Dr Maike Potschulat

Maike Pötschulat is a senior lecturer in sociology with a range of research interests, predominantly in the fields of classical sociology, urban studies and visual sociology. She is particularly interested in exploring urban sense-making of different groups of people and understanding the social meanings of the built urban environment. For instance, she has studied university student populations and how their relationship to the city is shaped by neoliberal urban politics and Higher Education policies. In her most recent work, she explored academic and local discourses around 'iconic architecture' to critically discuss how 'icons' can become meaningful everyday spaces for local populations. With a keen interest in everyday sociologies and sense-making (and the empirical study of these), Maike is currently developing a novel analysis approach based on and named after Erving’s Goffman’s book ‘Frame Analysis’. Maike is also interested in the potential of the 'visual' to generate meaningful sociological insights and the types of (urban) realities that visual methodologies are capturing. She has used participant-led visual methods in her own research and is interested in positioning sociological photography within an empirical as well as aesthetic canon.

Besides her academic work, Maike has worked with and for a range of urban organisations (predominantly in the third sector) in Germany and the UK and is interested in collaborations with people, movements and organisations outside of academia.

Maike is currently delivering modules in urban sociology, cultural sociology and advanced qualitative research methods and methodologies. In the past, she has also taught modules in sociological theory, global sociology and the sociology of work.

Maike currently teaches on these modules:
- 4108SOC Cultural Sociology
- 5102SOC Research in Action
- 5115SOC Cities

Maike has also taught on:
- 4100SOC Sociological Imaginations
- 4103SOC Researching the Everyday
- 4105SOC Global Issues and Society
- 5106SOC Society and Environment in Conflict
- 6112SOC/6113SOC Sociology Work Placement