Dr Katherine Quinn

Overview

Using creative and ethnographic methods, my research concerns knowledge classifications and space, work and time, education and materialities. I am particularly interested in how classifications in 'places of learning' (like libraries and university spaces/campuses) are enacted and negotiated through everyday practices, built pedagogies, and institutional discourses, and in what these practices reveal about the state and status of education in public life.

I am currently involved in two research projects which build on and extend these themes. The first is an ethnographic study of the new Social Science Research Park (Sbarc | SPARK) at Cardiff University. Along with Dr Jamie Lewis and Dr Rachel Hurdley, we address the question, 'What is a Social Science Research Park?' using mobile interviews, observations and rhythmanalysis. We are interested in the material and conceptual implications of SPARK for the future(s) of social science, for the 'idea of the university' in public life, and for what it can tell us about contemporary academic labour.

My second current research project concerns spaces of 'social learning' on university campuses. This project is funded by the University Design Forum, led by Dr Hiral Patel at the Wales School of Architecture, and also involves industry expert Fiona Duggen. We follow a 'patchwork ethnography' approach to provide industry-relevant insight into what kinds of social learning spaces are valued by students (libraries, cafes, corridor spaces, common rooms, etc), and what they contribute to student experience and outcomes. The project combines insight from previously undertaken multi-site campus ethnographies (mine at The Hive, Hiral's at University of Reading) with creative and collaboratively produced data from Cardiff University, drawing on the Student Champions scheme.

Prior to this, my PhD research (awarded in 2020 by the University of Warwick) examined a public-academic integrated library in central England, called The Hive, and explored how ideas of ‘academic’ and ‘public’ knowledge, goods, and space are developed, (re)classified, and negotiated through live practice.

My other key and related interest is in qualitative methodology. I enjoy writing, teaching and researching creative ethnographic methods including the use of drawing and creative writing.

I am on the editorial board of the journal Qualitative Research. In addition to QR, I and have peer reviewed for Poetics, The American Journal of Sociology, and Culture and Organization.