Staff Profile
Dr David Hill
Associate Professor of Sociology
I'm a social theorist with a background in philosophy and an interest in researching questions of moral experience as they relate to culture, technology, and the environment. I have a BA in Philosophical Studies (Newcastle University), an MA in Philosophy (Durham University) and a PhD in Sociology (University of York). I was a Lecturer in Communication and Culture at the University of Liverpool for 5 years before joining York St John.
- School – York Business School
- Email – d.hill@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 951
- Research - View my work in RaY
- Postgraduate Research Supervisor
Further information
Teaching
I run three modules: Sociology of Work; Sociology of the Very Worst; and Theory Now. Through each of these modules I help students to develop conceptual work exploring our experiences of the everyday and the extraordinary. I also teach on the modules Sociology of Everyday Life and Media, Culture and the Social World.
Research
My research spans a range of topics: technology, work, media, religion, food, logistics, plants, animals and cities. What unites all this is a sustained attention to the question of moral experience, how it is formed and how it is constrained by the environments we inhabit, the tools we use, the things we consume, and the interactions we have along the way. This research is driven by a long engagement with the work of Emmanuel Levinas and supplemented by a changing cast of social theorists and thinkers, including Jean-Francois Lyotard, Judith Butler and Edouard Glissant.
Publications and conferences
Books
Hill, D.W. 2022. Moral Gravity: Staying Together at the End of the World. Bristol University Press.
Hill, D.W. 2015. The Pathology of Communicative Capitalism. Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal articles
Hill, D.W. 2024. Photosynethics: A Groundwork for Being with the Light. Journal for Cultural Research, 28:1, 1-13.
Hill, D.W. 2023. Love and Narcissism in Reality Television. Sociological Research Online, 28:2, 389-402.
Hill, D.W. 2022. The Eroticism of Logistics. Space and Culture, advance online publication.
Sointu, E. and D.W. Hill. 2022. Trump Therapy: Personal Identity, Political Trauma and the Contradictions of Therapeutic Practice. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 25:3, 880-896.
Hill, D.W. 2021. Trajectories in Platform Capitalism. Mobilities, 16:4, 569-583.
Hill, D.W. 2020. The Injuries of Platform Logistics. Media, Culture & Society, 42:4, 521-536.
Hill, D.W. 2020. Communication as a Moral Vocation: Safe Space and Freedom of Speech. The Sociological Review, 68:1, 3-16.
Hill, D.W. 2019. Speed and Pessimism: Moral Experience in the Work of Paul Virilio. Journal for Cultural Research, 23:4, 411-424.
Hill, D.W. 2019. Bearing Witness, Moral Responsibility and Distant Suffering. Theory, Culture & Society, 36:1, 27-45.
Hill, D.W. and D. Martin. 2017. Visibly Mute: Ethical Sociality and the Everyday Exurban. Antipode, 49:2, 416-436.
Hill, D.W. 2015. Class, Trust and Confessional Media in Austerity Britain. Media, Culture & Society, 37:4: 566-580.
Carruth, A.D. & D.W. Hill. 2015. Identity and Distinctness in Online Interaction: Encountering a Problem for Narrative Accounts of Self. Ethics and Information Technology, 17:2, 103-112.
Hill, D.W. 2013. Avatar Ethics: Beyond Images and Signs. Journal for Cultural Research, 17:1, 69-84.
Hill, D.W. 2012. Total Gating: Sociality and the Fortification of Networked Spaces. Mobilities, 7:1, 115-129.
Book chapter
Hill, D.W. 2011. Jean-François Lyotard and the Inhumanity of Internet Surveillance. In C. Fuchs et al (eds.), Internet and Surveillance: The Challenge of Web 2.0 and Social Media, 106-123. New York, NY: Routledge.
