Dr Rosie Macpherson
About
Biography
I am a lecturer in learning development based in the Faculty of Arts, Business, and Social Sciences. I mostly teach in our Social Sciences Foundation Year programme, but also work within the Sociology Department on a range of undergraduate modules. I have experience teaching qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as other Sociology and Criminology modules. I am also the Sociology student advisor, helping students navigate academic skills across undergraduate and masters level. I am also part of the learning developers team based in the library, offering one-to-one academic skills appointments to students across the University.
My research is social sciences based and is focused on policy and practice, education, and pedagogy.
Areas of specialism
My qualifications
ResearchResearch interests
My research is focused in areas of education, policy and practice (such as policy design, implementation, etc) and pedagogy. I am also interested in research that focuses on HE learning and teaching and student experience (at all levels).
Research interests
My research is focused in areas of education, policy and practice (such as policy design, implementation, etc) and pedagogy. I am also interested in research that focuses on HE learning and teaching and student experience (at all levels).
Teaching
I currently teach on the social sciences foundation year on the following modules -
SOC0001 (Contemporary Issues in Sociology)
SOC0002 (Tackling Social Issues)
I also have experience teaching Quantitative and Qualitative Methods, Making Sense of Everyday Life, Drugs and Society, Explaining and Responding to Crime and Deviance and Introduction to Criminal Justice Systems.
I also have experience in designing content across a range of undergraduate modules in the Sociology department.
Publications
This paper examines how girls aged 9-15 engage with online influencer culture, focusing on interplays between digital and non-digital normative ecologies. Drawing on school-based workshops, we explore tensions between authenticity, normative ideals and self-presentation in girls' interactions with influencers. Participants expressed agency in content consumption alongside pressures to conform, shaped by social interactions online and offline. We argue that influencer culture perpetuates dominant femininity norms through reciprocal dynamics between influencers and audiences. Girls navigated this terrain ambivalently, often endorsing authenticity and diversity while feeling constrained by normative expectations. We propose a post-digital literacy framework to conceptualise girls' critically engagements with influence as part of everyday life, highlighting implications for education and digital practice.