![Kate Marston](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/5216?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Overview
I am a Lecturer in Education with a particular interest in young people's gender and sexual cultures, digital relationships and creative, visual and arts-based methods. My teaching and research is driven by a passion for creating social change for gender and sexual justice within and through education.
My PhD research (awarded 2020) explored how social media, smart devices and gaming platforms shape young people’s gender and sexual cultures. Drawing on feminist posthuman and new materialist theories, my thesis illustrated the enduring force of heteronormative and phallogocentric power in young people’s digitally networked peer cultures as well as illuminated how gender and sexuality is reconfigured online.
I also have a growing interest in queer ecology and ecopedagogies and facilitating lively interdisciplinary conversations between sexual and environmental politics. My ESRC funded Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021 - 22), enabled me to pilot a new research project with the National Museum of Wales, creatively engaging with their fungi collections and local fungal ecology as stimuli for exploring changing understandings of gender and sexuality with young people.
My work also explores how creative, visual and arts-based methodologies can unlock a range of embodied, material, spatial and affective experiences with gender and sexuality.
Publication
2024
- Marston, K. 2024. The future is fungal? Unboxing gender and sexuality in the "lower plants" collections. In: Gannon, S., Pasley, A. and Osgood, J. eds. Gender Un/Bound. Routledge
- Marston, K. 2024. Future girl? Exploring girls’ digital sexual cultures through speculative fabrications. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning (10.1080/14681811.2024.2429304)
- Marston, K. 2024. Young people's digitally-networked bodies: the changing possibilities of what a gendered body can be, do and become online. Journal of Gender Studies 33(5), pp. 497-511. (10.1080/09589236.2023.2172555)
- Marston, K. 2024. #Relationshipgoals: fantasies of the good life in young people's digitally-networked peer cultures. Journal of Youth Studies 27(2), pp. 303-321. (10.1080/13676261.2022.2124106)
- Marston, K. 2024. Unboxing gender in the fungi collections at the National Museum Wales. [Online]. British Educational Research Association. Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/unboxing-gender-in-the-fungi-collections-at-the-national-museum-wales
2023
- Marston, K. 2023. Digital relationships, creative methods. In: Allen, L. and Rasmussen, M. L. eds. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, (10.1007/978-3-030-95352-2_98-1)
- Marston, K. 2023. What a mushroom lives for by Michael J. Hathaway [Book Review]. The Sociological Review Magazine (10.51428/tsr.nzjc9813)
2022
- Marston, K. 2022. Exploring the endurance of phallogocentric power relations in young people's digital sexual cultures. In: Hoskins, K., Genova, C. and Crowe, N. eds. Digital Youth Subcultures: Performing 'Transgressive' Identities in Digital Social Spaces. Routledge, pp. 118-139.
- Marston, K. 2022. Fabricating future bodies: making digital sexualities research matter. Qualitative Research Journal 22(1), pp. 67-80. (10.1108/QRJ-01-2021-0014)
2021
- Kerpen, S. and Marston, K. 2021. Heteronormativity. In: Delamont, S. et al. eds. SAGE Research Methods Foundations. SAGE
2020
- Marston, K. 2020. Exploring young people's digital sexual cultures through creative, visual and arts-based methods. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
- Marston, K. 2020. Visual and affective analysis of social media. In: Pauwels, L. and Mannay, D. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods. SAGE, pp. 604-613., (10.4135/9781526417015.n38)
- Renold, E. and Marston, K. 2020. Research to reflect on: The power of creative methods for talking about sensitive issues with young people. Documentation. National Education Union.
