Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology
Nadine.Shanahan@liverpool.ac.uk
Biography
Nadine is a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Fellow at the University of Liverpool, researching the construction, negotiation, and performativity of femininity on social media. Prior to her current studies, Nadine studied LLB Law and completed an MSc in Criminology. Following this, Nadine gained a PGCE in Further Education and taught Law, Criminology and Criminal Justice at both further and higher education levels. During her PhD, she has taught across Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at Undergrad level.
Nadine joined the School of Law and Social Justice as a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Fellow in October 2021.
Research
Nadine’s PhD project explores how women utilise Instagram as a tool to present their femininity. She is particularly interested in how factors like age, ‘race’ and class impact women’s experiences. Nadine also explores how women reject ideal standards and use the app in a form of resistance. Her work also investigates how these concepts are underpinned by philosophical ideas such as post feminism and neoliberalism.
During the summer of 2024 Nadine visited the University of Georgia to engage in further research centring around women’s experiences of girlhood trends online. This work explores how certain trends relating to girlhood are influenced by broader political-economic forces. Nadine’s project explores how contemporary women resist the pressures of neoliberalism and express this through the use of social media trends.
Thesis title
Ideal femininity: A digital ethnographic analysis of the construction, negotiation, and performativity of femininity on Instagram.
Supervisors
Presentations
- Feminist Studies Association - Methods Labs (2024) Instagrammable
- British Sociological Association PGR – Feminist Inquiry (2023) The Successful Woman: The Gendered Burden of a Competitive, Marketised and Individualised World
- European Sociological Association – Digital Transformation, Media and Social Inequality – Ideal Femininity: A digital ethnographic analysis of the construction, negotiation, and performativity of femininity on Instagram.
Back to: Department of Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology