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Category: Research Seminars

Research Seminar 3 May 2017 – Intertext, Anxiety, Iconography: Mapping the Meaning of the Moors Murderers and Yorkshire Ripper in Popular Music and Culture

Het Phillips, University of Birmingham, will explore the representation of the Moors Murderers and the Yorkshire Ripper in pop culture in our latest research seminar.

Canterbury Christ Church University
School of Media Art and Design
Research Seminars 2016-2017
3 May 2017
4.15pm-5.30pm
Powell Building – Pf06
North Holmes Road Campus

Intertext, Anxiety, Iconography: Mapping the Meaning of the Moors Murderers and Yorkshire Ripper in Popular Music and Culture
Speaker: Het Phillips, University of Birmingham

This lecture will use popular-musical representations of the ‘Moors Murders’ and ‘Yorkshire Ripper’ cases as case studies to examine the ways that pop culture has responded to and shaped, firstly, the figure of the celebrity murderer in general, secondly, the mythology surrounding these crimes specifically, and thirdly, designations of what is considered exceptional and what as ‘ordinary’ violence. In so-doing I will examine ways in which such self-consciously ‘rebellious’ forms construct themselves as questioning official history and respectable interests.

Featured in songs from punk, industrial and indie music from the 1970s to the present day, these killers’ proliferation as musical cultural commodities has emerged alongside the development of ‘alternative’ popular music and out of (and in turn fed back into) its mixed and often self-contradictory concerns around authenticity, fame, image, commodity, self-expression and transgression.

Drawing on Professor Lisa Downing’s work on the construction of the figure of the murderer as exceptional, as overlapping with the figure of the artist, and as the epitome of the individualised neoliberal subject (The Subject of Murder, 2013), and David Schmid’s analysis of the particular cultural forces that have shaped the modern serial killer into the apparently obvious and self-evident figure of fame and fascination (Natural Born Celebrities, 2006), I will demonstrate that the construction of these celebrity killers and that of the celebrity musician share many important facets and are mutually self-supporting in their mythologies and the kinds of cultural intertext they draw upon to create and maintain their exceptionality and commodity status as society’s ultimate outsider insiders.

Het Philips is a doctoral researcher at the School of Languages, Cultures, Art History and Music, University of Birmingham, and her research interests include Graham Greene, Muriel Spark, James Joyce, marginal landscapes, the uncanny, hauntings, the body and late twentieth/early twenty-first century popular music.

Powell Building – Pf06
North Holmes Road Campus
Email Dr Andrew Butler – Andrew.Butler@canterbury.ac.uk – for further details
— All welcome —

Research Seminar: 22 February 2017 – Dr Agnes Gulyas on Local Media

Reader in Digital Transformations, Dr Ágnes Gulyás, is to present a paper on local media in the digital age.

Canterbury Christ Church University
School of Media, Art and Design and Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures
Research Seminars 2016-2017

22 February 2017
1.00pm-1.55pm

Local media and local communities
Speaker: Dr Ágnes Gulyás, Canterbury Christ Church University

What are the roles and importance of local media in their community? How has the subject area been studied? How are the internet and online platforms impacting on the relationship between local communities and their local media? What is local news in the digital age? – These are the key questions for this talk, which will provide a review and (meta) analysis of the relevant literature outlining the key areas of concerns, main approaches and gaps in the field. As an important topic in the literature the talk will explore more closely how local media are changing in the digital age and the key issues regarding the impact of internet and online platforms on how local communities communicate and how information are mediated for them. Findings of an empirical study on local news and communication in the digital age carried out by the presenter and Sarah O’Hara will be presented to illustrate particular points.

Dr Ágnes Gulyás is a Reader in Digital Transformations in the School of Media, Art and Design. She is the co-director of the Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures, CCCU and teaching on the Media and Communications, Multimedia Journalism and MA by Research programmes and supervises PhD students in the School. Ágnes’ research interests include digital transformations, social media, communities, media organisations and industries and journalism.

