Victoria Gosling

Dr Victoria Gosling is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Salford's School of Health & Society, where she has been employed since September 2007. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Sheffield (completed 2004) and previously worked as a Lecturer in Sociology at Nottingham Trent University for three years. Her academic profile is associated with the Centre for Research on Inclusive Society, reflecting her research focus on social inclusion and exclusion.

Her research interests center on gender, poverty, social exclusion and inclusion, social inequality, and audience participation and exclusion in popular culture. Gosling has conducted significant work examining women's experiences of social exclusion, the gendered nature of government policies related to poverty, and women's marginalization from cultural spaces including digital gaming, classical music, and sports. She has collaborated on NESTA/AHRC/Arts Council England-funded projects with major cultural institutions such as the London Symphony Orchestra and Imperial War Museums.

Gosling's recent publications demonstrate ongoing scholarly activity in digital culture studies, feminist research, and social exclusion, with particular attention to video games' cultural legitimacy and women's experiences in Nigeria. Her work shows a consistent trajectory from early research on women's exclusion in sports culture to contemporary examinations of digital gaming communities and hashtag feminism.

As an educator, she serves as module leader for 'Social Divisions and Inequality' and 'Work: Practice and Reflection,' the latter providing sociology and criminology students with work placement opportunities to apply academic knowledge in professional settings. She also reviews for academic journals including Sociological Research Online and Sociology.

Dr Gosling actively supervises PhD students in areas including gender, social inclusion/exclusion, inequality, women's support networks, social capital, and audience research within cultural contexts. Her work bridges traditional sociological concerns with contemporary digital culture, making significant contributions to understanding how marginalized groups navigate and challenge exclusionary practices in both physical and digital spaces.