Darren Reed
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

• PhD (Sociology and Social Psychology) (Loughborough University)
• BSc Social Sciences (Sociology and Social Psychology) (Loughborough University)

Departmental roles

• Social Psychology Programme Lead and Module Coordinator
• PGT Dissertation Coordinator
• Understanding Social Media, Module Coordinator
• Deputy Chair of BoS (Appeals Officer)
• Member of the Standing Academic Misconduct Panel (StAMP)
  

Research

Overview

• The design and use of creative digital technologies
• Artificial Intelligence and new data intimacies
• Robotics, embodiment, and affect
• Instructional interaction in performance settings

Darren's background is in the area of ethnomethodology (EM), Conversation Analysis (CA), and technology design. His PhD, at Loughborough University, was an Ethnomethodological analysis of 'newsgroup' interaction, that used the analysis to reflect back on the conceptual foundations of EM and CA.

Darren's research combines Science and Technology Studies (STS), Conversation Analysis (CA) and Performance Studies. He works across the departments of Sociology, Environment, Computer Science, Electronic Engineering, Theatre, Film, Television and Interactive Media, and Music. His interests include mundane interaction with and through technologies in broad social contexts, as well as the study of digital technologies in everyday life that incorporates people’s perceptions, embodied experiences, and social expectations. His primary concerns are with the creative engagement with and through technology.

He has a history of working in the following areas:

Twitch
This was a project concerned with the social streaming platform, which analysed the embodied interactions between Streamers, game players, and audience members.

Digital Creativity
The Digital Creativity Lab (DCLab) was a five-year project that engaged with over 80 businesses and organisations. Individual projects included 'EPISODE' a study of civic engagement with environmental data, and 'AI Futures' a study of narratives of technology design.

Music Masterclass tuition
This was a project concerned with embodied interaction with professional musicians.

Inclusive design
An area interested in promoting the design of everyday technology devices that are attractive and can be used by older people. This included an extended literature review for the Inclusive Digital Economy Network, and EPSRC funded network convened by Professor Alan Newell at Dundee University.

Transport management and information computer systems
The BLISS project, funded by the ESRC, studied the installation of a bus priority and passenger information system in York, and combined Human Computer Interaction and Science and Technology Studies to form an analysis of the sociotechnical character of the system.

Assistive technology
As a member of the Centre for Usable Home Technology (CUHTec), he carried out work that included studying the use of telephone conferencing systems by charitable organisations to support socially isolated individuals. Darren is especially interested in the development of common place technologies such as the telephone to support isolated elderly individuals.

Projects

Currently he is developing a conceptual framework that combines Science and Technology Studies with Discourse Analysis and Identity construction, that has a preliminary title of the 'Performativity of Technology and Age Identity' . This conception also draws on performance theory, inspired by Darren's earlier career as a performer. It is also relevant to the production of professionally scripted video performances, that formed one of the outputs of the Inclusive Digital Economy Network, and an ongoing interest in the use of theatre to communicate the design requirements of older users.

Recently Darren has become a member of the Anomalous Experience Research Unit (AERU) in the Department of Sociology, which studies the co-production of 'talk' and interaction in parapsychological situations. Darren is particularly interested in the way video episodes, typically posted on public forums such as YouTube, are used as a means to convey the authenticity of such instances as communicating with the dead in a spiritualist church. Such interests connect with the 'performativity' of technology mentioned above and connect back to the early work on internet communication.

Publications

Selected publications

Books, Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Chubb, J., Cowling, P., & Reed, D. (2021). Speeding up to keep up: exploring the use of AI in the research process. AI & Society.

Reed, D. J. (2021). Situating Embodied instruction - proxemics and body knowledge. Linguistics Vanguard.

Reed, D. J., & Wooffitt, R. (2021). Embodiment, relationality and epistemics: observations from Alexander Technique training in music master classes. Sociology.

Walper, C., Reed, D., & Marsden, H. (2021). Designedly incomplete elicitations: teachers’ multimodal practices to mobilise student-next action in Chilean secondary EFL classrooms. Classroom Discourse. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1080/19463014.2021.1920997

Reed, D. J. (2020). Dancing with Data: Introducing a Creative Interactional Metaphor. Sociological Research Online, 25(4), 533–548. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780419892640

Reed, D. J. (2019). Touch and talk: detailing embodied experience in the music masterclass. Social Semiotics, 30(5), 625–645. https://doi.org/doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2019.1631431

Reed, D. J. (2018). Assessments in Transition: Coordinating Participation Framework Transition in Institutional Settings. In E. Reber & N. Gerhardt (Eds.), Embodied Activities in Face-to-face and Mediated Settings: Social Encounters in Time and Space. Palgrave Macmillan.

