Siobhan Holohan

Biography

I have worked at Keele University since 2004, teaching across the undergraduate sociology and media programmes, and on the MRes in Social Science Research Methods. My research focuses on media representation, with a particular interest in theories of scapegoating, identity and confession.

Research and scholarship

My research focuses on how media representation operates at an ideological level to construct meaning about groups in society. Early work examined high profile legal cases to reveal how the organisation of public discourse around a sacrificial figure intensifies patterns of social exclusion. I have since researched and written widely on media representations of gender, family, ethnicity, and migration. This includes an examination of the production and consumption of narratives about British Muslims with Professor Elizabeth Poole for the Institute for Strategic Dialogue; and work supported by funding from the British Academy exploring how asylum seekers negotiate exclusionary media narratives. My current research investigates public discourses of menopause and considers how health campaigns are received by audiences.

I have supervised several doctoral students to completion and welcome enquiries related to my research interests.

Teaching

I teach across the sociology undergraduate programme and on the MRes in Social Science Research. I offer specialist modules in social movements, media representation, and research design.