Dr Susan Oman
MA (City University, London), PhD (Manchester)
Information School
Lecturer in Data, AI and Society
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Full contact details
Information School
Room C243
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
91Ö±²¥
S10 2AH
- Profile
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I joined the Information School in June 2020 from the Department of Sociological Studies, where I started in September 2019. Prior to this, I held two consecutive AHRC fellowships looking at data in the creative economy: one, in the 91Ö±²¥ Methods Institute (2019), and one in the School of Media and Communications at the University of Leeds (2018).
I completed my interdisciplinary PhD, based in Sociology and the Centre for Research on Socio-Cultural Change (CRESC) at the University of Manchester in 2017. This investigated the cultural politics of participation and well-being. It was specifically concerned with the contexts of metrics and knowledge production for policy. My MA was in Cultural Policy and Management and my BA was in Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
I was recently awarded an Honorary fellowship to the Institute of Cultural Practices at University of Manchester in recognition of my research on methods, data and partnership working in the cultural sector.
My monograph, will be published open access by Palgrave Macmillan in 2021.
University responsibilities
- Research, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead
- Research, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Lead
- Research interests
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I research how data and evidence work in practice, looking at particular policy issues, such as well-being, loneliness, inequality and class. My research is situated in the sociology of knowledge and focuses on the role of knowledge in social change. I seek to develop practice and policy-relevant understanding through methodologically rigorous projects that have practical impact in various ways. I achieve this through working with relevant stakeholders, academics and non-academic research partners across the UK and internationally.
I worked on the AHRC-funded projects: and . I am co-Investigator on the project. The website profiles my research in a section called: .
I have previously led a systematic review of data and literature for a Wellcome-funded project to investigate subjective well-being as a metric for the cultural sector. During my PhD I was awarded funding from The University of Manchester’s Student Union to lead a project to investigate postgraduate well-being in the institution through qualitative fieldwork and survey re-analysis.
- Publications
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Featured publications
Books
Journal articles
Chapters
Reports
Other
All publications
Books
Journal articles
Chapters
Book reviews
Reports
Website content
Scholarly editions
Other
- Teaching interests
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My teaching is research-led and focuses on how students interact with ideas of knowledge in a number of ways that aims to:
- Challenge widespread assumptions about data and evidence and how they are used to reinforce particular ideas or political projects.
- Familiarise students with methodologies, ethics and practicalities of data collection and analysis.
- Enable students to reflect on potential real-world impacts of their current and future practices and to present examples from different domains and industries.
- Teaching activities
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INF110 - Data Science Foundations and Contexts
INF6033 - Data and Society
- Professional activities and memberships
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Selected Media Appearances:
Media comment:
- ‘Emirates want to lead the world in happiness’, Al-Ittihad, United Arab Emirates, 14 March 16.
- ‘Digging into socio-economic diversity’, Arts Council England Webinar, 16 December 2019.
Research featured:
- ‘Arts Council takes steps to tackle working class gaps in workforce‘, The Guardian, 16 December 2019.
- ‘ACE treads carefully with ‘intrusive’ new social class metric’, Arts Professional. 17 December 2019.
- ‘Theatres to report on socio-economic background of workforce under new Arts Council rules’ The Stage. 16 December 19
- ‘Arts council aims to build picture of class inequality in the culture sector’ Museums Journal. 19 December 2019
- ‘Tackling class discrimination’, Arts Professional. 30 August 2018.
Membership
- Honorary Research Fellow of the Institute of Cultural Practices, University of Manchester
- Established the Culture Insights Managers network – a sector support network to support and train data practitioners in the cultural sector
- Member of the PKP network: an international network of female policy, knowledge and practice researchers
- Associate member of SKAPE centre for Science, Knowledge and Policy, University of Edinburgh