Carol Taylor

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

Taylor, C.A., & Huckle, J. (2024). The AcademicAssessmentMachine: Posthuman Possibilities of/for Doing Assignments and Assessments Differently. Qualitative Inquiry, 30 (8-9), 724-733. http://doi.org/10.1177/10778004231196186

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., 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

Taylor, C.A., Hogarth, H., & Cranham, J. (n.d.). Telling it slant with side curved head and curiosity: posthumanist/feminist materialist creative activations in university spaces. Gender and Education, 1-30. http://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2024.2350512

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.

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