Child Poverty - On the Rise, Time for Change

Now I know this is supposed to be an academic blog, but sometimes you've got to get political. Especially given the snap General Election for June 8th called by Theresa May earlier this month. 

So 2 years ago today, I wrote a Facebook status about child poverty because everyone on my Timeline was fawning over the royal baby (dunno which one, because frankly I'm an anti-monarchist and don't really care). 

Anyway, back then there were 3.7 MILLION children living in poverty in the UK.... that figure today has risen to 3.9 MILLION, possibly even more.

"Students have it easy, try getting a real job!" - 130 student suicides in one year says differently. Stop sidelining students' mental health.

So often students hear complaints like 'oh you students have easy lives, all you have to do is go to lectures and then write essays/take exams, try getting a real job'. Well, actually, our lives are difficult and, generally, we are at university to try to help ourselves get 'a real job' in the future (although it doesn't always turn out that way). This sidelining of students' mental health is really worrying. Saying that students 'have it easy'  just makes us feel as if our very real mental health issues are not legitimate.
The University of Bristol has reported 3 student deaths by means of suicide so far this Autumn Semester (between September and December). In 2014, 130 students (about the size of one of my first year lectures) in England and Wales committed suicide (97 of these were male, 33 female). This was a massive increase from 2007 when numbers were 75. Why have numbers almost doubled?

• Rising tuition fees. 
• Less financial support for students.
• Stigmatisation of students' mental health.
• More pressure on school leavers to go to university to obtain a degree despite fewer job prospects for graduates.
• The marketisation of our universities. 

Why We Still Need Feminism - Cat-calling and Street Harassment

 This post is going to be a little different to the others I aim to pen for this blog as it will discuss something which happened to me this week which made me both extremely upset and angry at society, and motivated to promote the need for feminism, even in 2016. 

My PhD Proposal: What and How?

As mentioned in my introductory piece, I was lucky enough to be awarded a fully-funded Masters and PhD by the Economic and Social Research Council's Welsh Doctoral Training Centre (DTC). This post will explain a little bit about the process of applying for the 1+3 award and will briefly outline my proposal.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to this new blog: A Sociologist's Paradise!

Introductions are seemingly always clunky and awkward so I guess that this one will be no different. Blogs have never been my speciality. I've had a few, all of which are currently lying untouched and abandoned. Hopefully this one, being created with a clear purpose, will be more successful.