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      Dr Maria Adamson

      PhD, FHEA
      ROLE: Senior Lecturer in Human Resources Management
      SCHOOL: Business School
      DEPARTMENT: Management Leadership & Organisations
      TELEPHONE: +44 (0)20 8411 4477
      EMAIL: M.Adamson@mdx.ac.uk
      1. Biography &
        Qualifications
      2. Learning &
        Teaching Interests
      3. Research Outputs &
        Interests
      4. Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects
      5. Engagement &
        Impact

      • Biography &
        Qualifications

        Dr Maria Adamson (BA (Hons), MA, PhD), has joined Middlesex Business School in 2015 and is now a Senior Lecturer and co-leader of the Gender and Diversity Reserch Cluster in the Business School. She holds a PhD from the University of York and her thesis explored the mechanisms of professionalization and feminization of of counselling psychology profession in a post-socialist context. Before joining Middlesesx she has worked at the University of York, University of Essex and Noon Centre for Equality and Diversity in Business. She was a Visiting Erasmus Scholar at Copenhagen Business School in Autumn 2015.

        Maria is a critical scholar passionate in her interest in gender (in)equality in professional work and organizations. She is currently serving as a co-editor of the Work, Organisation and Society journal (ABS 4*) and a covenor of the Work, Employment and Economic Life research group at the British Sociological Association. She is also a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (PG Cert from the University of Essex). Maria has lived, worked and studied in four different countries: the UK, the USA, Russia and Hungary. She likes travelling, tasting delectable food from around the world, and used to be a singer in a jazz band.


        Languages Spoken

      • Learning &
        Teaching Interests

        Teaching:

        HRM2003 Work, Organisation and Society (Module Leader)

        HRM2007 Work, Organisation and Society (Module Leader)

        HRM3150 Authentic Leadership.

        PhD supervision:

        Miss Sarah Machado Marques Sampaio ('Gender roles and the business/household nexus: women’s entrepreneurship in Sao Paulo, Brazil')

        Dr Adamson is interested in supervising PhD students in the following areas: 

        - equality and diversity in organisations

        - gender at work, femininity/masculinity in organisations

        - culture and organisations, business celebrity

        - gender and professions, professionalism, professionalization

      • Research Outputs &
        Interests

         Research Interests:

        - gender (in)equality in management and professional work

        - professional and workplace identities, femininity and masculinity in organisations

        -  postfeminism and the application of feminist theories within the field of organization studies

        -  business self-help and business celebrity

        - professions, professionalism and professionalization

        Recent articles in peer review journals:

        Adamson, M. and Kelan, E.K. (2018) Female heroes’: celebrity executives as postfeminist role models. British Journal of Management Onine first: doi:10.1111/1467-8551.12320 (ABS 4)

        Beuregard, T. A., Lup, D. and Adamson, M. (2018) The many faces of gender inequality at work. Work, Employment and Society, 32(4): 623-628. (ABS 4)

        Adamson, M. (2017) Postfeminism, neoliberalism and 'successfully' balanced femininity in celebrity CEO autobiogrphies. Gender, Work and Organization, 24(3): 314-327. (ABS 3)

        Adamson, M. and Kelan, E.K. and Lewis, P. and Rumens, N. and Sliwa, M. (2016) The quality of equality: thinking differently about gender inclusion in organizations. Human Resource Management International Digest, 24(7): 8-11.

        Adamson, M and Johansson, M (2016) Compositions of professionalism in counselling work: an embodied intersectionality perspective. Human Relations, 69(12): 2201-2223 (ABS 4)

        Adamson, M (2015) The making of a glass slipper: exploring patterns of inclusion and exclusion in a feminized profession. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 34(3): 214-226. (ABS 1)

        Adamson, M. and Salmenniemi, S. (2015) New Heroines of Labour: Domesticating postfeminism and neoliberal capitalism in Russia. Sociology, 49(1): 188-105. (ABS 4)

        Adamson, M. (2014) Reflexivity and the competing discourses of masculinity in a female-dominated profession. Gender, Work and Organization, 21(6): 559–572(ABS 3)

        Adamson, M., Manson, S., Zakaria, I. (2014) Exploring the professional project of executive remuneration consultants in the UK through the lens of institutional work. Journal of Professions and Organization, 2(1): 19-37. (ABS 2)

        Adamson, M. (2014) Insider/Outsider dilemma in cross-cultural interviewing. SAGE Digital Case Repository. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/978144627305014527668

        Adamson, M. and Griffin, G. (2011) The feminization of a newly emerging profession: the case of women and psychological counselling in post-Soviet Russia. European Journal of Women's Studies, 18(3): 279–29. (ABS 2)

        Book Chapters:

        Adamson, M (forthcoming) The power to transform? Analyzing postfeminist and neoliberal feminist tropes in women celebrity CEO autobiographies. In EK Kelan, PMJ Lewis, H Liu, B Ozkazanc-Pan and A Pullen (eds). Oxford Handbook of Gender in Organisations, OUP. 

        Adamson, M (forthcoming) Researching business celebrity autobiographies: Mapping a nre site for diversity research. In A. Risberg, S.N. Just and F. Villsèche (eds.) Routledge Companion to Organizational Diversity Research Methods, Routledge.

