home

Ash Watson

I am a sociologist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. My research spans technology, culture, belonging and wellbeing. I am interested in digital futures, storytelling, archives, libraries, creative methods, and queer feminist work.

I am Fiction Editor of The Sociological Review, a quarterly series of sociological short stories. I make/edit So Fi Zine, a twice-yearly pub for fiction, poetry, visual art & creative social inquiry. I am an Affiliate of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S). My debut novel Into the Sea was published by Brill in 2020. I run the indie zine publisher/distro Frances Street Press.

I have held a number of visiting positions including with The University of Glasgow (2025), the ESRC Centre for SocioDigital Futures at the University of Bristol (2023), and Goldsmiths, University of London as a Doctoral Endeavour Research Fellow (2017).

My grants and publications are listed here.

Contact me via email at ashleigh.watson@unsw.edu.au. Subscribe for sociological fiction news via awtsn.substack.com.

Google Scholar | University webpage | LinkedIn | Bluesky