Reed, D. J. (2018). Fun on the phone: The Situated Experience of Recreational Telephone Conferences. In M. Blythe & A. Monk (Eds.), Funology 2, From Usability to Enjoyment (pp. 343–357). Spinger. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68213-6_22

Reed, D. J. (2018). Discovering the Data-driven City. Breakdown and Literacy in the Installation of the Elm Sensor Network. TECNOSCIENZA: Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies, 8(2), 81–104. http://www.tecnoscienza.net/index.php/tsj/article/view/319/200

Reed, D. J. (2017). Performance and interaction on Soundcloud: Social remix and the fundamental techniques of conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 115, 82 98. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2017.01.012

Reed, D. J. (2015). Relinquishing in musical masterclasses: Embodied action in interactional projects. Journal of Pragmatics, 89, 31-49.

Giles, D., Stommel, W., Paulus, T., Lester, J., & Reed, D. (2015). Microanalysis of online data: The methodological development of “digital CA”. Discourse, Context & Media, 7, 45-51.

Reed, D. J. & Johnson, M. R. (2014). New technological localisms: A comparative analysis of two case studies. URBE, Brazilian Journal of Urban Management, 6(1), 57-52.

Reed, D. J. & Penfold-Mounce, R. (2014). Zombies and the sociological imagination: The walking dead as social science fiction. In L. Hubner, M. Leaning, & P. Manning (Eds.), The zombie renaissance in popular culture. (pp. 124-41). Palgrave Macmillan.

Reed, D. J. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2014). The emergence of learnables in music masterclasses. Social Semiotics, 24(4), 446-467.

Szczepek Reed, B., Reed, D., & Haddon, L. (2013). NOW or NOT NOW: Coordinating restarts in vocal masterclasses. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 46(1), 22-46.

Reed, D. & Szczepek Reed, B. (2013). Building an interactional project: Actions as components of music masterclasses. In B. Szczepek Reed & G. Raymond (Eds.), Units of talk - units of action. (pp. 313-42). John Benjamins.

Wooffitt, R., Jackson, C., Reed, D., Ohshi, Y., & Hughes, I. (2013). Self-identity, authenticity and the other: The spirits and audience management in stage mediumship. Language & Communication, 33(2), 93-105.

Reed, D. J. & Monk, A. (2011). Inclusive design: Beyond capabilities towards context of use. Universal Access in the Information Society (UAIS) Special Issue on Innovations in User Sensitive Design, Research and Development, 10(3).

Van Oost, E. & Reed, D. (2011). Towards a sociological understanding of robots as companions. Human-Robot Personal Relationships. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences. Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, 59, 11-18.

Reed, D. J. & Webster, A. (2010). Architectures of motility: ICT systems, transport and planning for complex urban spaces. In Handbook of research on e-planning: ICTs for urban development and monitoring. (pp. 365-87). Hershey, PA, USA: IGI Global.

Invited Talks and Keynotes

Reed, D. J. (2020) Social and Ethical Dimensions in Robotics. International Pathway College, (invited lecture).

Reed, D.J. (2019) Social and Ethical Dimensions in Robotics. YorRobots Group, York University.

Reed, D. J. (2017) New data Intimacies: applying a conversation analytic mentality to interaction with, and through, new technologies. York St John’s.

Reed, D. J. (2016, May 4). Dancing with data. New data intimacies in the design of technology. (Keynote: 'Employability in the Digital Age', University of York).

Reed, D. J. (2016, April 26). New data intimacies. 'Technologies for the Future'. University of York.

Reed, D. J. (2013, November 4). The embodied choreography of gesture, gaze and posture in music masterclasses. The extraordinariness of ordinary conversation. York public talks, University of York.

Reed, D. J. (2012, March 15). Reflexivity in research. (Qualitative Research Network. Round Table: 'Doing Reflexivity in Social Research' University of York).

Magazine Articles

Roberts, P. & Reed, D. (2014). Learning as performance. Forum Magazine, 36(autumn).

Conference and Workshop Organisation

International Symposium: MOOD-Y (Micro-Analysis of Online Data in York). Monday 14 July 2014.

Landmarks and Future Adventures: Celebrating 50 Years of Conversation Analysis. Tuesday 29 July 2014.

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Introducing Social Psychology
• Creative and Critical Approaches to Social Psychology
• Contemporary Research in Social Psychology
• Doing Research
• Social Interaction and Conversation Analysis

Postgraduate

• Understanding Social Media
• Introduction to Qualitative Methods and Data Analysis