31255 - Authenticity, Branding, and the Academic Self: A Research-Based Mentoring Event (Sponsored by the Section on Sociology of Consumers and Consumption)

Description

Through this mentoring event, aim to provide a space for sociological exploration of branding through a consumption lens while offering applied guidance on self-branding for career advancement, including the job market, promotion, and awards. By integrating collaborative mentoring (see Koontz, Walters & Edkin 2019) that encourages dialogue across multiple subfields, participants will engage with the challenges and opportunities that branding presents in academia and beyond.

The event will provide an applied approach to “self-branding” for the job market, promotion, and awards as well as a framework for research. To foster meaningful connections, we will match participants to create mentoring and research partnerships, expanding networking opportunities and sparking new avenues for collaboration. Centering “branding” as a unifying theme allows us to examine how it permeates nearly all aspects of life in a neoliberal era—including higher education—and to reflect on the implications for sociology as a discipline. This exploration will be both self-reflexive, considering how sociology itself is branded in the current socio-political context, and forward-looking, identifying how applied consumers & consumption research can address pressing contemporary issues.

Sub Unit

• Section on Sociology of Consumers and Consumption

Meeting Organizer

• Amanda Koontz, University of Central Florida