Presentation and proposal- Anna Uboldi

Presentation and proposal

Anna Uboldi
University of Milan

I am a scholar in Sociology of cultural processes. I graduated in Sociology and I completed a PhD in Applied Sociology and Methodology of Social Research. My core research interests concern sociology of education and art, Bourdieu’s theory, social class, gender, youth condition, neoliberalism and qualitative methods.
My research thesis explores the reproductive social dynamics of the field of artistic education. The focus is on educational dispositions and aspirations of young pupils in artistic lyceums, (secondary art schools) in Milan.
Within the sociology of education, I have a strong interest about school choice dynamics, gender and social class inequalities and on the neoliberal character of educational field. I tried to study the way in which neoliberalism is concerned with individual sense of self and how it disciplines students’ learner identities. Now, I am working mainly on these issues. I examine the gender dimension of learning identities to develop a deeper analysis of intersections of class and gender on educational experience. In this way, I am also starting to study also the primary teachers’ experience to examine their representations and to explore the link between gender and educational achievement. Finally, I am also interested in inclusive education for pupils with special educational needs, but I have never worked on this issue.
In this summer school, I do wish to expand my knowledge because my background is a bit far from the programme proposed. I am interested in every theme of the lectures because I would like to boost my sociological gaze on educational experiences in a European context. In particular, I am interested in the issues related to data and educational governance and on digitalisation trend. This framework could be useful because my long-term purpose is to develop an analysis of the field of creative art schools (moving from my PhD research but I need to work on it again). I would like to study the school choices dynamics in higher artistic education in a European context. For this reason, I wish to develop a more awareness on European educational space and on his digital dimension. I need for a more knowledge of the sociological analysis of educational policies and also on theoretical tools to examine the school choices dynamics and their discursive field. During the summer school, I could work in this direction for the writing exercises. Nevertheless, I am aware that my project is in a very draft, preliminary phase.