Where are we now? A sociological take on the past year

As 2026 reaches its midpoint, how can we make sense of recent developments? In this informal and intimate lunchtime conversation, we cast a sociological lens on some of the news and themes of the past six months. Chaired by Miranda Iossifidis, the panel will feature Carolyn Pedwell, Sinisa Malešević and Mariam Motamedi-Fraser as they together take stock of sociological themes behind the headlines.  Our panelists will reflect on topics including intervention and accountability, artificial intelligence, empathy and more.

Join us for this live online event, uniting the sociological community in the Sociological Review Foundation’s commitment to providing reflection and critique for understanding the world and paving the way for action towards a more socially just future.

About our speakers

Miranda Iossifidis is Lecturer in Sociology at Newcastle University. Her research explores how environmental and reproductive futures are mobilised in the present, drawing on feminist approaches and creative methods. She has a background in urban studies and audio/visual practice, and her current research focuses on reactionary reproductive and environmental politics, histories of resistance to populationism, and speculative climate justice futures. Her work also explores how creative participatory methods and speculative fiction can be used to imagine and negotiate more just social and environmental futures.

Carolyn Pedwell is Professor of Digital Media at Lancaster University. Her interdisciplinary research explores digital media, artificial intelligence, affect and social change, drawing on feminist, postcolonial and critical social theory. She examines the cultural and political dimensions of empathy, habits and everyday life, and how technological transformations reshape contemporary society. She is the author of several influential books, including Affective Relations and Revolutionary Routines, and her current research focuses on artificial intelligence, digital media and social change.

Siniša Malešević is Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin. His research focuses on nationalism, war, violence, ideology and social theory, with particular interests in the historical development of states, nations and organised power. Drawing on historical sociology, his work examines the social and political processes that shape collective identities, conflict and large-scale social change. He is the author of numerous books, including Grounded Nationalisms, Why Humans Fight and The Rise of Organised Brutality.

Mariam Motamedi-Fraser is an honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Geography Department of UCL and co-founder and member of the Institute for Contemporary Critical Thought. She works in the field of Animal Studies, focusing in particular how the epistemologies and methodologies of the animal sciences shape understandings of animals and the politics of animal-human relations. This decade-long focus on animals is the product of a long intellectual journey — from science and the body, through new materialism and affect, to the material and non-linguistic dimensions of words, and finally to animals. She is the author of several books, most recently Dog Politics: Species and the Animal Sciences.

Registration:

Open to all, this 60-minute online event is free to attend, with participants invited to consider supporting the work of the Sociological Review Foundation via a donation.

Spaces are limited: register now to secure a place.

You will receive a Zoom link and information on how to join after you have registered, and a reminder email prior to the event. Please check your spam folders.

If you have any questions, please contact Danielle Galway - events@thesociologicalreview.com