Dr Sarah Dyer

January 2009 –, Hallsworth Research Fellow, University of Manchester.
October 2006 – December 2008, Lecturer, Human Geography, Oxford University Centre for the Environment.
October 2005 – September 2006, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, Oxford University Centre for the Environment.

Dr Dyer has a BA in Philosophy (London) and a Masters in Human Geography (London). She was awarded her PhD in 2006. Her thesis, entitled 'Applying Bioethics: Local Research Ethics Committees and their ethical regulation of medical research', investigated the geographies of regulating ethics in research. It was the first systematic study of these committees for over decade and examined their standardization and locality remit, their construction of 'informed consent', and the role of their lay members.

Dr Dyer is treasurer of the Royal Geographical Society's History and Philosophy of Geography Research Group (HPGRG) and a co-ordinator of the Geography, Science and Politics Research Network.

Sarah Dyer is a human geographer with research interests in science and healthcare. Her current research examines the mechanisms structuring scientific labour markets in a clustered knowledge economy and the narratives of work, identity, and ethics of scientists working in such labour markets along with those who have left them.

Her recent research on migration to work in London's healthcare and hospitality sectors, working with Professor Linda McDowell, is part of GeNet, a priority network exploring changing dynamics of gender equality. It uses primarily qualitative research methods to investigate the participation of migrant workers in hospital and hotel labour markets, organizations' human resource strategies within such labour markets, and the embodied work of care.

Research Projects (since 2001)

Scientific careers in a clustered 'knowledge economy': Oxford case study
Financial support from John Fell OUP Research Fund (2008-2009)

Gender Inequality in Production and Reproduction: ESRC Priority Network
In collaboration with Professor Linda McDowell; Dr Adina Batnitzky; Universities of Cambridge, Essex, LSE and City; financial support from ESRC (2005-2008)

Geographies of Trust and Consent in Medical Research. Applying Bioethics: Local Research Ethics Committees and their ethical regulation of medical research
Ph.D. research project supervised by Professor David Demeritt and Professor Keith Hoggart (King's College London); financial support from University of London Triangle Trust scholarship and AHRC (2001-2005)

Dyer, S., McDowell, L., and Batnitzky, A. (forthcoming, 2010) The impact of migration on the gendering of service work: the case of a West London hotel. Gender, Work and Organization.

McDowell, L., Batnitzky, A. and Dyer, S. (forthcoming, 2009) Precarious work and economic migration. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research.

Dyer, S. and Demeritt, D. (2009) Unethical review? What's wrong with applying the medical model of ethical review to human geography. Progress in Human Geography. 33: 46-64.

Dyer, S., McDowell, L., and Batnitzky, A. (2008) Emotional labour / body work: the caring labours of migrants in the UK's National Health Service. Geoforum. 39 (6): 2030-2038.

Batnitzky, A., McDowell, L., and Dyer, S. (2008) Flexible and Strategic Masculinities: The Working Lives and Gendered Identities of Male Migrants in London. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

McDowell, L., Batnitzky, A. and Dyer, S. (2008) Internationalization and the Spaces of Temporary Labour: The Global Assembly of a Local Workforce. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 46 (4): 750-770.

McDowell, L., Batnitzky, A. and Dyer, S. (2008) Migration, employment and gender divisions of labour. Ch. 14 in Scott, J., Dex, S. and Joshi, H. (eds.) Women and Employment: Changing Lives and New Challenges. Edward Elgar.

Batnitzky, A., McDowell, L., and Dyer, S. (2008) A middle-class global mobility? The working lives of Indian men in a west London hotel, (PDF). Global Networks, 8 (1): 51-70.

Dyer, S. (2008) Hybrid Geographies. In, Hubbard, P., Kitchin, R. and Valentine, G. (eds.) Key Texts in Human Geography. Sage.

McDowell, L., Batnitzky, A., and Dyer, S. (2007) Division, segmentation, and interpellation: The embodied labors of migrant workers in a greater London hotel. Economic Geography, 83 (1): 1-25.

Dyer, S. (2004) Rationalising public participation in the health service; the case of research ethics committees. Health and Place, 10 (4): 339-348.

Demeritt, D. and Dyer, S. (2002) Dialogue, Metaphors of Dialogue, and Understandings of Geography. Area, 34 (3): 229-241.

Recent and forthcoming Conference Sessions and Papers

March 2009 – Association of American Geographers: Gendering the scientific work in a ‘knowledge cluster’: the case of Oxford, UK [in the session Gendered (im)mobilities of knowledge and learning in the new economy].

November 2008 – Association of Research Ethics Committees conference: Speaking for the motion RECs: An Unnecessarily Overly Bureaucratic System.

November 2008 – KNOWING conference: Gender at work in a 'knowledge cluster'.

Aug 2008 – Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Conference: A triangulation of thoughts on qualitative research methods.

Aug 2008 – Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers Conference: The impact of migration on the gendering of service work: the case of a West London hotel.