معرفی
Alex Cockain is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work within the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Social Care at Canterbury Christ Church University (CCCU), where he has been employed since 2021. He also holds a position in The Graduate College, supervising doctoral students and teaching sessions on ethnographic approaches and visual data in qualitative research.
Cockain completed his PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of London in 2009, following academic positions in Beijing, Shanghai, and nine years in Hong Kong where he progressed from Instructor (2012-13) to Teaching Fellow (2013-16) and Assistant Professor (2016-21). His educational background and international teaching experience inform his interdisciplinary approach to disability studies.
- PhD in Social Anthropology, University of London (2009)
- Assistant Professor in Hong Kong (2016-21)
- Senior Lecturer at CCCU (2021-present)
His research takes inspiration from anthropology, sociology, social theory, and disability studies, with a particular focus on how these perspectives can be entangled in conversations to think beyond singular disciplinary boundaries. Cockain's work is primarily qualitative and ethnographic, investigating how social, cultural, material, and discursive worlds are both made and make us. His research often explores the taken-for-granted boundaries between research and life, creating immersive ethnographic studies.
Cockain's scholarly output includes numerous publications in leading journals such as Disability and Society, The British Journal of Social Work, Cultural Geographies, The China Journal, Time and Society, and Social Semiotics. His most significant recent contribution is the 2024 book Learning Disability and Everyday Life published by Routledge as part of their Advances in Disability Studies series. This ethnographic work examines the everyday life of a middle-aged man with learning disabilities and autism, using detailed observations of ordinary activities to reflect on broader societal constructions of disability.
- Learning Disability and Everyday Life (2024)
- Regular reviewer for multiple journals including Ethnography and Education, HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, and The Tizard Learning Disability Review
- Recipient of the outstanding reviewer award from The Tizard Learning Disability Review (2023)
Cockain serves as a regular reviewer for several peer-reviewed journals and has made significant contributions to disability scholarship through his ethnographic approach that bridges micro-level observations with macro-level social analysis. His work challenges conventional understandings of disability by examining how meanings about normalcy and abnormalcy are constructed through everyday social interactions, discourse, and material conditions.
