Dr. Mark Wong joined the University of Glasgow as a Lecturer (also known as, Assistant Professor in Hong Kong/US) in 2017. 

Mark's current research focuses on marginalised youth, inequalities and precarity, and the impact of technologies on society and social networks in the digital age. He is also an expert in social data science and Social Network Analysis (SNA). 

Mark is the Undergraduate Convenor in Urban Studies and Programme Director of the successful MA (Hons) in Social and Public Policy, which was ranked joint-first for Social Policy in the UK in NSS 2019. 

Mark holds a range of leadership responsibilities at School and College levels, including co-leader of the College interdisciplinary research theme, Digital Society and Economy (and cross-college Glasgow Social and Digital Change group), College Learning and Teaching Framework Project Lead, and Deputy UG Convenor of the School of Social and Political Sciences. 

He has a successful track record of publishing original research and sole-author articles in 4* (world-leading) top international peer-review journals, including New Media and Society (2019 Impact Factor: 4.577) and Housing Studies (2019 Impact Factor: 2.255). 

He is a Co-Investigator of the EPSRC-funded project, MultilayerALGS (£766,000, Standard Grant, 2020-23), and is leading cutting-edge innovations in social data science through interdisciplinary collaborations with computer science and maths and statistics experts at the University of Glasgow and University of Edinburgh. 

He is leading the project's work package on developing novel applications of network algorithms to analyse online social networks using a multi-layer network approach. In relation to this work, Mark is also a Co-Investigator of a ESRC Impact Acceleration Account Grant to promote knowledge exchange via the Glasgow Social and Digital Change group. 

Mark recently won the School Teaching Excellence Award 2020, in recognition of his distinct contribution in enhancing student experience and using technology to promote active learning pedagogy. He is also co-leading a project with colleagues in Urban Studies, who won two awards from the UofG Learning and Teaching Development Fund 2020 (LTDF) to explore embedding technology in active and blended learning as well as promoting feedback literacy. Mark is part of the University Learning and Teaching Committee's working group, Reimagining Learning Encounters, as one of the College of Social Sciences representatives. 

In addition, Mark co-convenes the Scottish cross-institutional research network, Social Network Analysis in Scotland (SNAS) group and the Neighbourhood, Welfare and Well-being research section in Urban Studies.

Background

Mark completed his PhD in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh and his work explored the importance of technologies and online connections for disengaged young people (“hidden youth”) in Hong Kong and Scotland. 

He is interested in the role and importance of digital interactions and online communities for young people and individuals who are marginalised in society. His research examines this issue in the changing global context dominated by insecurity and to understand young people's lived experiences in increased precarity. 

Methodologically, Mark is interested and has been involved in several research projects working with social data science methods, including "big data" analytics, Social Network Analysis (SNA), network visualisations, social media data (e.g. twitter), linked data, and bibliometrics.

In Mark's recent work, he argues online connections have become especially important to those who are marginalised. This research contributed to informing public understanding around online social networks and was reported in several news media, including the Herald, Future Scot (published with the Times Scotland), and other media outlets. 

Mark's research also contributed to public awareness on the issue of "hidden youth", including through several news reports on his research, e.g. The Sunday Times, The Times Scotland, and BBC Radio Scotland. He was interviewed by the BBC Radio Scotland's prime national news programme, Good Morning Scotland, in May 2018. 

Mark acted as a peer reviewer for several national funding bodies, such as the MRC/GCRF, and other international peer-review journals, such as New Media and Society and Journal of Social Policy. He also had recent success in winning funding in the ESRC supervisor-led studentship competition (with Dr. Sharon Wright), for a doctoral project on "Young people's lived experiences of welfare conditionality over time". He is part of the organising committee for the University's flagship LKAS international sympoisum 2020 on Inclusive Digital Future. 

Teaching and Learning

Mark has a range of experiences in teaching social policy (particularly youth policy), social data science and quantitative research methods, social network analysis, reserach design, and data visualisation for various UK institutions and international academic networks.

Mark is part of Project Mobius, funded by Innovate UK, which developed innovations in Virtual Reality (VR) in teaching and learning. He acts as one of ten VR App Champions and has been involved in developing a new app in the game-changing Edify.ac VR platform to visualise data in an immersive VR environment for teaching. 

He also serves as the Academic Lead for a project in the College of Social Sciences Learning and Teaching Framework 2020-25, in "Transforming Assessment and Feedback". The project, funded by the College Dean of Leaning and Teaching Fund, aims to serve as an exemplary case of using technology to transform assessment and feedback practices in CoSS. I led the co-design of a new app, UniCom, to improve timeliness of feedback in active learning. 

In 2019-20, Mark co-led a scholarship project to pilot and evaluate uses of online assessment and feedback for the School of Social and Political Sciences at UofG (with Prof Susan Deeley and Dr Zsuzsanna Varga).

• Youth, marginalisation, and disengagement
• Digital society, social networks and human connections in the "digital age"
• Data science, "big data" analytics, data linkage, automation and APIs (particularly in R)
• Social Network Analysis and network visualisations
• Youth policies and welfare in Hong Kong/Scotland

List by: Type | Date

• EPSRC Standard Grant, Multilayer Algorithmics to Leverage Graph Structure (MultilayerALGS), Co-Investigator, with Meeks K. (co-PI), Enright J. (co-PI), Lee D. and Guo H. (£760,000)
  https://gow.epsrc.ukri.org/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP/T004878/1

• ESRC Impact Acceleration Account grant, Social and Digital Change Group, Knowledge Exchange Associate Stream

• ESRC supervisor-led studentship competition (with Dr. Sharon Wright), for a doctoral project on "Young people's lived experiences of welfare conditionality over time"

• UofG Learning and Teaching Development Fund 2020 x 2 (£6,000 for two projects, on technology and gamification (lead applicant) and feedback and assessment literacy, with Dr Craig Gurney, Prof Susan Deeley, Prof Rebecca Madgin, Dr Alasdair Stewart)

• UofG Urban Studies Research Incentivisation Funds 2017-18; 18-19 (organising the "Research Youth in the Digital Age Workshop" Series, including a mini-symposium) (£1700, 2017-18; £780, 2018-19)

• UofG Dean of Learning and Teaching Fund, Improving Feedback in Active Learning Using a Web App "UniCom", College of Social Sciences, University of Glasgow

• PhD - topics interested to supervise include:

  • Youth, marginalisation, and inequality
  • Digital society, social networks and socialconnections in the "digital age"
  • Data science, "big data" analytics (e.g. social media data),  automation and APIs
  • Social Network Analysis and network visualisations
  • Youth policies and welfare in Hong Kong/Scotland

• PGT in Urban Studies (including Public Policy, Housing Studies, and Real Estate and Regeneration) 

• UG Social and Public Policy

• Rochow, Thomas
  Young people's lived experiences of welfare conditionality

Awards

Teaching Excellence Award 2020, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

Semester 1

• Youth, Policy and Welfare: Cross-Cultural Perspectives (Designed by Mark Wong, Co-Convening with Kezia Dugdale, Director of John Smith Centre, 2020-21)
• UG Quantitative Research Methods (Course Convenor)

Semester 2

• Social and Public Policy 2B: Policy, Politics and Power (Course Convwnor 18-19, Lectures on youth)
• Big Data, Policy, and Power (New Course Designed by Mark Wong, available from 2020-21)