        Adamson, M. and Salmenniemi S (2017) 'The Bottom line is that the problem is you' - Aesthetic Labour, Postfeminism and Subjectivity in Russian self-help literature. In A.s.Elias, E.Gill and C.Scharff (eds) Aesthetic Labour Rethinking Beauty politics in Neolibealism. Palgrave Mzcmillan.

        Adamson, M. and Kispiter, E. (2016) Gender and professional work in Hungary and the USSR, in C.Barker (ed.) Gender in the 20th Century Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Palgrave McMillan.

        Edited Special Issues:

        Special Issue: Gender Work and Organisation (with Lewis, PMJ, Kelan, E and Biese, I), ‘Exploring the Rise of Moderate Feminisms in Organisations’ (editorial forthcoming in 2019)

        Special Issue: Organization (with Lewis, PMJ, Kelan, E, Rumens, N and Sliwa, M) ‘The Quality of Equality: Critically Rethinking Gendered Inclusion in Organisations’ (publication date 2020)

        Special Issue: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (with Beauregard, TA, Kunter, A, Miles, L., and Roper, I) Diversity in the Work-Life Interface (submissions due Feb, 2019)

        Recently organised conference Special Streams:

        2018- British Sociological Association Conference (Belfast). Special Stream Convenor: Work, Employment and Economic Life (with J. Timms, R.L. Cohen and J.Preminger)

        2017 – Critical Management Studies conference (Liverpool University). Special stream convenor The Quality of Equality: Critically Debating Inclusion in Organisations (with M.Slywa, P.Lewis, N.Rumens and E.Kelan)

        2017 - British Sociological Association Conference (Aston University). Special Stream Convenor: Work, Employment and Economic Life (with B. Fincham and L. Pettinger)

        2016 - Gender Work Organisation Conference (Keele University). Special Stream Convenor: The emergence of moderate feminisms in contemporary organisations (with I. Biese, P.Lewis, E. Kelan, R, Simpson)

        2016 - British Sociological Association Conference (University of Birmingham). Special Stream Convenor: Work, Employment and Economic Life (with B. Fincham and L. Pettinger)

        2015 - British Sociological Association Conference (Glasgow Caledonian University). Special Stream Convenor: Work, Employment and Economic Life (with B. Fincham and L. Pettinger)

        Publication Feed

        'Female heroes': celebrity executives as postfeminist role models

        Adamson, Maria and Kelan, Elisabeth K. (2019) 'Female heroes': celebrity executives as postfeminist role models. British Journal of Management , 30 (4). pp. 981-996. ISSN 1045-3172

        Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality, by Shani Orgad. Columbia University Press. 2019, 288 pages [Book Review]

        Adamson, Maria (2019) Heading Home: Motherhood, Work, and the Failed Promise of Equality, by Shani Orgad. Columbia University Press. 2019, 288 pages [Book Review]. Gender, Work and Organization . ISSN 0968-6673 (Accepted/In press)

        Book review: Like Mother, Like Daughter? by Jill Armstrong

        Adamson, Maria (2018) Book review: Like Mother, Like Daughter? by Jill Armstrong. Organization , 25 (5). pp. 687-689. ISSN 1350-5084 (Published online first)

        The many faces of gender inequality at work

        Beauregard, T. Alexandra and Lup, Daniela and Adamson, Maria (2018) The many faces of gender inequality at work. Work, Employment and Society , 32 (4). pp. 623-628. ISSN 0950-0170

        Exploring gendered inclusion in contemporary organisations - ESRC

        Adamson, Maria and Kelan, Elisabeth K. and Lewis, Patricia and Rumens, Nick and Sliwa, Martyna (2017) Exploring gendered inclusion in contemporary organisations - ESRC. Impact , 2017 (9). pp. 56-57. ISSN 2398-7073

        View more publications

      • Funded Research &
        Knowledge Exchange Projects

        2015-2018 ESRC Seminar Series. Principal Investigator. (£26000, Grant No ES/N008685/1). Project: Exploring Gendered Inclusion in Contemporary Organizations

        2013-2016  Kone Foundation Grant. Co-Investogator (EUR180000, Grant No 26002848). Project: Constructing gender in business self-help and celebrity autobiography texts' part of the network project 'Governing the Mind' (PI Suvi Salmenniemi, University of Turku).

        2012-2013  Essex Business School Research Grant. Principal investigator (£1000) Project: Professionalization of executive remuneration consultancy

        2012-2013 Essex University Early Career Research Development Grant (£500).

      • Engagement &
        Impact

        Dr Adamson holds a number of positions in which she leads and engages with the professional community within and outside Middlesex:

        - she is a co-leader of the Gender and Diversity research cluster at Middlesex University Business School

        - She is a co-editor of the Work Employment and Society journal 2018-2020 (ABS 4*)

        - she is a member of an Editorial Board of Human Relations journal.

        - she has been a long-standing co-covenor of the Work, Employment and Economic Life research group at the British Sociological Association. 

        - she is a Fellow of Higher Education Academy since 2012 

        - She is also a member of several other professional associations: VIDA – Critical Management Studies Women's Association, European Group for Organization Studies, British Academy of Management and European Academy of Management



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