Dr Jessica Battersby

Biography

I am a Lecturer in Childhood Studies and Psychosocial Studies in the Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Essex and have 15 years experience teaching and researching in higher education. My PhD in Sociology from the University of Westminster focussed on the neoliberal and relational approaches to children's agency. My particular research interests relate to the role of non-human objects in models of agency in childhood, the governance of research with children, new materialist and post-humanist perspectives on children and childhood as subjects and objects, and the intersections of childhood studies with animal studies. I love to explore representations of children and childhood in popular culture and have written about texts as diverse as the sitcom The Inbetweeners, anime film Akira, and the novel Girls Like Us. I like to consider the ways in which such representations may disrupt contemporary discourses of childhood and speak as much to our constructions of adulthood as they do of children themselves. I am the creator and course director of our MA Childhood Studies and teach modules at UG and PGT level that explore contemporary theoretical approaches to childhood studies, children's geographies, the social history of childhood and ethical research with children. I'm a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and a Member of the British Sociological Association (BSA). I would love to hear from prospective PhD students in any field relating Childhood Studies, but particularly in relation to: children in/on popular culture; ethical governance of research with children; post structural, new materialist and post-humanist perspectives on children and childhood, new ways of forging a psychosocial childhood studies; the sexualisation of childhood; young masculinities; geographies of childhood and youth; childhood studies as it interacts with animal studies; child/animal relations; children's rights.

Qualifications

• PhD Sociology University of Westminster,

• MA Sociology and Panel Data Analysis University of Essex,

• BA (Hons) Sociology and Criminology University of Essex,

Appointments

Other academic

• Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Suffolk (1/9/2010 - 20/8/2009)

• Programme Area Manager, School of Social Sciences, London South East Colleges (1/9/2008 - 28/8/2009)