Professor Carol Taylor BA (Hons), MA, MA, MSc, DPhil, FHEA
Professor of Gender and Higher Education
Summary
Carol Taylor is Professor of Gender and Higher Education in the Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University, and co-editor of the journal Gender and Education.
Her research utilizes feminist, neo-materialist, and posthumanist theories and frameworks to explore gendered inequalities, spatial practices, and students’ participation in a range of higher education sites. She has a keen interest in using interdisciplinary methodological innovation to further gendered social justice in education.
About
Carol is a higher education research specialist. Her current research interests include
•Gender
•Space, place and materiality
•Student engagement policy, practice and ethics
•Feminist approaches to education
•Posthumanist research practices
•Creative, collaborative and participatory research practices
•Deleuze’s philosophy
Qualifications
BA (Hons) English (Sociology subsidiary) (University of Leeds)
Diploma in Educational Management (Open University)
MA in Film Studies (University of Westminster)
MA in Popular Culture (Open University)
DPhil (University of Sussex)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
My doctoral thesis was a case study of students' learning, knowledge and gendered identity practices. I have worked in higher education since 1989 at a number of different universities. I joined Sheffield Hallam University in 2008 as Senior Lecturer and worked as Course Leader for the BA (Hons) in Education Studies and Sociology and, after that, the Course Leader for the BA (Hons) in Education Studies. I am currently a Reader in Higher Education in The Sheffield Institute of Education, a role which involves research leadership, staff mentoring and research writing development. I convene the Higher Education Research Group.
Teaching
Department of Education, Childhood and Inclusion
College of Social Sciences and Arts
I teach an elective Experiencing Space Embodying Education on the BA (Hons) Education Studies degree.
I teach on research methodologies and methods on the professional doctoral in education.
I supervise PhD and EdD students.
Research
April 2016–April 2017. The little tactics of the habitat: Developing posthumanist methodologies to research how new educational spaces are claimed and made liveable. (Principal Investigator). £10k.
April–December 2013. Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition on the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape (Principal investigator with Dr Colin McCaig) Higher Education Academy. British Academy/ Leverhulme. £22k.
2012–13. Borrowed Spaces: A Multisensory Exploration of Workplace Territories (with Dr Anne Kellock). Small Grants Project. £5k.
2012–13. Students Decision-Making Practices following University Recruitment Events (with Jean Harris-Evans)
Publications
Journal articles
Gravett, K., Taylor, C.A., & Fairchild, N. (2024). Pedagogies of mattering: re-conceptualising relational pedagogies in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 29 (2), 388-403. http://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.1989580
Taylor, C.A., & Benozzo, A. (2023). Im/Probabilities of Post/Authorship and Academic Writing Otherwise in Postfoundational Inquiry. Qualitative Inquiry, 29 (8-9), 914-921. http://doi.org/10.1177/10778004221144638
Fairchild, N., Taylor, C.A., Carey, N., Koro, M., Benozzo, A., Hannes, K., ... Taylor, A.J. (2023). Tags, tagging, tagged, # - undisciplining organ-ization of [academic] bodies. Culture and Organization. http://doi.org/10.1080/14759551.2023.2193406
Taylor, C.A., Hogarth, H., Cranham, J., Hewlett, S.-.J., Bastos, E., Barratt Hacking, E., & Barr, K. (2023). Concept-ing with the gift: Walking method/ologies in posthumanist research. Journal of Posthumanism, 3 (1), 13-31. http://doi.org/10.33182/joph.v3i1.2715
Gannon, S., & Taylor, C.A. (2021). Academic temporalities: apprehending micro-worlds of academic work through a photo-serial methodology. Higher Education Research & Development, 40 (6), 1161-1175. http://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1809998
Taylor, C.A. (2021). Flipping Methodology: Or, Errancy in the Meanwhile and the Need to Remove Doors. Qualitative Inquiry, 27 (2), 235-238. http://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420943513
Taylor, C.A., & Fairchild, N. (2020). Towards a posthumanist institutional ethnography: viscous matterings and gendered bodies. Ethnography and Education, 15 (4), 509-527. http://doi.org/10.1080/17457823.2020.1735469
Taylor, C.A. (2020). Slow singularities for collective mattering: new material feminist praxis in the accelerated academy. Irish Educational Studies, 39 (2), 255-272. http://doi.org/10.1080/03323315.2020.1734045
Taylor, C.A., & Ulmer, J.B. (2020). Posthuman Methodologies for Post-Industrial Cities: A Situated, Speculative, and Somatechnic Venture. Somatechnics, 10 (1), 7-34. http://doi.org/10.3366/soma.2020.0298
Taylor, C., & Adams, G. (2019). Reconceptualizing doctoral students’ journeyings: Possibilities for profound happiness? International Journal of Educational Research. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.04.003
