Briony Hannell

Dr

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

I am willing to supervise PhD students working on my research interests (as stated below). I can supervise PhD students as a Secondary Supervisor and/or Co-Supervisor.

Personal profile

Overview

I am a qualitative feminist researcher and sociologist with extensive teaching experience. At the University of Manchester, I am a member of The Morgan Centre for Research into Everyday Lives. While I am formally trained in cultural politics and media and cultural studies, my interdisciplinary research spans across feminist sociology, cultural studies, media and communications, internet studies, girls’ studies, and fan studies. My research on young people, feminism and anti-feminism, and digital platforms and cultures has been featured in The Observer, ViceThe Independent, Dazed, WIRED, BBC Radio, and more. My first book, Feminist Fandom: Media Fandom, Digital Feminisms, and Tumblr was published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2024.

Research interests

Broadly speaking, I am interested in the following:

  • Youth belonging, (civic) participation, and (cultural) citizenship
  • Digital feminisms and anti-feminisms
  • Gender and gender relations
  • (Digital) culture, media, and communications
  • Digital feminist pedagogies and informal learning online

My research to date locates interest-based digital peer cultures as an important space where young people produce, negotiate, and contest the meanings of feminism(s) in an everyday context. It positions digital youth cultures on the micro-blogging and social networking platform Tumblr as a fruitful site for young people to engage in feminist activism, community building, and knowledge sharing. However, it also complicates utopian framings of these digital spaces to reveal the contradictory and ambivalent processes of inclusion and exclusion at work within them.

In my research on digital feminisms on Tumblr, the young people I encountered routinely discussed the mainstreaming of anti-feminism and popular misogyny throughout the 2010s. I am currently in the early stages of researching the impact of the so-called ‘toxic turn’ in contemporary gender politics in the online and offline lives of young people.

Methodological knowledge

I use ethnographic methods (both online and offline), including participant observation, focus groups, interviews, qualitative surveys, discourse analysis, and textual analysis. Given my interest in Tumblr, I have also combined this with platform walkthroughs and analysis. Additionally, I also have experience with web scraping and use of data visualisation software Gephi to conduct network analysis, and NVivo to conduct qualitative data analysis.

Teaching

I have extensive experience designing and delivering introductory and specialist teaching, learning, and assessment to a diverse range of university students at all levels of study. I have experience acting as programme lead, academic adviser, module organiser, lecturer, dissertation supervisor, PhD supervisor, workshop leader, and seminar leader. My teaching experience spans across sociology, research methods, (digital) media and communications, gender studies, and politics across a wide range of modules.

I have convened the following modules:

  • Qualitative Research Design and Methods (Y2, core, Sociology Department, University of Manchester, 2024-)
  • Media, Culture & Society (Y1, elective, Sociology Department, University of Manchester, 2024-)
  • Current Sociology (MA, core, Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2021-2024)
  • The Value of Sociology (Y3, core, Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2021-2024)
  • Men, Feminism and Gender Relations (Y2, elective, Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2021-2024)
  • Global Challenges in the Digital Society (MA, elective, Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2020-2021)
  • Digital Politics (Y3, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2020-2021)
  • Digital Media and Society (Y2, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2020-2021)

I have delivered seminars, tutorials, guest lectures, and workshops for the following:

  • Digital Methods (MA, core, Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2020-2021)
  • Gender in Study (MA, core, Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities, University of East Anglia, 2020)
  • Sociology of Media and Consumer Culture (Y2, elective, Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2020-2021)
  • Politics and Media (MA, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2019-2020)
  • Understanding Digital Media (MA, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2019-2020)
  • Introduction to Political Communication (Y1, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2018-2019)
  • Media Power (Y1, core, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2018-2019)
  • Gender and Power (Y2, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2017-2018)
  • Digital Media and Society (Y2, elective, School of Politics, University of East Anglia, 2017-2018)

I received accreditation as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2021 and am nearing completion of a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCertLTHE). I have won and/or been nominated for teaching prizes at the University of Sheffield and the University of East Anglia.

I am currently co-supervising a third-year PhD student at the University of Sheffield.

Supervision information

I am currently co-supervising a third-year PhD student at the University of Sheffield. 

  • Ruoqian Li: The Survival of the Marginalized Queer Identity on Social Media: Multimodal Narratives as Practices Across Chinese Queer Community (Department of Sociological Studies, The University of Sheffield, 2022-)

I am willing to supervise PhD students working on my research interests. I can supervise PhD students as a Secondary Supervisor and/or Co-Supervisor.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Education/Academic qualification

Doctor of Philosophy, University of East Anglia

Award Date: 21 Jul 2021

Areas of expertise

  • HM Sociology

Keywords

  • feminist theory
  • gender
  • digital feminisms
  • gender relations
  • popular culture
  • youth
  • social media
  • youth politics
  • gender and feminist theory
  • digital platforms
  • Digital Culture
  • gender politics

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