Institute of Education London

Dr Jessica Ringrose

• Qualifications and position:
  • BA, MA, PhD
  • Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Gender and Education
• Faculty:
  • Faculty of Policy and Society
• Department:
  • Humanities and Social Science
• Summary:
  • I am currently researching young people's digitised sexual identities. I have research expertise in gendered and sexualized (cyber)bullying, aggression and conflict in school. My work has explored and troubled ideas around child 'sexualization' and 'pornification'; I recently advised on the Home Office Report, The Sexualization of Young People (Papadopoulous, 2010).
    I am completing two new books. First a single authored monograph exploring 'postfeminist', neo-liberal discourses of gender equality and assumptions about feminine 'success' in education (Routledge). Second a co-edited book (with Rebecca Coleman) on transcendental DeleuzoGuattarian empirical social scientific research methodologies (Edinburgh University Press).
    Methodologically and theoretically my research draws on poststructuralism and psychosocial approaches to understanding subjectivity and affect.
    My PhD examined defensiveness in learning, through a study on student engagements with feminist and critical pedagogical theories of power and privilege in HE. I have an abiding interest in 'intersectional' and Black Feminist theories that help unpack the complexities and contradictions of racialized, classed, gendered and sexualized subjectivities.
    Media appearances:
    'Whatever Happened to the Sisterhood? BBC Radio 4 Analysis (interviewed) 10 Oct 2010
    'Feminism on the curriculum', BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour, Aired August 12, 2008 (Interviewed)
• Teaching:
  • MA Courses:
    Programme Leader Sociology of Education MA
    Module Leader:
    Sociology of Education
    Gender: Theory and Practice in Education (option available to PGCE students)
    Module Contributor:
    Understanding Educational Research
    Psychosocial Concepts & Methodologies
    Psychosocial Approaches to Learning
    MA Dissertation/Report Supervision:
    Sociology of Education
    Education, Gender and International Development
    Social Justice and Education
    Education Leadership
    Teach First
    Doctoral Courses:
    Gender and Educational Research
    Researching Identity: Exploring Intersectional Approaches
    Ed D. Courses:
    Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Education
    B. Ed Courses:
    Foundation Degree in Arts: Working with Children: Education and Well Being
    Module Contributor:
    Childhood and learning
• Research Projects:
  • 2011 'Young people and mobile technologies: Exploring opportunity, risk and safety', funded by NSPCC (Ringrose PI, with Professor Rosalind Gill, Kings College, Professor Sonia Livingstone, LSE and Laura Harvey, Open University)
    2010-2011 ESRC Research Seminar Series: Pornified? Complicating the debates about the 'sexualisation of culture', (with Professor Rosalind Gill, Kings College, Dr. Emma Renold, Cardiff University and Dr. Meg Barker, Open University)
    2010-2011 Evaluation of WOMANKIND Worldwide UK Education Programme 'Challenging Violence, Changing Lives' (2004 – 2011) (with Dr. Jenny Parkes, IOE and Dr. Victoria Showunmi, IOE)
    2008-2009 "Young people's negotiations of social networking sites (SNSs)" funded by Norwegian Centre for Child Research (NOSEB) (with Dr Rebekah Willett, IOE), This study involved exploring teens (aged 14-16) uses of SNSs. Findings explored online/offline 'sexualization', social competition, hierarchy, friendship and fighting.
• Postgraduate Research:
  • • gender and sexuality in schooling/education
    • relational aggression and gendered violence
    • Girl Studies
    • Poststructural and psychosocial approaches
    • 'intersectional' theory and methodology (examining intersections of gender, race, class and other axes of subjectivity and differentiation)
• Professional Activities:
  • Journal Editorial Board, Feminism and Psychology
    Journal Editorial Board, Gender and Education
    Advisory Group, UK Government Equalities Office, "Young People and 'Body Confidence'"
    Advisory Group, eXbus Exploring Bullying in Schools (cyber-bullying stream Led by Professor Jette Kofoed, Department of Learning, University of Aarhus, Denmark)
    Advisory Group, UK Home Office Report: The Sexualization of Young People, Part of the 'Together we can end violence against women and girls' Strategy (Released February, 26 2010)
    Advisory Group, Scottish Parliament Report: Sexualised Goods Aimed at Children (Released January 29, 2010)
    EFPS Representative of Faculty of Policy and Society Research Ethics Committee, IOE
• Conferences/presentations:
  • May 2011 Ringrose, J. Schizoid subjectivities?: Re-theorising teen-girls' sexual cultures and the sexy/innocent binary in an era of 'sexualisation', University of Stockholm Institute of Fashion "Fashioning Childhood" Conference, University of Stockholm, May 20, 2011
    April 2011 Renold and Ringrose, "Exploring and critiquing the sexualisation of girls discourse: beyond the moral panic?" Gender and Education Association Conference, Exeter University, Exeter UK, April 27-29, 2011
    2009. Ringrose, J. Keynote Panel: 'The sexualization of culture?' with Rosalind Gill (Open University), Feona Atwood (University of Sheffield-Hallam), Steven McDermott (University of Leeds), MediaFest 2009, October 29, 2009, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK
• Personal Country Knowledge:
  • UK, Canada educational/media panics over 'failing boys' and 'successful girls'; Canadian feminism/Women's Studies
• SIG Membership:
  • Co-leader of IOE Gender, Sexuality and Education SIG (with Ian Warwick and Victoria Showunmi)
    Co-leader of IOE Psychosocial Perspectives on Educational Enquiry SIG (with Claudia Lapping and Caroline Pelletier)
• Research Students:
  • Eleftheria Atta "Cypriot Women Academics on the Tenure Track: Challenges and Concerns"
    Nahid Husseini, "Gender, education and female citizenship in Iran"
    Marios Kostas "Gendered subjectivity in the curriculum and classrooms of Greek primary schooling"