Em Temple-Malt
PhD Student
Email: emmajane.temple-malt@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk
Background
- Undergraduate degree BSc Hons Sociology, Bath Spa University 2009
- Mres Sociology, University of Bath 2010
It was whilst completeing a BSc in Sociology at Bath Spa University (2006-2009) that I discovered another world beyond the confines of heterosexuality. Areas of academic interest during this time have been transitions in identity: teenager to lesbian step-parent, the strategies involved in the division of housework in same-sex couple's households and the different discourses used to represent same-sex relationships. Whilst public representations of same-sex relationships ebb and flow, people have lives before, during and after such policy and legislative interventions. I've been intrigued by the stories that people might share about their everyday lives and the ways in which people and couples negotiate, manage and resist such legislative interventions. A pilot project was conducted during an Mres in Sociology at the University of Bath (2009-2010) that sought to explore the impact of civil partnerships for the everyday lives of those who had one.
This project formed the basis of my PhD project After the Act: Narratives of Display and the Significance of Civil Partnership.
The PhD project that I am conducting at the University of Manchester (2010-2013) explores the narratives that individuals and couples aged 35-60 share about the significance of civil partnerships for their personal relationships with family and friends, and whether the availability of civil partnership alters the kinds of relational displays that individuals and couples feel they can engage in, in different situations and for different audiences.
Supervisors
Professor Brian Heaphy & Dr Vanessa May
Research interests
- Sociology of personal life, relationships, families, intimacies and life course.
- Legal recognition & civil partnership
- Legislation, policy & representations of same-sex families
- Relational displays & audience interactions
- Sociological Theories & histories of family formation & relationships
- Qualitative research; creative interviewing techniques; narrative/biographical interviews; use of photo elicitation; critical discourse analysis
Graduate Teaching Assistant (2009 - current)
- Undergraduate Psychology- ‘Introduction to Psychology’ and ‘Themes in Developmental Psychology’, ‘Psychology Research Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative’
- Undergraduate Sociology- Gender, Sexuality and Culture’, ‘Sociology of Personal Life’, ‘Modernity-Post-modernity I’ & ‘Modernity -Post-Modernity II’
- Widening Participation Award holder 2011 -2012 – Developing workshops & Activities for Secondary School pupils (Yrs 8-11) and College Students (Yr12) that will enrich pupils academic experiences and illustrate what studying at University is like
Publications & Papers
Publications
Brown, A., & Temple-Malt, E., (2011). Research Review: A Feminist Critique of Outdated Constructions of Gender, a Response to Zucker et al. (1999): Psychology of Women Section Review. 13. 1
Papers
Paper to be delivered at the BSA conference April (2012) ‘Narratives from Life in a Civil Partnership: private negotiations and public expectations’
Morgan Centre PGR day (2011) ‘Civil partnership, Display & Interactions from familiar & imagined audiences’
Paper delivered at the PECANS Legal Transformations conference (April 2011)
The Pretended/Authentic* (Lesbian & Gay) ‘Family’ Relationship
*Please delete as appropriate
The Transition of Representations of Lesbian and Gay Family Relationships from Pretend to Authentic in Parliamentary Debates for the Introduction and Repeal of Section 28