Powell Building – Pf06
North Holmes Road Campus
Email Dr Andrew Butler – Andrew.Butler@canterbury.ac.uk – for further details

— All welcome —

Artists, Archives and A/Gender

Several of the School of Media, Art and Design’s research centres and researchers will be contributing to an event at the Sidney Cooper Gallery.

Beneath the Mask:
Artists, Archives and A/Gender — A day of events, exhibitions and spectacle.
March 16th 2017, 10am-4pm
Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury

Beneath the Mask: Artists, Archives and A/Gender will provide an exciting day of events, exhibitions and spectacle prompted by Claude Cahun‘s exploration of identities and masking.

Throughout the day and with an eclectic and playful mix of presentation and performance, Artists, Archives and A/Gender will explore concepts of identity and masquerade.
Curatorial walk/talks; authors and artists in conversations; poetry and performance will shape the day, providing a plurality of perspectives and an opportunity to enter into dynamic dialogue and discussion.

This one-day event is in partnership with UAL’s Photography and the Archive Research Centre‘s ‘Moose on the Loose’ Festival. Contributions from a number of CCCU’s centres for research will include: the Centre for Research on Communities and Cultures; the Intersectional Centre for Inclusion and Social Justice (INCISE); the Centre for Practice-Based Research in the Arts and the South East Archive of Seaside (SEAS) Photography.

Note that this event will include adult content and themes.

Booking: Places are FREE but they do require booking via this link: http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/arts-and-culture/event-details.aspx?instance=113603

Research Seminar: Dr Anna Claydon (University of Leicester) on The Creative Other: Music and Disability in Film

Dr Anna Claydon will be visiting Canterbury to discuss Music and Disability in Film.

Canterbury Christ Church University
School of Media Art and Design
Research Seminars 2016-2017

11 January 2017
1.00pm-2.15pm

The Creative Other: Music and Disability in Film
Speaker: Dr Anna Claydon (University of Leicester)

In this paper, Anna Claydon (from the School of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester) will examine how creativity is used to give voice and build agency for characters with disabilities in music films. Drawing on case studies of Sex ‘n’ Drugs ‘n’ Rock ‘n’ Roll (Whitecross, 2010) and Ray (Hackford, 2004) she will investigate the representational tropes and politicisation of the performer with disabilities through music within the context of considering the narrative functions of the characters as outsiders and the traditions of representing disability in film more broadly.

Dr Anna Claydon has taught at the University of Leicester since 2006 and teaches the last remaining music modules in the University as well as leading the film provision in the School. She is College PGT Manager and Director of IDeoGRAMS (the Interdepartmental Group for Research into Art, Media and Society). Her PhD (University of Kent) was on masculinity in 1960s British films but in addition to currently working on film music/music in film and disability she is working on the representation of artificial humans (with geneticist Chris Willmott) and digital devotionals (with Media colleague Jo Whitehouse-Hart) and editing a special edition of The Soundtrack on transmedia musics.

Powell Building – Pf06
North Holmes Road Campus
Email Dr Andrew Butler – Andrew.Butler@canterbury.ac.uk – for further details

— All welcome —
Feel free to bring your lunch!

Research Seminar 30 November 2016: Sarah O’Hara – Organisational Culture and its Influence on Regional Media

Sarah O’Hara will give the last MAD research seminar of the calendar year on regional media and organisational culture.

Canterbury Christ Church University
School of Media Art and Design
Research Seminars 2016-2017

30 November 2016
1.00pm-2.15pm

Organisational Culture and its Influence on Regional Media
Speaker: Sarah O’Hara (Canterbury Christ Church University)

My research seeks to understand organisational culture within local newspaper organisations and to consider how cultural beliefs shape strategic decisions. It argues that an organisation’s culture shapes its day-to-day management and future digital strategies. Key findings from the research are that micro cultures within an organisation and the ownership model shape its culture; affecting the adoption of new working practices and the cohesiveness of corporate vision. The notion of what is local news is changing; both in terms of the type of news reported and the way reporting formats are used.