Gannon, S., Taylor, C., Adams, G., Donaghue, H., Hannan-Swain, S., Harris-Evans, J., ... Moore, P. (2019). ‘Working on a rocky shore’: Micro-moments of positive affect in academic work. Emotion, space and society. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2019.04.002
Benozzo, A., Carey, N., Cozza, M., Elmenhorst, C., Farichild, N., Koro-Ljungberg, M., & Taylor, C. (2019). Disturbing the AcademicConferenceMachine: Post-qualitative re-turnings. Gender, work and organisation, 26 (2), 87-106. http://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12260
Taylor, C., & Harris-Evans, J. (2018). Reconceptualising transition to Higher Education with Deleuze and Guattari. Studies in Higher Education, 43 (7), 1254-1267. http://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2016.1242567
Taylor, C.A. (2018). Edu-crafting posthumanist adventures in/for higher education: A speculative musing. Parallax, 24 (3), 371-381. http://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2018.1496585
Taylor, C. (2018). Feminist/ Spin-ster/ Amazon: Mary Daly. Qualitative Inquiry. http://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418767202
Taylor, C., Fairchild, N., Koro-Ljungberg, M., Carey, N., Benozzo, A., & Elmenhorst, C. (2018). Improvising bags choreographies: Disturbing normative ways of doing research. Qualitative Inquiry. http://doi.org/10.1177/1077800418767210
Taylor, C. (2018). What can bodies do? En/gendering body-space choreographies of stillness, movement and flow in post-16 pedagogic encounters. International Journal of Educational Research, 88, 156-165. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2018.02.001
Taylor, C., & Gannon, S. (2018). Doing time and motion diffractively: Academic life everywhere and all the time. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 31 (6), 465-486. http://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2017.1422286
Taylor, C., & Bovill, C. (2018). Towards an ecology of participation: Process philosophy and co-creation of higher education curricula. European Educational Research Journal, 17 (1), 112-128. http://doi.org/10.1177/1474904117704102
Taylor, C. (2017). Ethically important moments in the higher education space of appearance: Renewing educative praxis with Arendt. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 49 (3), 231-241. http://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2016.1214807
Handforth, R., & Taylor, C. (2016). Doing academic writing differently: a feminist bricolage. Gender and Education, 28 (5), 627-643. http://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2015.1115470
Taylor, C. (2016). Rethinking the empirical in higher education: post-qualitative inquiry as a less comfortable social science. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 40 (3), 311-324. http://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2016.1256984
Taylor, C. (2016). Close encounters of a critical kind: a diffractive musing in/between new material feminism and object-oriented ontology. Cultural Studies - Critical Methodologies, 16 (2), 201-212. http://doi.org/10.1177/1532708616636145
Taylor, C. (2016). Is a posthumanist bildung possible? Reclaiming the promise of bildung for contemporary higher education. Higher Education, 74 (3), 419-435. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-016-9994-y
Nahmad-Williams, L., & Taylor, C. (2015). Experimenting with dialogic mentoring: a new model. International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 4 (3), 184-199. http://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-04-2015-0013
McCaig, C., & Taylor, C.A. (2015). The strange death of number controls in England : paradoxical adventures in higher education market making. Studies in Higher Education, 42 (9), 1641-1654. http://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2015.1113952
Taylor, C. (2014). Telling transitions: space, materiality, and ethical practices in a collaborative writing workshop. Cultural Studies, 14 (4), 396-406. http://doi.org/10.1177/1532708614530312
Taylor, C. (2012). Student engagement, practice architectures and phronesis in the student transitions and experiences project. Journal of applied research in higher education, 4 (2), 109-125. http://doi.org/10.1108/17581181211273066
Taylor, C.A. (2011). ‘Hope in failure’: A Level students, discursive agency, post-feminism and feminism. Gender and Education, 23 (7), 825-841. http://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2010.538013
Taylor, C., & Dunne, M. (2011). Virtualization and new geographies of knowledge in higher education : possibilities for the transformation of knowledge, pedagogic relations and learner identities. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 32 (4), 623-641. http://doi.org/10.1080/01425692.2011.578441
Taylor, C., Downs, Y., Baker, R., & Chikwa, G. (2011). ‘I did it my way’: voice, visuality and identity in doctoral students' reflexive videonarratives on their doctoral research journeys. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 34 (2), 193-210. http://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2011.578818
