Room 3B106

University of Stirling

Stirling

FK9 4LA
Scotland

UK

Lecturer

Psychology

I was born in Norway, grew up in Ireland, did a B.A. in Psychology at Trinity College (Dublin), an MSc in Social Psychology at the London School of Economics and a PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge. After finishing my PhD in 2004 I began lecturing at the University of Cambridge, and then moved to the University of Stirling in 2005.

The keywords which describe my research are: Social interaction, communication, intersubjectivity, self and joint activity. At a theoretical level I am committed to the early pragmatists (Mead, Dewey and James), and like to mix their work with that of Bakhtin and Vygotsky.

At the core of my research is communication and intersubjectivity, which I study at both societal and psychological levels. At the societal level I have studied the communication and misunderstandings between groups such as communities in Northern Ireland, Tourists and Indians, immigrant groups, and contexts of conflict. At the psychological level I have studied the intersubjective nature of individual thought processes in the form of internal dialogues and self-reflection.

Recently I have been studying the communication within the care relationship, in the contexts of stroke and brain injury, to understand how carers provide a verbal-cognitive scaffold to support the thought processes of those they care for. One outcome of this research has been the development of a novel technology called Guide - which simulates internal dialogues.

These four strands of research have been funded by the European Science Foundation (pdf), the ESRC, Peterhouse (Cambridge), the British Academy, the Wellcome Trust, the Royal Society, University of Stirling, the Chief Scientists' Office, and the Nuffield Foundation. I have active collaborations with Tania Zittoun, Flora Cornish, Charis Psaltis, Brady Wagoner, Joan Murphy, Ivana Marková.

Recently I was co-chair of the Organising Committee for the Fifth International Conference on the Dialogical Self and am currently involved in constructing the on-line and open-access Frederic Bartlett Archive funded by the British Academy.

I am on the editorial boards of Culture & Psychology, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, The Journal of Social, Evolutionary, & Cultural Psychology, Journal of Integrated Social Sciences, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, and review for a wide range of journals and publishers.

I have also been involved in some Psy-Art collaborations with colleagues Robb Mitchell and Brian O'Neill. We have expanded upon Stanley Milgram's work on 'cyranoids' and have done a solo show for Generator Projects in Dundee and a joint show in the St Andrews Museum and a presentation for the Thursday Club, Goldsmiths Graduate School, and recently contributed to the St Unicorn's trust performance.

I have been invited to give talks and attend workshops in many places including the Italiano per Studi Philosofici Instituto, University of Neuchatel, University of Cambridge, University of Chemnitz (ppt), Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, University College Dublin, Château de Schengen, University of St. Andrews, University of Uppsala, Aberystwyth University (video podcast), the University of Oslo, and the University of Copenhagen.

I am module co-ordinator for the 3rd year Social Psychology module (PSY9AJ), and lecture on the Introduction to Psychology module (1st year) and the social communication module (2nd year). I also run a seminars (electives) in for final year students and contribute to the teaching of qualitative research methodology and child development at Masters level.

In terms of supervising students' projects, I am interested to work with anyone who wants to explore cultural psychology, social representations, self and identity, and/or intersubjectivtiy.

O'Neill, B. Moran, K. & Gillespie, A. (in press). Scaffolding rehabilitation behaviour using a voice-mediated assistive technology for cognition. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

Gillespie, A. & Cornish, F. (in press). Intersubjectivity: Towards a dialogical analysis. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaivour.

Gillespie, A. (in press). Position exchange: The social development of agency. New Ideas in Psychology.

Gillespie, A. & Zittoun, T. (in press). Using resources: Conceptualising the mediation and reflective use of tools and signs. Culture & Psychology

Gillespie, A. & Zittoun, T. (in press). Studying the movement of thought. In Aaro Toomela and Jaan Valsiner (Eds.), Methodological thinking in psychology: 60 years gone astray?

Zittoun, T. & Gillespie, A. (in press). Using diaries and self-writings as data in psychological research. In Emily Abbey & Seth Surgan (Eds), Developing Methods in Psychology

Gillespie, A. (in press). Self. In N. Azari et al. (Eds), Encyclopaedia of Sciences and Religions. New York: Springer.

Cornish, F. & Gillespie, A. (2009). A pragmatist approach to the problem of knowledge in health psychology. Journal of Health Psychology, 14 (6), 800-809.

Gillespie, A. (2009). Autobiography and identity: Malcolm X as author and hero. In R. Terrill, The Cambridge Companion to Malcolm X. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gillespie, A. (2009). The intersubjective nature of symbols. In B. Wagoner (Ed.), Symbolic Transformations. London: Routledge.

Zittoun, T., Gillespie, A. & Cornish, F. (2009). Fragmentation or differentiation: Questioning the crisis in psychology. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, 43, 104-115.

Gillespie, A. (2009). Returning to James: A methodological challenge. Psychology & Society, 2, 33-35. (link)

Gillespie, A. (2008). Social representations, alternative representations and semantic barriers. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 38, 4, 376-391.

