Hello! My name is Dr Anna Clover, and I am the recently appointed Research Fellow for the Addressing Inequalities theme. Read on to find out more about my background and why this role appealed.

Throughout my career I have been motivated towards addressing issues of gender inequality and their intersections with wider societal inequalities, particularly in digital contexts. In a former life, I gained valuable experience within the charity sector, working with charities that support vulnerable women in the mental health and prison systems. These are experiences which not only provided practical fundraising and community link building skills, but also spurred my academic interests in gender (in)equalities.

In terms of my academic background, I possess a BA in Sociology and Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths College; an MA in Sociology from the University of Essex and most recently, a PhD in Sociology at the University of Glasgow. My research interests relate to the fields of gender, feminism, qualitative methodologies, work and labour studies and digital economies.

My recently completed PhD thesis regards the experiences of women engaged in online entrepreneurship via the platform Etsy.com, completed via semi-structured interviews. My research findings indicated that a cluster of intersecting factors contribute towards women’s successes in running platform-based businesses, including life course position, prior employment experience and economic background. In this respect, I believe that an intersectional view of gender inequalities is essential towards understanding experiences of platform-based entrepreneurship.

Through this research, I also became aware of the critical importance interdisciplinary research holds in addressing gender inequalities in digital contexts. Most particularly, drawing from the field of business studies provided essential knowledge regarding platform business models, which deeply enriched my analysis of women’s lived experiences of work via the platform. I believe that multidisciplinary collaboration is critical in achieving comprehensive, in-depth understandings of societal inequalities, particularly in emerging contexts such platform labour studies.

Throughout my time in academia, I have also had the opportunity work on several external projects with a focus on tackling inequalities. This included independent research undertaken for Athena Swan, reviewing issues of discrimination and harassment within UofG. Through this role, I interviewed staff members within the University, undertook thematic analysis of the data and produced a 10,000-word report indicating areas for improvement in relationship to the UofG ‘Dignity and Work’ policies. In my time at the University of Essex, I also worked as Research Assistant within the Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies department, contributing towards a qualitative project addressing the reasons why young people abscond from care. In addition, I have also gained extensive ‘hands-on’ pedagogical experience via my prior role as GTA, Assistant for the Remote and Blended Learning Working Group and as the Sociology Access Tutor and Lecturer.

As Research Fellow, I look forward to assisting researchers from different disciplines to work collaboratively on projects which address intersecting forms on inequality, particularly in relation to labour, gender and digital economies. By drawing upon a wider range of theories, methodologies, and data sources, and by encouraging the exchange of ideas and cross-fertilization of disciplines, multi-disciplinary collaboration can lead to a more nuanced and in-depth understandings of inequalities. In doing so, I believe the social sciences can contribute more widely to developing effective interventions and policies to address societal inequalities.

Interdisciplinary Research Fellows have been appointed in order to support funding applications from colleagues across the College of Social Science, as well as working on fellowship applications to further their own research trajectories. If you are thinking about applying for funding and wondering how Anna's role could support this, please get in touch: inequalities-irt@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 22 February 2023

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