Sarah O’Hara has spent the last twenty years working in all areas of the media and communications industry both in the UK and overseas. I have practical industry experience in media, advertising and public relations and have worked for media organisations, agencies and within client companies. She is currently completing her Masters by Research looking at the impact of the digital transformation in media with a focus on regional media in Kent.

Powell Building – Pf06
North Holmes Road Campus
Email Dr Andrew Butler – Andrew.Butler@canterbury.ac.uk – for further details

— All welcome —
Feel free to bring your lunch!

Research Seminar: 1.00pm-2.15pm, 23 November 2016 – Refereeing and Peer Review: A Roundtable Discussion

A session discussing the intricacies of peer review and refereeing — the gatekeeping of academic publication.

 

Canterbury Christ Church University
School of Media Art and Design
Research Seminars 2016-2017

23 November 2016
1.00pm-2.15pm

Refereeing and Peer Review: A Roundtable Discussion
Speakers: Professor Shane Blackman, Dr Andrew M. Butler and Dr Agnes Gulyas (Canterbury Christ Church University)

One of the key things that underlies academic publication is the process of peer review – your fabulous manuscript is sent off to other probably overworked academics who will read your work for no money and help decide whether it will be published, will need to be revised or will end up somewhere else for to gain your intellectual glory.

How does this process work? How should you deal with it? And more to the point, how do you become a gatekeeper too? Come along to find out and share your own experiences.
Professor Shane Blackman is an associate editor of Journal of Youth Studies and is on the editorial board of Sociology, among many others. Dr Andrew M. Butler is an editor of Extrapolation, has peer reviewed for several journals and is still smarting from the report on his last book. Dr Agnes Gulyas is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and of the Executive Committee of the Media, Communication and Cultural Association (MeCCSA).

Powell Building – Pf06
North Holmes Road Campus, Canterbury
Email Dr Andrew Butler – Andrew.Butler@canterbury.ac.uk – for further details
— All welcome —
Feel free to bring your lunch!

Research Seminar: 9 November 2016 – Sinéad Murphy

Sinéad Murphy (King’s College, London) will talk about Palestinian artist, photographer, filmmaker and installation artist Larissa Sansour as part of our research seminar series.

Canterbury Christ Church University
School of Media Art and Design
Research Seminars 2016-2017
9 November 2016
1.00pm-2.15pm
Producing the nation:
Larissa Sansour’s Dystopian Visions of Palestine
Speaker: Sinéad Murphy (King’s College, London)

Ideas of nation and politics of self-determination have long dominated representations of the Palestinian-Israel conflict, to the extent that “the conflict is understood primarily as a clash between ‘narratives’” (Anna Bernard) – a clash which artists, writers and filmmakers are frequently expected to negotiate. Utilising what she describes as the “odd mix of nostalgia and accomplishment” which science fiction affords, Larissa Sansour creates and interrogates narrations of the nation in Palestine and Israel through film, photography and installation. Sansour’s dystopian visions reinvigorate long-standing questions of identity and belonging in the context of conflict and displacement in Palestine.

Sinéad Murphy is a third-year PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature in King’s College, London. Her research is an AHRC LAHP-funded project on contemporary Arab speculative fiction in English. She completed her BA and MA degrees in University College Dublin, Ireland. She is the administrator for the Kings Fantastic Talks series, and the co-organiser of the Department of Comparative Literature 2016 PGR conference, Seeking Refuge (http://seekingrefugekcl.com/). Her primary research interests include science and speculative fiction, contemporary Middle Eastern literature, postcolonial theory, and theories of comparative and world literature.

Email: sinead.murphy@kcl.ac.uk; https://kcl.academia.edu/SinéadMurphy; http://www.lahp.ac.uk/sinead-murphy/ Twitter: @S1nead_Murphy.

Powell Building – Pf06
Canterbury Christ Church University
North Holmes Road Campus
Canterbury
CT1 1QU

Email Dr Andrew Butler – Andrew.Butler@canterbury.ac.uk – for further details
— All welcome —
Feel Free to Bring Your Lunch!