Dr Kevin McSorley

Senior Lecturer In Sociology

kevin.mcsorley@open.ac.uk

Biography

Professional biography

I joined the OU as Senior Lecturer in Sociology in October 2020, having previously taught at the Universities of Surrey and Portsmouth. My expertise includes social theory; violence, war and militarism; the body and the senses; technology and new media.

Research interests

My research explores transformations in violence, warfare and militarism particularly through the lens of the body and sensory experience. It develops an analysis of war as a wide-ranging social institution and politics of experience, focusing upon the myriad embodied, sensory and affective practices and regimes through which it lives and breeds.

My research projects War and the Body and Sensing War have produced agenda-setting events, networks and publications. My work has explored the lived experiences of war and the afterlives of conflict, militarism and physical culture, the militarisation of sensation, drone warfare and torture, digital war archives. My work also explores the significance of violence, warfare and militarism for the shaping of wider social and political life.

PhD supervision

I am happy to supervise PhD projects and welcome inquiries from students working on any of the above areas of research interest.

Teaching interests

I oversee the Level 3 Sociology module Social Theory: Changing Social Worlds (DD318).

I have also worked on production of the interdisciplinary Level 1 module Global Challenges: Social Science in Action (D113), and presentation of the Level 3 Sociology module Making Social Worlds (DD308).