Dr Karen Nairn
Senior Lecturer
MA(Cant) PhD(Waik) DipTchg
Tower, S4.04
University of Otago College of Education
Unions St East
Tel 64 3 479 8619
Fax 64 3 479 4295
Email karen.nairn@otago.ac.nz
Biography
I am a senior lecturer in the University of Otago College of Education, New Zealand. My current research revolves around post-structural theory and critical discourse analysis, with a particular focus on youth identity and post-school transitions. I am the Principal Investigator on a three-year Marsden funded project entitled ‘In transition’: How the children of the economic reforms articulate identities at the child/adult border. More broadly, my research focuses on processes of exclusion in education shaped by gender, sexuality and race.
Research Interests
- Post-school transitions & young people's identities
- Gender, sexuality, 'race' and youth cultures
- The politics of voice
- Feminist issues in education
- Critical social & poststructuralist theory
- Qualitative and action research
- Secondary and tertiary education practices
Recent Publications
Book Chapter
Higgins, J., Nairn, K., & Sligo, J. (2008). Peer research with youth: Negotiating (sub)cultural capital, place and participation in Aotearoa/New Zealand. In S. Kindon, R. Pain, & M. Kesby (Eds.), Participatory action research approaches and methods: Connecting people, participation and place (Reprinted) (pp. 104-111). Abingdon, UK: Routledge.
Conference Contribution - Other
Juntrasook, A., & Nairn, K. (2010, November). Becoming vulnerable in academia: Re-considering vulnerabilities in a research interview with a 'marginalised' academic. Verbal presentation at the Vulnerability: A Symposium, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Nairn, K., & Wyn, J. (2009, November). Coming of age stories in film: Divergent subjectivities of hope and marginalisation. Verbal presentation at the Sociological Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (SAA(NZ)) Conference, Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Nairn, K., Higgins, J., & Sligo, J. (2008, November). Buying into the promise of the knowledge economy in NZ: Young people's decision-making as they leave school. Verbal presentation at the International Sociology of Education Conference, London, UK.
Conference Contribution - Refereed
Juntrasook, A., Bond, C., Spronken-Smith, R., & Nairn, K. (2010). Unpacking the complexities of leadership in academic life through the multiple lenses of narrative analysis. Proceedings of the Contemporary Ethnography Across the Disciplines (CEAD) Hui, (pp. 99-100). Retrieved from http://cead.org.nz/Site/Ethnography_conference/Programme.aspx
Nairn, K. (2008). Understanding alienation from school: Reading spaces, reading emotions. Proceedings of the Emotional Geographies of Education Symposium. Retrieved from http://www.education.monash.edu/research/conferences/emotional-ed/index.html
Journal Article - Refereed
Higgins, J., Nairn, K., & Sligo, J. (2010). Vocational imagination and labour market literacy: Young New Zealanders making education-employment linkages. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 62(1), 13-25. doi: 10.1080/13636820903491716
Nairn, K., & Higgins, J. (2010). The emotional geographies of neoliberal school reforms: Spaces of refuge and containment. Emotion, Space and Society, Advance Online Publication. doi: 10.1016/j.emospa.2010.10.001
Cameron, J., Nairn, K., & Higgins, J. (2009). Demystifying academic writing: Reflections on emotions, know-how and academic identity. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 33(2), 269-284.
Higgins, J., Nairn, K., & Sligo, J. (2009). Alternative ways of expressing and reading identity. Ethnography and Education, 4(1), 83-99. doi: 10.1080/17457820802703549
Nairn, K., & Higgins, J. (2009). 'In transition': How the children of the economic reforms articulate identities at the child/adult border. Childrenz Issues, 13(1), 30-34.
Nairn, K., & Panelli, R. (2009). Using fiction to make meaning in research with young people in rural New Zealand. Qualitative Inquiry, 15(1), 96-112. doi: 10.1177/1077800408318314