O’Neill, B. & Gillespie, A. (2008 ). Simulating naturalistic instruction: The case for a voice mediated interface for assistive technology for cognition. Journal of Assistive Technology, 2, 22-31.

Gillespie, A. Cornish, F., Aveling, E. & Zittoun, T. (2008). Conflicting community commitments: A dialogical analysis of a British woman's World War II diaries. Journal of Community Psychology, 36, 35-52.

Aveling, E-L. & Gillespie, A. (2008). Negotiating multiplicity: Adaptive asymmetries within second generation Turks’ ‘society of mind’. Journal of Constructivist Psychology, 21, 200-222.

Gillespie, A. (2007). Collapsing Self/Other positions: Identification through differentiation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 46, 579-595.

Cornish, F., Gillespie, A., Zittoun, T. & Baucal, A. (2007). Editorial introduction. Integrative Psychological and Behavioural Science, 41, 121-123.

Marková, I. & Gillespie, A. (Eds.) (2007). Trust and distrust: Socio-cultural perspectives. (Monograph series, Advances in cultural psychology). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc. (review)

Zittoun, T., Baucal, A., Cornish, F. & Gillespie, A. (2007). Collaborative research, knowledge and emergence. Integrative Psychological and Behavioural Science, 41, 208-217.

Wagoner, B., Gillespie, A. & Duveen, G. (2007). Bartlett in the digital age. The Psychologist, 20.

Zittoun, T., Cornish, F., Gillespie, A. & Aveling, E.-L. (2007). Using social knowledge: A case study of a diarist’s meaning-making during World War II. In T. Sugiman, K. Gergen & W. Wagner (eds.) Meaning in action. Springer Verlag.

Marková, I., Linell, P., & Gillespie, A. (2007). Trust and distrust in society. In I. Marková & A. Gillespie, Trust and distrust: Sociocultural perspectives. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Gillespie, A. (2007). Trust in everyday interaction. In Ivana Marková and Alex Gillespie (Eds.), Trust and distrust: Sociocultural perspectives. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Gillespie, A. (2007). The intersubjective dynamics of trust, distrust and manipulation. In Ivana Marková and Alex Gillespie (Eds.), Trust and distrust: Sociocultural perspectives. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Gillespie, A. (2007). In the other we trust: Buying souvenirs in Ladakh, north India. In Ivana Marková and Alex Gillespie (Eds.), Trust and distrust: Sociocultural perspectives. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc.

Zittoun, T., Aveling, E-L., Gillespie, A., & Cornish, F. (in press). People in transitions in worlds in transition: Ambivalence in the transition to womanhood during WWII. In A. Bastos, K. Uriko and J. Valsiner (Eds.), Cultural Dynamics of Women’s Lives. Rome: Carlo Amore Edizioni.

Zittoun, T, Gillespie, A., Cornish, F. & Psaltis, C. (2007). The metaphor of the triangle in theories of human development. Human Development, 50, 208-229.

Cornish, F., Zittoun, T. & Gillespie, A. (2007). A cultural psychological reflection on collaborative research. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 8, 3, art. 21. (link)

Gillespie, A. (2007). The social basis of self-reflection. In Jaan Valsiner and Alberto Rosa (Eds), The Cambridge Handbook of Socio-Cultural Psychology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (review)

Gillespie, A. (2007). Time, Self and the Other: The striving tourist in Ladakh, north India. In Livia Simao and Jaan Valsiner (eds) Otherness in question: Development of the self. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc. (review)

Gillespie, A. (2006). Becoming other: From social interaction to self-reflection. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing, Inc. (review 1, review 2, review3 )

Gillespie, A. (2006). Descartes’ demon: A dialogical analysis of Meditations on First Philosophy. Theory & Psychology, 16, 761-781.

Gillespie, A. (2006). Games and the development of perspective taking. Human Development, 49, 87-92.

Gillespie, A. (2006). Tourist photography and the reverse gaze. Ethos, 34 (3), 343-366.

Gillespie, A. (2005). G.H. Mead: Theorist of the social act. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 35 (1), 19-39.

Gillespie, A. (2005). Malcolm X and his autobiography: Identity development and self-narration. Culture & Psychology, 11(1), 77-88.

Gillespie, A. (2005). Giving the future form: Non-reflective and reflective uses of symbolic resources. In A. Gülerce, I. Steauble, A. Hofmeister, G. Saunders and J. Kaye (Eds), Theoretical Psychology. Toronto: Captus Press.

Gillespie, A. (2004). The Mystery of GH Mead’s first book. Theory & Psychology 14 (3), 423-425.

Gillespie, A. (2003). Supplementarity and surplus: Moving between the dimensions of otherness. Culture & Psychology 9 (3), 209-220.

Zittoun, T., Duveen, G., Gillespie, A., Ivinson, G. & Psaltis, C. (2003). The use of symbolic resources in developmental transitions. Culture & Psychology, 9 (4), 415-448.

Gillespie, A, Peltzer, K & MacLachlan, M. (2000). Returning refugees: Psychosocial problems and mediators of mental health among Malawian returnees. Journal of Mental Health 9 (2), 165-178.