Dr Ash Watson is a sociologist and writer interested in how things become meaningful to us, collectively. She is a postdoctoral fellow with the Vitalities Lab, UNSW Sydney, and emerging expert in creative qualitative methods. Working on an ARC DP with Deborah Lupton and Mike Michael she researches how people make sense of/with data-generating technologies now and for the future. Ash also researches queerness and community-building via a study of queeringthemap.com. More information about the popular AKE Zine workshop series is available here.

Ash is a former postgraduate Endeavour Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her PhD in Sociology was awarded by Griffith University in late 2018. She is the creator of So Fi Zine, part of the AKE Zine team, and editor of The Sociological Review‘s fiction series. Her creative writing has appeared in Overland, SCUM, Bareknuckle Poet, BrainDrip and more. Her zines have featured at the Museum of Contemporary Art Zine Fair (part of Sydney Writers Festival), the National Young Writers’ Festival Zine Fair, and OtherWorlds. Her debut novel is forthcoming with Brill in 2020.

Ash is the elected Secretary (2019-2020) for The Australian Sociological Association.

Tweet @awtsn or email ashleigh.watson@unsw.edu.au.