Rate My Professor Lesley Procter

Dr. Lesley Procter serves as a Senior Lecturer in Sociology within the Sociology, Gender Studies and Criminology Programme at the University of Otago. She earned her BA and Diploma in Women's Studies from Massey University and completed her PhD at the University of Otago, where her doctoral research focused on mother-daughter relationships. Throughout her career at Otago, Procter has developed expertise in the sociology of identity, particularly how identities are constructed and performed in online and virtual environments. Her research also examines the intersections of alcohol consumption with identity formation, drawing on feminist psychoanalytic theory, theories of cultural and social capital, and the framework of legitimate peripheral participation. Additionally, she investigates pedagogical challenges in higher education, including strategies to foster information literacy, effective assessment practices, and critically reflective thinking among first-year students. Current projects encompass participant observation in digital spaces and longitudinal studies comparing assessment approaches.

Procter contributes significantly to teaching in her department, delivering courses such as SOCI 213: Concepts of Self, SOCI 313: The Subject in Post-Modern Society, and SOCI 403: Micro Sociology. Her scholarly output includes several peer-reviewed articles and editorial contributions. Notable publications are "Making monsters out of pets: non-binary identities in virtual spaces" co-authored with Chris Brickell (Continuum, 2026), "I am/we are: Exploring the online self-avatar relationship" (Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2021), and "Fostering critically reflective thinking with first-year university students: Early thoughts on implementing a reflective assessment task" (Reflective Practice, 2020). She has also co-edited proceedings for the Sociology, Gender Studies & Criminology and Social & Community Work Postgraduate Symposia in 2020 and 2021. Further works include explorations of virtual pedagogy and avatars, such as "Ways of (Virtual) Seeing: Applying a Bergerian Lens in a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)" (2017), "Troubling the margins between intimacy and anonymity: Queer(y)ing the virtual sex industry in Second Life" (2015), "A Mirror without a Tain: Personae, Avatars, and Selves in a Multi-User Virtual Environment" (2014), "Presence and pedagogy: The potentials of multiuser virtual environments as learning spaces" (2013), and "What is it about Field Trips? Praxis, Pedagogy and Presence in Virtual Environments" (2012).