William Mason

University Teaching Associate (BA Hons, MA)

Academic Profile

I began my undergraduate studies in sociology at the University of Sheffield in 2005 where, at the end of my degree I successfully applied for the ESRC, 1 + 3 quota studentship award to continue onto postgraduate level. Here I took the MA in sociological research methods where I developed a keen methodological interest in the ethnographic tradition and the symbolic interactionist perspective. These approaches are reflected in my current PhD research entitled: ‘Communities of ‘risk’: Exploring the lived experiences of youth workers and young people’.

Research

My current PhD research is fully funded by the ESRC. It is an ethnographic project, set in two ethnically diverse, economically disadvantaged communities, which draws on my experience of three years voluntary youth work to explore the ways in which the everyday experiences of youth workers and young people are interpreted and understood. This focus is adopted in order to contribute to a small field of sociological literature that pays attention to the ways in which certain behaviours, labelled ‘risk behaviours’, are conceptualised by disadvantaged minority groups that are widely considered to be somehow ‘deviant’. On these lines, the thesis critically approaches the contemporary British political discourse that places underprivileged youths within a nexus of ‘risk’, alongside the intervention strategies that aim to manage and prevent ‘risk’ behaviours.

Key themes include: Labelling, Race, Identification, Community, Religion, Youth, Risk and Symbolic Interactionism

Teaching

I base my teaching on the key principles of inclusivity and enquiry based learning. Recognising the importance of ‘learning through doing’, my teaching encourages students to adopt and develop critical research techniques from the beginning of their undergraduate degrees. By practicing and exploring methods of sociological enquiry in a supportive environment, it is my opinion that students are able to build capability and confidence in a range of transferable skills that they can benefit from both within and outside the university.

I convene seminars for the following courses:

• SCS 1002: The Sociological Imagination
• SCS 1004: Social Divisions
• SCS 2003: Social Research Principles
• SCS 1010: Social Policy and Social Problems
• SCS 1012: Classical Social Theory
• SCS 1015: Doing Social Research
• SCS 2004: Social Research Skills

See our Undergraduate degree pages.

Publications

Contributed to a student support feature in: Bryman, A. (2012) Social Research Methods 4th Ed Oxford: Oxford University Press