Convenors

Laura Harris
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Dr Laura Harris is an Anniversary Fellow at the University of Southampton. Her research looks at the overlap of visual sociology and creative art practices, specifically artists moving image, and she has collaborated with several galleries. She is book reviews editor at Cultural Sociology, and also works as an arts writer.

Jiayi Tian
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Jiayi Tian is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh. His interests cover the identities and careers of outsider and self-taught artists, globalised art production, the moral discourse of artists in modern China, and contemporary Chinese art. His PhD project focuses on the commercial painters’ exploration of an artist self in post-socialist China.

Linzhi Zhang
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Dr Linzhi Zhang is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Her research examines the work conditions of contemporary Chinese artists and their critique of capitalist labour against the backdrop of a prevailing productivist ideology.

Steering Group

  • Dr Lisa McCormick is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Edinburgh, and a conservatory-trained cellist. Her 2015 book, Performing Civility, was the first study to analyse the social aspects of international classical music competitions. She has recently edited the collection The Cultural Sociology of Art and Music: New Directions and New Discoveries for Palgrave, which presents new research agendas and theoretical developments in the field.
  • Dr Maria Rovisco is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Leeds. She is interested in cultural sociology and cosmopolitanism, specifically the role of the arts in civil society and the work of migrant and refugee artists. Her recent work has looked at 'Artivism for Environmental Justice'.
  • Prof Victoria Alexander is Professor of Sociology and Arts Management at Goldsmiths, University of London. Alexander is a leading voice in the sociology of art, having researched and published widely on topics including the funding of art museums, cultural policy in comparative perspective, and visual culture.