Irina Obeada
PhD studentResearch Overview
Situated within the intersection between Consumer Culture Theory and the sociology of risk, my doctoral research explores the status and function of voluntary risk-taking within consumption, markets, and consumer culture. It is based on a stratified epistemological strategy which centres on both consumers’ personal and micro-social experiences of risk but also the broader political, cultural, and ideological factors that shape and influence their experiences without their conscious awareness.
Drawing upon the explanatory value of concepts including the life course perspective, ‘edgework’, ‘epistemological community’, and ‘consumer counter-mythology’, I investigate the epistemic and social functions that artistic and creative expression serves for those who have navigated risks to their sense of ordered existence.
Supervised By
Professor James Cronin and Professor Maria Piacentini
Current Teaching
My approach to teaching is grounded in fostering critical, reflexive, and socially engaged learning. I design learning environments that blend theoretical rigour with applied inquiry and socially sensitive marketplace contexts, enabling students to connect abstract ideas to societally-important consumer issues. I encourage students to interrogate the social, ethical, political, and cultural dimensions of consumption with the view to cultivating critical thinkers who can competently address the complexities of marketplace systems, developing not only analytical capabilities for the workplace but also a sense of responsibility toward transformative change.
Modules I am teaching in the 2025-2026 academic year:
- MKTG234: Social Media Marketing, workshop leader (Lent Term)
Qualifications
MReS Advanced Marketing Management, Lancaster University - Distinction
BSc (Hons) Marketing with Psychology, Lancaster University - First Class Honours
Public experiences of service change in primary care: Focusing on the spaces and places of service delivery
01/10/2023 → 01/11/2026
Research
CCI Roundtable Session on Valentine’s Day Consumption
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
CCI Roundtable Session on Jingle Bells & Shopping Spells: Unpacking the Christmas Consumption Frenzy
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
CCI Roundtable Session on The Cost of Living Crisis
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
CCI Roundtable Session on Social Media’s Otherworldly Subcultures
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar