Dr Kath Bassett is a sociologist and ethnographer hailing from Portland Oregon, and currently living in York England. They received their doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, masters from the University of York, and bachelors from Pacific University. Their research has been published in Tourism Geographies, Mediapolis: A Journal of Cities and Culture, Social Science & Medicine, New Media & Society, and Feminist Studies.

They are a Lecturer of Sociology at the University of York, contributing to UG and PG modules on social media, race, and qualitative research. Previously they have worked in: the Centre for Women’s Studies at the Univesity of York, the School of Social and Political Sciences at the Univesity of Edinburgh, the Survey Research Lab at Portland State University, and the Department of Sociology at Pacific University.

Their sociological project is concerned with understanding (inter)relationships of power, and especially tracing the organisation, enactment, and social life of ‘governmentality’. Over the years this focus has informed projects on the role of: mental health practioners in the transgender clinical encounter (2010-2012) and prisoner re-entry therapeutic encounter (2013-2015); and – in the case of their doctoral thesis and current research activities – digital platforms in urban, cultural-economic life and tourism (2016-present).

Within these projects, they have forged an ANT, Foucauldian, and Posthuman Feminist-inspired approach to understanding privilege and marginality via attending to the ‘social ontologies’ (categorisations and prioritisations) mobilised by institutional gatekeepers and other important mediators which make a difference in the lifeworlds of classed, raced, and gendered bodies during their movement from one place to another (both figurativly and literally).

Their doctoral thesis examined how TripAdvisor governs placemaking via a three year ethnography of tourism in Edinburgh. Their findings add to the growing body of work on how algorithmic infrastructures are reordering social and territorial space, offering insight into how digital platforms shape hospitality work and facilitate touristic development.

The ethnographic approach and digital methods they developed within this project have also been adapted to develop the ‘COVID Arcadia’ project (funded by the Scottish Funding Council) and the ‘Granton Waterfront Development’ project (funded by the ESRC Local Acceleration Fund). While the former project sought to understand the role that digital platforms played in cultural-economic recovery by independent businesses in Edinburgh during the COVID-19 pandemic, the latter currently seeks to apply some of these insights to guide urban regeneration via attending to and developing community-based ‘tool kits’ meant to address the digital conditions associated with gentrification. 

In their down time, Kath enjoys: cooking, roaming around and exploring cities, collecting books and records, photography, bullet journaling, kicking around a football, as well as playing videogames.