2019
- Marston, K. 2019. Researching LGBT+ Youth Intimacies and Social Media: The Strengths and Limitations of Participant-Led Visual Methods. Qualitative Inquiry 25(3), pp. 278-288. (10.1177/1077800418806598)
2015
- Marston, K. 2015. Beyond bullying: the limitations of homophobic and transphobic bullying interventions for affirming lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) equality in education. Pastoral Care in Education 33(3), pp. 161-168. (10.1080/02643944.2015.1074266)
Articles
- Marston, K. 2024. Future girl? Exploring girls’ digital sexual cultures through speculative fabrications. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning (10.1080/14681811.2024.2429304)
- Marston, K. 2024. Young people's digitally-networked bodies: the changing possibilities of what a gendered body can be, do and become online. Journal of Gender Studies 33(5), pp. 497-511. (10.1080/09589236.2023.2172555)
- Marston, K. 2024. #Relationshipgoals: fantasies of the good life in young people's digitally-networked peer cultures. Journal of Youth Studies 27(2), pp. 303-321. (10.1080/13676261.2022.2124106)
- Marston, K. 2023. What a mushroom lives for by Michael J. Hathaway [Book Review]. The Sociological Review Magazine (10.51428/tsr.nzjc9813)
- Marston, K. 2022. Fabricating future bodies: making digital sexualities research matter. Qualitative Research Journal 22(1), pp. 67-80. (10.1108/QRJ-01-2021-0014)
- Marston, K. 2019. Researching LGBT+ Youth Intimacies and Social Media: The Strengths and Limitations of Participant-Led Visual Methods. Qualitative Inquiry 25(3), pp. 278-288. (10.1177/1077800418806598)
- Marston, K. 2015. Beyond bullying: the limitations of homophobic and transphobic bullying interventions for affirming lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) equality in education. Pastoral Care in Education 33(3), pp. 161-168. (10.1080/02643944.2015.1074266)
Book sections
- Marston, K. 2024. The future is fungal? Unboxing gender and sexuality in the "lower plants" collections. In: Gannon, S., Pasley, A. and Osgood, J. eds. Gender Un/Bound. Routledge
- Marston, K. 2023. Digital relationships, creative methods. In: Allen, L. and Rasmussen, M. L. eds. The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, (10.1007/978-3-030-95352-2_98-1)
- Marston, K. 2022. Exploring the endurance of phallogocentric power relations in young people's digital sexual cultures. In: Hoskins, K., Genova, C. and Crowe, N. eds. Digital Youth Subcultures: Performing 'Transgressive' Identities in Digital Social Spaces. Routledge, pp. 118-139.
- Kerpen, S. and Marston, K. 2021. Heteronormativity. In: Delamont, S. et al. eds. SAGE Research Methods Foundations. SAGE
- Marston, K. 2020. Visual and affective analysis of social media. In: Pauwels, L. and Mannay, D. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods. SAGE, pp. 604-613., (10.4135/9781526417015.n38)
Monographs
- Renold, E. and Marston, K. 2020. Research to reflect on: The power of creative methods for talking about sensitive issues with young people. Documentation. National Education Union.
Thesis
- Marston, K. 2020. Exploring young people's digital sexual cultures through creative, visual and arts-based methods. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
Websites
- Marston, K. 2024. Unboxing gender in the fungi collections at the National Museum Wales. [Online]. British Educational Research Association. Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/unboxing-gender-in-the-fungi-collections-at-the-national-museum-wales
Research
Professional memberships
I am co-convenor of the British Educational Research Association's Gender and Sexualities SIG.
External funding
2023 - 2024 - GW4 Building Communities Grant - Queer Frontiers Network - Co-Investigator [with Dr Rosie Nelson, Dr Peter Dunne, Dr Fran Amery and Dr Sarah Cooper]
2022 - 2023 - British Academy ECRN Seed Fund - The Future is Fungal? - Principal Investigator
2021 - 2022 - ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship - Re-imagining digital sexualities research and practice - Principal Investigator
2016 - 2020 - Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded PhD - Exploring young people's digital sexual cultures through creative, visual and arts-based methods - Doctoral Researcher
Teaching
I am part of the Education teaching team. I convene the 2nd year undergraduate module Children and Childhood. I also teach on the modules Sociology of Education, Introduction to Education, CRUSH, Gender Relations and Society and Environment and Human Health.
Biography
My undergraduate degree was in English Literature from Sheffield University. In 2011, I completed an MA in Working with Communities: Identities, Regeneration and Change at the School of Education, Sheffield University.
In practice, I worked in the youth community arts sector and volunteered for Stonewall as a youth mentor (2009 - 2011) before relocating to Bristol to work with young people on projects challenging homophobic, biphobic and transphobic bullying in schools (2011 - 2016). I continued to draw upon this experience during my doctoral studies, specifically through working on AGENDA, a youth activist resource on gender and sexual violence (2016 - 2020).
Contact Details
+44 29225 10079
Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3WA