Dr Doug Stuart
Courses
Investigating the Person in Society and Culture
Researching Society and Culture
Cultures of Consumption
Director of Resources
Recent Publications
Tel: 020 8331 9619
Email: d.i.stuart@gre.ac.uk
Office: King William 326
Office Hours
Tuesday 3-4 pm
Wednesday 11-12
Qualifications
BA Hons Sociology, Thames Polytechnic.
MA Area Studies (Africa), Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London.
PhD History, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Thesis titled, "Of Savages and Heroes": Discourses of Race, Nation and Gender in the Evangelical Missions to Southern Africa in the Early Nineteenth Century.
Research Interests
Doug Stuart’s overall area of research interest is in historical and comparative sociology. Currently the focus of these interests is in an examination of the theoretical implications posed by the development of new forms of information technology, especially in relation to social networking, and the connections that these developments have with the theoretical perspective of post-modernity. In particular the research examines the formation of social identities on the Internet and the extent to which these are still determined by and reflect social divisions such as gender, sexuality, religion, dis/ability, class, nationality and ethnicity. The research applies and extends the theoretical and comparative study of my previous research, on the post-enlightenment and its impact on the formation of missionary ideology in the early nineteenth century. This comparative framework is used to explore the importance of the Internet in relation to current sociological theories concerned with globalisation and the development of a virtual geography that serves to emphasise rather then reduce the importance of locales. The research has a particular concern with the methodological problems and possibilities posed by conducting sociological research in the medium of the new information technologies.
Publications
'"Converts or Convicts?" The Gospel of Liberation and Subordination in Southern Africa in the Early Nineteenth Century' in H.B. Hansen and M. Twaddle (eds.), Christian Missionaries and the State in the Third World (James Currey, 2002)
'Virtual Masses and Real Minorities: Imagining the Nation Across Space and Time: The Case of Rhodesians on the World Wide Web', in N.Lee and R. Munro (ed.)(2001), The Consumption of Mass, Blackwell, Oxford.
‘The making of a missionary disaster: the Makololo and the London Missionary Society’ in Brian Stanley (ed.), North Atlantic Missionary Project Position Papers, (no. 29) May 1997.
'"Wishes of sober size, of fireside comfort and domestic ties": the Making of Missionary Wives at the Cape in the Early Nineteenth Century', in Marks S. (ed.), Collected Seminar Papers, The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Vol.21, 1996.
'Images of the Savage in Southern African Missionary Discourse: "Redemption"', in Bugge H. and Rubies J.P. (eds.), 1995, Shifting Cultures: Interaction and Discourse in the Expansion of Europe. Lit Verlag, Munster.
'Revelations From Neo-Modernity', in South African Historical Journal Vol.31, November, 1994.
For England and For Christ': The Gospel of Liberation and Subordination in Early Nineteenth Century Southern Africa. in Journal of Historical Sociology, Vol.6, 1993.
'The "Wicked Christians" and the "Children of the Mist", - Missionary and Khoi interactions at the Cape in the early nineteenth century', in Marks S. (ed.), Collected Seminar Papers, The Societies of Southern Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries, University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, Vol.18, 1992