Lecturer in Applied Social Studies and Sociology

Dr Sireita Mullings-Lawrence is a visual sociologist and artist who completed a BA in Art, Design and Education at the University of the West Indies (Mona) and Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts, where she majored in photography and graphic design in Jamaica.

She later returned to the UK to study an MSc in Multimedia at the University of Westminster. It was during this period she began working as a community arts practitioner locally and internationally. Sireita draws upon the arts as a tool that renders the subjective realities which characterise the often-misunderstood positions of young people.

She completed her PhD at Goldsmiths University of London. Here she carried out an ethnographic study, which interrogates how postcolonial legacies of marginalisation are rendered in the visual works of multi-ethnic young people living in Lambeth.

Theoretically her work draws upon postcolonial studies, race and representation and she uses participatory and visual research methods pivoted on themes of digital creativity, youth, class, gender, social enterprise, social exclusion, inclusion, belonging, migration, education, safety and danger.

Other References

• Twitter: @SireitaM
• www.sireitamullings.com

Qualifications

• PhD Visual Sociology – University of London Goldsmith
• MSc Multimedia – University of Westminster
• BA Hons Arts and Education – Edna Manly College of Visual and Performing Arts & University of the West Indies (Mona, Jamaica)

Research Interests

• Youth
• Youth Enterprise
• Global Youth Work
• Marginalisation
• Race and Representation
• Clandestine Migration
• Participatory Arts
• Sociology of art - Black Arts Movement (BAM) and Caribbean Arts Movement (CAM)
• Post colonial studies.

Projects

• Voices From the Front Line: Railton Road www.frontline198.com
• ArtFarm
• Rendering the Real
• Different Endz
• Word on the Street

Conference Presentations and Papers

• Visual Pedagogies. So-Me: Social Media & Digital Creativity in Teaching & Learning, IVSA, International Visual Sociology Association Conference, Montreal, June – 2017
• The magic of the mic: demonstrating value in community programmes whist making sense of the anecdote [PDF]; BERA, British Educational Research Association, University of Nottingham, April - 2015
• Reflecting on Reflexivity. International Visual Sociology Association Conference, London, July - 2013
• Reflexive Participant, Reflexive Practitioner. Tate Britain Seeing Through Conference, London, Feb - 2012
• Artistic Transitions to Citizenship. International Sociological Association. ISA Transitions Conference, University of South Florida. Tampa, Jan - 2012
• Using the Arts to Engage Young People in Social Enterprise. LCT Luton, Jan – 2011
• Reflexivity and the Practitioner. The Social Life of Methods, St Hughs Oxford, August - 2010.
• Navigating Personal Spaces. Using Visual Methods with Young People in Lambeth.
  International Visual Sociology Association Bologna, May - 2010.
• Camera, Starburst, Trainer: The significance of photography in the lives of young people. Exploding Objects Conference, Goldsmiths University of London, Jan - 2010.
• Post Code Wars: Young People and Visual Representations of Space. 1st International Visual Methods, Leeds, September - 2009.
• Mapping Dangerous Spaces: Young people and the Post Code War. British Library, June – 2009
• Artistic Youth and Social Enterprise. Evaluating Arts Programs Conference. Brown University, Boston, USA. Nov – 2008
• Image and imagination. The role of the image in the lives of urban youth. University of Gothenburg, Sweden Sept-2006

Publications

• Lawrence – Mullings, Sireita. (2013) Post-Colonial Text, Vol 8 No 3 & 4, Post Code Wars: Representations of Locality and Landscapes of Danger, Belonging and Understanding.
• postcolonial.org/index.php/pct/article/viewArticle/1732
• Tiller, C., Milic, N., Linton, D. and Mullings, S. (2014) ‘Participatory Performing Arts: A Literature Review', Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
• Lawrence - Mullings , Sireita, in King, Lizy and Otchere, Eddie (2014) How Great Thow Art: 50 Years of Afro- Caribbean Funerals: Young People as they Dance Drink and Smoke in a Dead Yard, London
• Shukra, Kalbir and Lawrence-Mullings, S (2014) Becoming Radio Ready: Valuing youth radio training Becoming Radio Ready, London: Goldsmiths
• Lawrence - Mullings , Sireita, (2015) in Human Endeavour: a creative finding aid to the Women of Colour Index, UK: Goldsmiths.
• Lawrence - Mullings , Sireita, (2015) in The Great Brixton Project, UK: Champion Agency.
• Henry, W, A. & Mullings-Lawrence, Sireita.(2017) ‘Silence is virtual’, Young people, death and mourning’ (in) Subcultures Network (ed), Youth culture and social change: making a difference by making a noise, UK: Palgrave.
• Lawrence-Mullings, Sireita (Forthcoming 2019),  Jakarlo: New trends, old traditions, youth and clandestine migration within The Gambia

Contact Details

T: +44 (0)7737298686
E: sireita.mullings@beds.ac.uk