Órla Meadhbh Murray
- Name
- Órla Meadhbh Murray
- Title
- Organisation
- Sociology School of Social and Political Science University of Edinburgh
- Address
- Edinburgh UK
- Telephone
- s0807012@sms.ed.ac.uk
- Research Interests
- Feminist Epistemology, Work, Institutional Ethnography, Intersectionality, Sociology of Knowledge, Qualitative Research Methods, Texts, Work and Labour, Theatre and Performance, Activism, Queer Theory, Feminism, Reflexivity
- URL
- http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/gradschool/community_and_representation/research_student_profiles/sociology/orla_meadhbh_murray
PhD Title
Invisible Work, Textual Performance, and Legitimacy: An Institutional Ethnography of UK Higher Education
PhD Research
My research is an ESRC (1+3) funded project exploring UK higher education and developing an accountable text-focused version of Dorothy Smith’s feminist approach to research, institutional ethnography. The overall question I wish to answer is: how is UK higher education organised by texts? And from this, I hope to identify points at which neo-liberalism and structural inequality occur, and thus how we might be able to resist them in higher education and in other institutions.
My research is couched in feminist discussions about the social construction of knowledge and an intersectional understanding of structural inequality. I am particularly interested in feminist epistemological discussions and critical methodologies that aim to intertwine activism and academia. The core of my understanding is a belief that we are all complicit in oppressive structures, which gives us varying degrees of opportunity to change these through our everyday activities.
In institutional ethnography, texts are defined as replicable material objects that carry messages such as bureaucratic documents, the internet, video, and books. They are seen as central to how institutions exist and organise people's activities across different locales. I am interested in how different people read institutional texts differently; how they can be used, performed, and interpreted in ways that often differ from the intended meaning by authors and institutions, and how texts can confer authority and legitimacy when used in certain ways by certain people.
I am also interested in work and how we define it. Following feminist conceptualisations of work, I want to consider the reproductive labour that is involved in reproducing a workplace, an institution, and workers, including everyday tasks such as negotiating bureaucracy and managing health problems, alongside other emotional, social and activist work. In applying this concept of work to the higher education context, it highlights the invisible work done by staff and students that is not acknowledged as work and thus is often un(der)appreciated and un(der)paid.
Thus far, I have explored Dorothy Smith's development of institutional ethnography, criticisms of her work, and the different ways in which institutional ethnography has been used. I have also explored feminist epistemological discussions about accountability and reflexivity, developing an accountable text-focused approach to institutional ethnography. My analysis focuses on three key textual-mediated processes and regulatory texts in UK higher education: the National Student Survey (NSS), ESRC funding processes, and the Research Excellent Framework (REF). I am in the process of writing up my thesis, and will finish in September 2018.
Supervisors
Publications
Book Reviews
2013 - Ó.M. Murray, Book Review: Lutz et al. (eds), Framing Intersectionality: Debates on a Multi-Faceted Concept in Gender Studies, Irish Journal of Sociology, 21(1), 117-119.
Blog Articles
It Ain't Necessarily So - a collaborate blog run by social science students at the University of Edinburgh:
A Crying Shame: Emotional Labour in Activism
A Tale of Two Votes: What About Equal Marriage in Northern Ireland?
Home is Where the Heart (of Midlothian) Is: On Feeling at Home and Immigration
"Its's all a pile of bourgeois shite": Class, Culture, and the Edinburgh Festivals
Conference Presentations & Panels
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Lecturing
All lecturing at University of Edinburgh, within the School of Social and Political Sciences, unless otherwise stated.
2017/2018
Researching Global Social Change (Postgraduate)
- Feminist Epistemology
Research Methodology, Psychiatry (for junior doctors preparing for the MRCPsych exam)
- What I Learnt from Laud Humphreys: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods - 31st January 2018.
2016/2017
Gender, Marginality and Social Change (UG, Honours)
- Sexual Politics and Marginality: Beyond Binaries - 14th February 2017.
Researching Global Social Change (Postgraduate)
- Institutional Ethnography and Texts - 6th February 2017.
- Backstage with the Researcher: Reflexivity and Accountability - 20th March 2017.
Key Concepts in Global Social Change (Postgraduate)
- 'Ain't I a Woman?' - Intersectional Feminism - 31st October 2016.
Research Methodology, Psychiatry (for junior doctors preparing for the MRCPsych exam)
- What I Learnt from Laud Humphreys: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods - 23rd November 2016.
2015/2016
LEAPS Widening Particiption Scheme (pre-university introductory lectures)
- Sociology of Gender - 23rd June 2016.
- Sociology of Pop Culture - 27th June 2016.
- Sociology of Social Movements - 30th June 2016.
Research Methodology, Psychiatry (for junior doctors preparing for the MRCPsych exam)
- What I Learnt from Laud Humphreys: An Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods - 9th March 2016.
2013/2014
Internet, Society & Economy
- Conclusions: Using Institutional Ethnography for Online Research
Tutoring
I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy having completed the Edinburgh Teaching Award Level One course.
Edinburgh University Student Association (EUSA) Teaching Awards:
Nominated for Best Postgraduate Tutor ('13/'14, '14/'15, '15/'16 and '16/'17);
Nominated for Best Feedback ('14/'15).
All tutoring at University of Edinburgh within the School of Social and Political Sciences and the School of Geosciences Human Geography Department.
2017/2018
Designing and Doing Social Research (Honours) (Senior Tutor);
Fundamentals 1: Developing Sociological Imagination;
Fundamentals 2: Sociology;
Geography Fieldtrip: Athens (UG, Honours);
Sustainable Development Dissertation Workshops (Honours).
2016/2017
Designing and Doing Social Research (Honours) (Senior Tutor);
Fundamentals 1: Developing Sociological Imagination;
Fundamentals 2: Sociology;
Gender, Marginality & Social Change (Honours);
Social and Cultural Geography (2nd year);
Space, Place and Sensory Perception (Honours);
Sustainable Development Dissertation Workshops (Honours).
2015/2016
Designing and Doing Social Research (Honours);
Fundamentals 1: Developing Sociological Imagination;
Fundamentals 2: Sociology;
Sustainable Development Dissertation Workshops (Honours).
2014/2015
Designing and Doing Social Research (Honours);
Gender, Marginality & Social Change (Honours) (Senior Tutor);
Sustainable Development Dissertation Workshops (Honours).
2013/2014
Designing and Doing Social Research (Honours);
Internet, Society & Economy (Honours & Postgraduate) (Senior Tutor);
Sociology 1A.
Institutional Ethnography Network
Founder and organiser of the Institutional Ethnography Network, a group for postgraduates and staff who are interested in the work of ground-breaking feminist sociologist, Dorothy Smith, particularly her alternative sociology programme, institutional ethnography.
For more information see our blog.
Other Projects
2017-2019 - Member of the Feminist Taleem: Teaching Feminisms, Transforming Lives Project with Principal Investigator Dr. Radhika Govinda, funded by the UK-India Educational Research Initiative.
2017 - Organising Committee Member for the Sociology Department Annual Conference New Directions.
2014-2017 - Organiser of the bi-annual Sociology Writing Retreat with Nikki Dunne and Lisa Kalayji.
Qualifications
2013 - MSc (Research) Sociology - University of Edinburgh (Distinction)
2012 - MA (Hons) Sociology & Politics - University of Edinburgh (1st)
Awards
2012 - 2016 - Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) 1+3 PhD Funding
2012 - Violet Laidlaw Prize, University of Edinburgh