Dr Marcus Morgan
BSc, MSc, MA, PhD
Expertise
My current research explores the cultural factors (e.g., narrative, coding, symbolisation, myth, ritual, performance, etc.) that shape political life.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Contact
Press and media
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Biography
I joined Bristol University in 2017, and was previously a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, and Fellow & College Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.
I studied at the London School of Economics (BSc, MSc), and Goldsmiths, University of London (MA, PhD).
I am co-Editor of the BSA/SAGE journal Cultural Sociology, a Faculty Fellow of Yale University's Center for Cultural Sociology, a Board Member of the International Sociological Assocation's Research Committee on Sociological Theory, and a member of the Editorial Boards of the journals the American Journal of Cultural Sociology, Sociologica, Society, and the International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society.
During the 2022-23 academic year, I am on a Leverhulme Research Fellowship trying to understand the relationship between social performance and power.
For enquiries related to Cultural Sociology, please use the following email: marcus.morgan@britsoc.org.uk
Research interests
My recent research has explored how culture (e.g., narrative, coding, symbolisation, myth, ritual, performance, etc.) shapes politics. I have investigated this through historical and contemporary case studies including university campus feuds, the Black Consciousness Movement in apartheid South Africa, the apparent recent global upsurge of political ‘populism’, the 2017 UK General Election, and recent governmental responses to the Covid-19 crisis.
I am also interested in social theory, the sociology of intellectuals, the role of humanism in the social sciences, and the sociology of social movements.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
Performing Power: Bridging the Antinomies of Performance and Power
Principal Investigator
Description
Leverhulme Research FellowshipManaging organisational unit
School of Sociology, Politics and International StudiesDates
01/10/2022 to 30/09/2023
Publications
Recent publications
17/04/2025Performing Power
Performing Power
Existence theory and contemporary culture
The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism
Hidden Transcripts of the Powerful
Sociology
Existence theory revisited
Journal of Classical Sociology
Symbolic action and constraint: the cultural logic of the 2017 UK General Election
American Journal of Cultural Sociology
Teaching
I currently teach the following BSc courses:
Key Social Thinkers (TB2)
Sociology in a Global Context (TB2)
and the following MSc courses:
Understanding Culture (TB1)
Philosophy & Research Design in the Social Sciences (TB1)
Understanding Social Movements (TB2)
