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Welcome to

School of Sociology and Criminology

 

Sociology

Dr Siobhan Holohan

Title: Lecturer in Sociology and Media Communications
Phone: (+44) 01782 7 34230
Email:
Location: CBC0.025
Role: Undergraduate Programme Director Sociology, Coordinator Staff Student Liaison Committee
Contacting me: During Office Hours, posted on my door, or via email appointment.
Holohan Siobhan 2011

After a number of years working in various private sector jobs, I enrolled for a BA (Hons) in Sociology and Cultural Studies at Staffordshire University, where I graduated with a First in 1997. I stayed on to do an MA in Social and Cultural Theory after which I gained a scholarship to undertake my PhD there. I completed my thesis on the media representation of law and order discourses in 2002.

Prior to my appointment at Keele in 2004, I held lectureships at Loughborough University and Staffordshire University and have spent time in Canada and Japan.

My research lies broadly in the area of media representation and discourses of social exclusion, and focuses specifically on theories of identity, multiculturalism and confession. My first book, The Search for Justice in a Media Age, 2005, examined two high profile cases: the US trial of British au pair Louise Woodward and the murder of Stephen Lawrence, in order to reveal how the organization of public discourse around a sacrificial figure intensifies patterns of social inclusion / exclusion. 

Further to this I have published peer reviewed articles and book chapters on the ever-shifting concept of British multiculturalism in the wake of the Macpherson inquiry report into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Following on from my previous work, my current book project entitled The Culture of Confession, aims to historically trace the confession in religious, legal, therapeutic and public discourse in order to show how it remains central to the formation of knowledge and power relations over time and space. Part of this work reveals how the contemporary media have become central to confessional practices through popular reality formats.

I am a member of the Research Institute for Law, Politics and Justice, and of the centres for Criminological Research, and Social, Cultural and Postcolonial Research.

Selected Publications

  • Holohan S and Poole E. 2011. Three Phases of Representation 1994-2008: The Reporting of British Islam. In Islam in Its International Context. Hutchings S, Flood C, Miazhevich G, Nickels H (Eds.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Holohan S, Featherstone MA, Poole E. 2010. Discourses of the War on Terror: Constructions of the Islamic Other in the Wake of 7/7. The International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, vol. 6(2), 169-186. doi> link>
  • HOLOHAN S. 2006. New Labour, Multiculturalism and the British Media. In Muslims and the News Media. Poole E and Richardson JE (Eds.). I B Tauris & Co Ltd.
  • HOLOHAN S. 2005. The Search for Justice in a Media Age: Reading Stephen Lawrence and Louise Woodward. Ashgate.
  • HOLOHAN S and Featherstone M. 2003. Multiculturalism, Institutional Law, and Imaginary Justice. Law and Critique, vol. 14(1), 1-27. doi>

Full Publications List show

Books

  • HOLOHAN S. 2005. The Search for Justice in a Media Age: Reading Stephen Lawrence and Louise Woodward. Ashgate.

Journal Articles

  • Holohan S, Featherstone MA, Poole E. 2010. Discourses of the War on Terror: Constructions of the Islamic Other in the Wake of 7/7. The International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, vol. 6(2), 169-186. doi> link>
  • Holohan S. 2008. Guys and Guns Amok: Domestic Terrorism and School Shootings from the Oklahoma City Bombing to the Virginia Tech Massacre, by Douglas Kellner. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, vol. 4(3), 431-433. doi> link>
  • Holohan S. 2005. The racist murder of Stephen Lawrence: Media performance and public transformation, by Simon Cottle. SOCIOL REV, vol. 53(3), 576-579. doi>
  • HOLOHAN S and Featherstone M. 2003. Multiculturalism, Institutional Law, and Imaginary Justice. Law and Critique, vol. 14(1), 1-27. doi>
  • Holohan S and Poole E. 2002. Race, Representation and Power: The Experience of British Muslims. Inter/Sections: The Journal of Communications and Culture, vol. 2(3/4), 79-88.
  • Holohan S. 2001. Race, media and the crisis of civil society: From Watts to Rodney King, by Ronald N. Jacobs. SOCIOLOGY, vol. 35(3), 793-794. doi>
  • Holohan S. '"We're a Very Normal Family": Representing the Mundane in Channel 4's The Family'. Media, Culture and Society.

Chapters

  • Holohan S. 2011. Assimilation. In Encyclopedia of Global Studies. Juergensmeyer M, Anheier H, Faessel V (Eds.). Sage.
  • Holohan S and Poole E. 2011. Three Phases of Representation 1994-2008: The Reporting of British Islam. In Islam in Its International Context. Hutchings S, Flood C, Miazhevich G, Nickels H (Eds.). Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • HOLOHAN S. 2006. New Labour, Multiculturalism and the British Media. In Muslims and the News Media. Poole E and Richardson JE (Eds.). I B Tauris & Co Ltd.
  • Holohan S. 2000. Judith Butler; Luce Irigaray; Donna Haraway; Frantz Fanon; Post-colonial Theory; Internet. In Collins Dictionary Sociology. Jary D and Jary J (Eds.). (Third ed.).

I teach across the Sociology and Media, Communications and Culture programmes, including:

  • SOC-20034 Crime, Morality and the Media
  • SOC-30011 The Information Society

I would be happy to supervise PhD students on areas related to any of my fields of research.