Kevin Gillan

Kevin completed his PhD at the University of Sheffield, where he investigated a range of social movement groups contesting globalisation and war. The thesis explored the ways in which activists beliefs and activities are shaped by historical and ideological contexts. Kevin subsequently worked as a Research Assistant at City University (London) on an ESRC funded project on Anti-War Activism.

Kevin moved to the University of Manchester as Lecturer in Sociology in 2007. Since then his publications have included a co-authored monograph, Anti-War Activism: New Media and Protest in the Information Age, with Jenny Pickerill and Frank Webster (2008, Palgrave) and three collaborative edited collections: Research Ethics and Social Movements (2015, Routledge), Occupy! A Global Movement (2015, Routledge), and Technology, Media and Social Movements (2019, Routledge). Recent writings include an original theoretical approach focusing on the way time, space and social movements within neoliberalism. Kevin is currently working on a monograph with the working title: How Capitalism Matters: Polity, Economy & Society (Red Globe Press). 

Kevin's teaching is currently centred on:

• Work, Economy and Society (2nd year UG)
• Global Social Challenges (1st year UG)
• Pre-University Sociology (college students' access course)

Kevin has supervised PhDs on the following a wide range of topics connected to collective action and the production of alternative lifestyles, identities and ideologies. Completed projects include:

• Thomas Redshaw, 'Of Bitcoins and Blockchains: The Social Construction of Crypto-Currencies'
• Jonathan Basilio, 'Undocumented Lives: Exclusions, Moralities and Resistance'
• Sarah Webster, 'Protest Activity in the British Student Movement, 1945 to 2011'
• Adriana Aguilar Rodriguez, 'Building Networks in the Climate Change Convention - Co-ordination failure in the establishment of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in Mexico'

Kevin would be happy to hear from prospective PhD students with topics centred on social movements, protest and alternatives to capitalism.