Role
Dr Edley is a Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology and Module Leader for Research Methods and Dissertation: MA in Media and Globalisation.
Research areas
During much of the 1990's Dr Edley's research activities were focused largely on collaborative work with Professor Margaret Wetherell on an ESRC-funded project on men and masculinity (ref. number: R000233129), which has resulted in a number of publications. One of the main research aims was to look at masculinity as a discursive accomplishment and to try to illustrate how shifts in the meaning of masculinity relate to broader social, political and economic changes in western society. At the same time, they looked to advance a more synthetic (or dialectical) understanding of the relationship between language / discourse and the speaking subject, showing how discourse serves both as a set of resources for routine social interaction and to structure popular consciousness.
Subsequently, Dr Edley became active in both theoretical and methodological debates surrounding discursive psychology. In part, this involves attempts to defend an ontological sense of social construction. It is also manifest in the critique of those writers who seek to combine discourse and psychoanalytic theories into a unified understanding of human identity.
Opportunities to carry out postgraduate research towards an MPhil / PhD may exist in the areas of: the social psychology of gender and sexuality (particularly masculinities), the social psychology of identity, and the broader uses of discursive psychology, social constructionist theory and discourse analysis. Further information may be obtained from the NTU Graduate School.
External activity
- Editorial board member for Feminism and Psychology
- Founder member of the internationally renowned Discourse and Rhetoric Group (DARG) based at Loughborough University, England
- Referee for the academic journals: Body and Society, The British Journal of Social Psychology, European Journal of Communication, Feminism and Psychology, Journal of Language and Social Psychology, The Psychologist as well as Theory, Culture and Society. Dr Edley has also refereed grant proposals for both the Economic and Social Research Council and the Royal Society of New Zealand (Marsden Fund) as well as acting as a referee (of book proposals) for both The Open University Press and Simon and Schuster.
Publications
Edley, N. (2017) Men and Masculinity: The Basics. London: Routledge
Edley, N. and Wetherell, M., 2014. Roles, roots, and rifts: A rejoinder to Mahalik, Silverstein, and Hammond. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 15 (4), pp. 375-376.
Wetherell, M. and Edley, N., 2014. A discursive psychological framework for analyzing men and masculinities. Psychology of Men & Masculinity, 15 (4), pp. 355-364.
Critical Discursive Psychology and the Study of Masculinity. Edley N in Bozatzis N and Dragonas T (eds) Social Psychology: The Discursive Turn, 2011, 157-176
Contemplating Interviews and Focus Groups . Edley N and Litosseliti L in Litosseliti L (ed) Research Methods in Linguistics, 2010, 155-179
Masculinity Manoeuvres: Critical Discursive Psychology and the Analysis of Identity Strategies. Edley N and Wetherell M in Coupland N and Jaworski A (eds), The New Sociolinguistics Reader, 2009, 201-214
Discursive Psychology and the Study of Gender: A Contested Space. Edley N and Wetherell M in Harrington K, Litosseliti L, Sauntson H and Sunderland J (eds) Gender and Language Research Methodologies, 2008, 161-173