Taylor, C. (2011). More than meets the eye: the use of videonarratives to facilitate doctoral students’ reflexivity on their doctoral journeys. Studies in Higher Education, 36 (4), 441-458. http://doi.org/10.1080/03075071003714115
Taylor, C.A. (2009). Student voice : theorising power and participation. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 17 (2), 161-175. http://doi.org/10.1080/14681360902934392
Robinson, C., & Taylor, C. (2007). Theorizing student voice : values and perspectives. Improving Schools, 10 (1), 5-17. http://doi.org/10.1177/1365480207073702
Taylor, C., Cranham, J., Hewlett, S., & Hogarth, H. (n.d.). Towards a More Capacious, Kindly and Caring Criticality: A Post-Critical Manifesto for Ethical-Relational-Creative Reviewing. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 11 (SI). http://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11isi.640
Taylor, C.A., & Huckle, J. (n.d.). The AcademicAssessmentMachine: Posthuman Possibilities of/for Doing Assignments and Assessments Differently. Qualitative Inquiry. http://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231196186
Taylor, C.A., Pihkala, S., Cranham, J., & Hogarth, H. (n.d.). Doors: Object Lessons in Un/hinging University Spaces. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies, 1-20. http://doi.org/10.1080/10714413.2023.2299517
Conference papers
McCaig, C., & Taylor, C. (2013). Evaluating the impact of student number controls, choice and competition on the changing HE landscape. In Society for Research into Higher Education Annusl Conference, Celtic Manor, Newport, South Wales, 2013 - 2013.
Book chapters
Taylor, C., Harris-Evans, J., Garner, I., Fitzgerald, D., & Madriaga, M. (2018). Measurement imperatives and their impact: Academic staff narratives on riding the metric tide. In Equality and differentiation in marketised higher education: A new level playing field?. (pp. 171-194). Palgrave Macmillan: http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78313-0
Taylor, C., & Stevenson, J. (2017). Leadership of academic writing development in England: narratives of problems, pragmatism and possibility. In Su, F., & Wood, M. (Eds.) Cosmopolitan perspectives on academic leadership in higher education. (pp. 91-106). London: Bloomsbury: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/cosmopolitan-perspectives-on-academic-leadership-in-higher-education-9781474223034/
Taylor, C., & Hughes, C. (2016). Introduction. In Taylor, C., & Hughes, C. (Eds.) Posthuman research practices in education. (pp. 1-4). Palgrave Macmillan: http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453082_1
Taylor, C.A. (2016). Edu-crafting a cacophonous ecology: Posthumanist research practices for education. In Posthuman Research Practices in Education. (pp. 5-24). http://doi.org/10.1057/9781137453082_ch02
Taylor, C.A., & Robinson, C. (2014). ‘What matters in the end is to act well’: student engagement and ethics. In Bryson, C. (Ed.) Understanding and developing student engagement. (pp. 161-175). Abingdon: Routledge
Taylor, C. (n.d.). For Hermann: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Or, What my dog has taught me about a post-personal academic life. In Producing pleasure within the contemporary university. Sense
Books
Taylor, C., & Hughes, C. (Eds.). (2016). Posthuman research practices in education. Palgrave Macmillan. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137453082
Reports
Taylor, C., & McCaig, C. (2014). Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition : an analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape. York: Higher Education Academy. https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/sites/default/files/resources/Impact%20of%20number%20controls%20choice%20and%20competition.pdf
McCaig, C., & Taylor, C. (2014). Evaluating the impact of number controls, choice and competition : an analysis of the student profile and the student learning environment in the new higher education landscape. Colin McCaig.
Theses / Dissertations
Handforth, R. (2018). Exploring the career aspirations of women doctoral students: a longitudinal qualitative study. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Taylor, C. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00092
Wain, H. (2018). Physics and feminism: a personal reflection on one physicsteacher’s doctoral journey. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Taylor, C. http://doi.org/10.7190/shu-thesis-00104
Healey, J. (2015). Exploring the emotional landscapes of placement learning in occupational therapy education. (Doctoral thesis). Supervised by Taylor, C.
Other activities
Editor of Gender and Education 2016 - 2020.
Membership Officer and member of Executive for Gender and Education Association.
Link Convenor of Network 27 Didactics, learning and Teaching for European Conference on Educational Research/ European Educational Research Association.
Member of the RAISE network.
Media
Carol is a sociologist of higher education. Her research areas include gender identities, feminism in practice and theory, higher education, and student engagement. Carol is Editor of Gender and Education, and a Membership Officer for the Gender and Education Association.