![Katherine Quinn](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/3206?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Overview
I was appointed as a lecturer in social science in February 2022 having previously joined Cardiff in late 2020 as a post-doctoral research fellow in the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD).
Using ethnographic methods, my research and writing concerns knowledge classifications and space. 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 higher education.
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.
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, and for the 'idea of the university' in public life.
My second current research project concerns spaces of 'social learning' on university campuses. This one-year 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.
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.
Publication
2025
- Quinn, K., Cornish, B. and Orlek, J. 2025. Between co and solo writing: experimenting with constraint, composition, and community through writing 100s. Culture and Organization (10.1080/14759551.2025.2449924)
- Patel, H., Duggan, F. and Quinn, K. 2025. Social Learning @ University. Project Report. University Design Forum (UDF), Association of University Directors of Estate (AUDE), Willmott Dixon.
- Quinn, K. and Lewis, J. 2025. The lanyard. In: Woods, A. and Fitzgerald, D. eds. Constructing Sites: Surveying Scenes of Interdisciplinary Collaboration. London: Bloomsbury
2024
- Quinn, K. 2024. The bookshelf’s ‘magic circle’: An ethnographic study of classification and classificatory practices in library spaces. Poetics 103, article number: 101888. (10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101888)
- Quinn, K. and Lewis, J. 2024. Igniting the social sciences: A report to the central SPARK/Sbarc team and management board. Project Report. Cardiff: SPARK.
2023
- Quinn, K. 2023. Taking live methods slowly: inhabiting the social world through dwelling, doodling, and describing. Qualitative Research 23(1), pp. 3-20. (10.1177/14687941211012222)
2022
- Quinn, K. 2022. The university library as bellwether: examining the public role of Higher Education through listening to the library. Civic Sociology 3(1), article number: 32635. (10.1525/cs.2022.32635)
2021
- Quinn, K. 2021. Zoom time. Entanglements: Experiments in Multimodal Ethnography 4(2), pp. 19-20.
2020
- Quinn, K., Orlek, J. and Cornish, B. 2020. Writing alone together: making sense of lockdown through hundreds. [Online]. Sociological Review Publication. Available at: https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/writing-alone-together-making-sense-of-lockdown-through-hundreds/
2019
- Quinn, K. and Bates, J. 2019. Everyday activism: challenging neoliberalism for radical library workers in English higher education. In: Tett, L. and Hamilton, M. eds. Resisting Neoliberalism in Education: Local, National and Transnational Perspectives. Policy Press
- Quinn, K. 2019. [How] Can there be non-compliance in UK HE librarianship? Or, in defence of ‘’68, or something’: a post-conference reflection. Art Libraries Journal 44(Specia), pp. 58-60. (10.1017/alj.2019.4)
2018
- Quinn, K. 2018. Enabling or envisioning politics of possibility? Examining the radical potential of academic libraries. In: Landes, J. and Espley, R. eds. Radical Collections: Re-examining the roots of collections, practices and information professions. University of London Press, pp. 65-77., (10.14296/1218.9781913002015)
- Quinn, K. 2018. Slow listening and multivoices. In: Orlek, J. ed. Multivoices: a script by researchers. Spirit Duplicator
2017
- Quinn, K. and Bates, J. 2017. Resisting neoliberalism: the challenge of activist librarianship in English higher education. Journal of Documentation 73(2), pp. 317-335. (10.1108/JD-06-2016-0076)
Articles
- Quinn, K., Cornish, B. and Orlek, J. 2025. Between co and solo writing: experimenting with constraint, composition, and community through writing 100s. Culture and Organization (10.1080/14759551.2025.2449924)
- Quinn, K. 2024. The bookshelf’s ‘magic circle’: An ethnographic study of classification and classificatory practices in library spaces. Poetics 103, article number: 101888. (10.1016/j.poetic.2024.101888)
- Quinn, K. 2023. Taking live methods slowly: inhabiting the social world through dwelling, doodling, and describing. Qualitative Research 23(1), pp. 3-20. (10.1177/14687941211012222)
- Quinn, K. 2022. The university library as bellwether: examining the public role of Higher Education through listening to the library. Civic Sociology 3(1), article number: 32635. (10.1525/cs.2022.32635)
- Quinn, K. 2021. Zoom time. Entanglements: Experiments in Multimodal Ethnography 4(2), pp. 19-20.
- Quinn, K. 2019. [How] Can there be non-compliance in UK HE librarianship? Or, in defence of ‘’68, or something’: a post-conference reflection. Art Libraries Journal 44(Specia), pp. 58-60. (10.1017/alj.2019.4)
- Quinn, K. and Bates, J. 2017. Resisting neoliberalism: the challenge of activist librarianship in English higher education. Journal of Documentation 73(2), pp. 317-335. (10.1108/JD-06-2016-0076)
Book sections
- Quinn, K. and Lewis, J. 2025. The lanyard. In: Woods, A. and Fitzgerald, D. eds. Constructing Sites: Surveying Scenes of Interdisciplinary Collaboration. London: Bloomsbury
- Quinn, K. and Bates, J. 2019. Everyday activism: challenging neoliberalism for radical library workers in English higher education. In: Tett, L. and Hamilton, M. eds. Resisting Neoliberalism in Education: Local, National and Transnational Perspectives. Policy Press
- Quinn, K. 2018. Enabling or envisioning politics of possibility? Examining the radical potential of academic libraries. In: Landes, J. and Espley, R. eds. Radical Collections: Re-examining the roots of collections, practices and information professions. University of London Press, pp. 65-77., (10.14296/1218.9781913002015)
- Quinn, K. 2018. Slow listening and multivoices. In: Orlek, J. ed. Multivoices: a script by researchers. Spirit Duplicator
Monographs
- Patel, H., Duggan, F. and Quinn, K. 2025. Social Learning @ University. Project Report. University Design Forum (UDF), Association of University Directors of Estate (AUDE), Willmott Dixon.
- Quinn, K. and Lewis, J. 2024. Igniting the social sciences: A report to the central SPARK/Sbarc team and management board. Project Report. Cardiff: SPARK.
Websites
- Quinn, K., Orlek, J. and Cornish, B. 2020. Writing alone together: making sense of lockdown through hundreds. [Online]. Sociological Review Publication. Available at: https://www.thesociologicalreview.com/writing-alone-together-making-sense-of-lockdown-through-hundreds/
Teaching
For 2023/24 I co-convene and teach on the year two methods module ‘Social Research Methods’, and co-convene the masters module ‘Research Applications’. I also contribute to ‘Sociological Inquiries’ (y1), 'Ethnography and Everyday Life' (y2), 'Sociology on the move' (y3), 'Decolonising Social Science' (y2), and 'Social Science Research Methods' (Masters).
Biography
Academic background: My PhD was in Sociology, completed at the University of Warwick (2020, funded by the ESRC). Prior to that, I did an MA in Librarianship at the University of Sheffield, funded by the AHRC. My undergraduate degree was in history from University College London.
Academic appointments: I have previously held the positions of postdoctural research fellow at WISERD, Cardiff, and academic tutor at the University of Nottingham.
In between and sometimes alongside academic education and appointments I have worked as a librarian in research, school, HE, and FE settings.
Contact Details
Research themes
Specialisms
- creative methods
- ethnography
- Library studies