The next MediaCom Seminar hosted by the School of Media, Communication and
Sociology at the University of Leicester will take place on *Wednesday 10
May *with *Professor John Goodwin (University of Leicester)*.
The seminar will take place *4:00-5:30pm* *on* *Wednesday 10 May in* *Bankfield
House Lecture Theatre *– all welcome.
School of Media, Communication and Sociology
University of Leicester
Bankfield House
132 New Walk
Leicester
LE1 7JA
*Searching for Pearls: Reflections on Researching the Life and Work of
Pearl Jephcott*
Pearl Jephcott (1900-1980), in a research career spanning some forty years,
made an outstanding contribution to British social science research. Her
key works, included Girls Growing Up (1942), Rising Twenty (1948), Some
Young People (1954), Married Women Working (1962), A Troubled Area: Notes
on Notting Hill (1964), Time of One’s Own (1967) and Homes in High Flats
(1971), alongside numerous other reports and articles. These publications
paved the way for many of the subsequent developments that were to come in
the sociology of gender, women’s’ studies, urban sociology, the sociology
of youth and are replete with originality, innovation and sociological
imagination. Yet despite this Jephcott’s work has become neglected –
seemingly relegated to second hand booksellers and to ‘studies from the
past’. As such in this paper I aim to do three things. First, I begin by
providing a biographical sketch of Pearl Jephcott as well as reflecting
upon key aspects of her early biography that helped inform her subsequent
sociological practice. Second, I will provide an overview of her key works
and draw out their contemporary relevance. Finally, I want to reflect on
the ‘processes’ of researching a ‘past sociologist’ and the impact the
research has had on my own sociological practice.
*Dr Melanie Kennedy*
*Lecturer in Media and Communication*
*Programme Director of BA Media and Communication and BA Media and Society*
School of Media, Communication and Sociology
University of Leicester
Bankfield House
132 New Walk
Leicester
LE1 7JA
Tel: 0116 223 1624
https://leicester.academia.edu/MelanieKennedy
<https://email.le.ac.uk/owa/redir.aspx?C=hMkiTDeBJF9X2bvimpuGDxjV8_w6Ndn99QKHGXCuzXXWIbg-OI3UCA..&URL=https%3a%2f%2fleicester.academia.edu%2fMelanieKennedy>
Book Reviews Editor for *Celebrity Studies* (Routledge)
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