The University of Sheffield
Department of Sociological Studies

Dr Natalie Hammond

University Teaching Associate (BSc Hons, MA, PhD)

Email: n.hammond@sheffield.ac.uk
Room: Elmfield, B06f | Telephone: 0114 222 6489 (external), 26461 (internal)

Academic Profile - Research - Teaching - Postgraduate Supervision - Publications

Academic Profile

Born in Manchester, I have lived in the North of England all my life. I gained my first degree in Computing and Management Science from Sheffield Hallam University. During this time I became more drawn towards the statistical manipulation of social science data, rather than solving financial and business problems. Postgraduate study seemed the obvious way to convert and I first joined the Department of Sociological Studies in 2004 on the MA Sociological Research. In 2006 I began my ESRC funded PhD titled “Paying for sex: A socio-cultural exploration of men who pay for sex” and have remained in the department ever since. I have been in my current post since September 2010.

I am Deputy Director of the University of Sheffield Gender Research Centre http://www.shef.ac.uk/cgr/index I co-convene the British Sociological Association Violence against Women study group http://www.britsoc.co.uk/study-groups/violence-against-women.aspx and I am involved in establishing a UoS Early Career Social Science and Arts and Humanities Writing Group. I sat on the management committee for Sheffield Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service from 2009 to 2011. I also worked for a number of years as a mental health nursing assistant for Sheffield Care Trust (NHS), both in a clinical setting and out in the community.

Research

My main research interests lie in the following areas:

I am particularly interested in the everyday aspect of, and socio-cultural environments in which, people are living out their lives as sexual and gendered beings. My doctoral work presented a sociological account of men who pay for sex through the lens of relationships and sexuality. By addressing the traditional absence of male clients within research on the sex industry, it aims, first, to move research away from moralistic discourses and simplistic motivational accounts, and towards an analysis of the social context of paying for sex, in which both sexual commerce and the wider intimate sphere have changed. Second, exploring this social context, focusing on relationships and sexuality, it attends to the broader cultural formations of heterosexual male identities in contemporary sexual culture. The premise of the thesis argues that there is a need to move beyond focusing on the commercial and non-commercial dichotomy and the moral tenants of the sex industry, and instead to explore what people are doing and how they experience being involved in paid-for sex as part of their everyday lives and sexual identities.

I have retained an interest in computing, shifting from a technical focus towards a greater awareness of the social aspects of ICT, digital media and online worlds. I am currently working as a research assistant on a collaborative project between the Showroom Cinema, the Humanities Research Institute and the Department of Sociological Studies. The project combines technology and academic research in order to generate additional economic value from the cinema's existing content and programming:

http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hri/projects/projectpages/qcinema

I have become increasingly interested in using social and other digital media for professional purposes. I am a newly converted twitter user @thenataliejane.

Funded Research Projects
Date Sponsor Details
2011 ESRC Festival of Social Science Feminist Principles Research Methods Training for the 3rd Sector (£500)

Teaching

Inspired by the philosopher and educational reformer John Dewey I believe that education is social and interactive. I emphasise how teaching and learning should be a partnership with interactive dialogue between tutor and students and between students themselves, rather than a one way process in which the tutor conveys content. Therefore, I aim for my teaching to transform students thinking and not simply transmit knowledge. I encourage students to learn through doing, allowing them to take responsibility for their own learning and guiding them to become independent, reflective critical learners. Thus, inquiry based learning and inclusivity are central to my teaching.

Within the wider context of teaching and learning in Higher Education, I am interested in creative and innovative methods of assessment; the use and role of learning technologies; and the role of Higher Education in relation to realising human /civil rights and raising social consciousness.

I teach on:

I convene:

I supervise students taking extended essays and dissertations at undergraduate levels on the following modules:

See our Undergraduate degree pages.

Postgraduate Supervision

To find out more about our PhD programmes, go to:
Studying for a PhD in Sociology

Publications

Hammond, N. (2010) ‘Tackling Taboos: men who pay for sex and the emotional researcher’ in Sanders, T., Kingston, S. and Hardy, K. (eds) New Sociologies of Sex Work. Surrey; Ashgate p.59-74

For an up to date list of conference papers and presentations see http://sheffield.academia.edu/NatalieHammond