becoming a fanfiction writer online
    
    Kay Mohana, EdD
    In/exclusionary cultures within medical education
• Conferences/presentations:
  • 'Psychic defences and classificatory principles: the development of a psychosocial methodology for investigating the production of knowledge', Bernstein Symposium, Cardiff, July 2008
    
    'The (inter)dependency of the subject (and) on social regulations: classed and gendered responses to the institutional authority of the university' BSA conference, Warwick, April 2008
    
    'A methodology for exploring the interests represented by conceptualizations of 'technology' in contrasting academic fields', CESE conference, Grenada, July 2006
• Website / Blogsite:
  • http://sites.google.com/site/psychosocialresearchgroup/Home