gjss.org

Melissa Fernandez is a final year PhD candidate at the Sociology Department (Cities Programme) LSE. Her research interests include the intersections of gendered, raced and classed representation of 'others' in cities, the relationship between public housing policies and gentrification, the social and political meaning of architecture, and gendered community activism. Melissa previously worked as editor of the book review section of the GJSS. She is currently co-editing the working series publication, 'Writing Cities' (LSE/MIT/Harvard Publication) and is a member of the NYLON cultural research group.

Gwendolyn Beetham is a PhD candidate at the Gender Institute at LSE, where her project seeks to unpack understandings of gender equality in contemporary international development discourse. Gwendolyn has been a special edition editor for The Scholar & Feminist Online, and a contributing author to the Gender and Poverty Handbook (Edward Elgar), The Women's Movement Today: An Encyclopedia of Third Wave Feminism (Greenwood Press), and the Gender & Development Journal (Oxfam).

Katherine Harrison has a BA in English and French from University of Wales, Swansea, and an MA in English from King?s College, University of London. Her MA dissertation was concerned with representations of new technologies in the work of Donna Haraway and Jeanette Winterson. She is currently undertaking PhD research at Department of Gender Studies, Linköping Universty. Her thesis explores the relationship between gender, discourse and technology, and its effects on the construction of the regulatory norms which govern bodies.

Caroline Wamala’s research looks at the user perspective and construction of the notions of access to and use of ICTs. Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as mobile phones and the computer are considered to empower and promote socio-economic self-sustainability for those with physical, social, intellectual and geographic access to them. Approaching the study from the user perspective, Caroline’s research offers social viewpoints to how access and use are negotiated in situated and complex circumstances in countries (in this study, Uganda) that have a predominantly weak infrastructure. Orienting from the Science, Technology and Society perspective, and gender and technology theories, her study challenges top-down approaches to social concepts such as access and use. Caroline is in the final stages of her PhD thesis: She is also the editorial secretary to the Nordic Journal for Masculinity Studies, and Junior Editor Member of the Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research.

Robert Kulpa researches queer theories (always in plural!), social movements, national, gender and sexual identities, socio-cultural conditioning of knowledge production, and Polish post-communist transformation. He is a Ph.D. candidate at London's Birkbeck College, Dept. of Psychosocial Studies. His thesis working title is: "The relationality between the "National" and the "Homosexual" in times of "transformation". Theoretical writings with the cases and examples from Poland". He is responsible for editing the website and is to be blamed (together with Mia Liinason) for the GJSS Queer Methodologies Issues (v5i2: Dec 2008, v6i1: Mar 2009).

Please visit his web site for further details: www.robertkulpa.com

Richard Bramwell is a PhD candidate in the Sociology department at the London School of Economics. He studied English (BA) and Contemporary Literature and Culture (MA) at Brunel University, with a focus on post-colonial studies, literary theory and rap music. His doctoral study, The Aesthetics and Ethics of London Based Rap, engages with the relationships between contemporary youth culture, the use of technology, and experiences of the urban environment. Prior to his scholarly pursuits, Richard was a senior developer in the Information Technology industry, this informs his approach to how technology is used to transform spaces for culturally specific purposes.

Lia Kinane is in the final stages of her PhD research at Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Lancaster University. Her thesis is concerned with group friendships and with the ways in which gendered processes operate through group practices and social markers. Her research interests include constructions of rural idylls, Irish nationality, rural femininities and neo-liberalism.