Media Cultures

Media Cultures is a research cluster that explores the complex and shifting relationships between social injustice and contemporary media culture.

We draw on approaches from cultural studies, film and television studies, celebrity studies, feminist theory, critical race theory, and more. We are open to all researchers with interests in the power relations of popular culture, and intersectional understandings of the relationship of media to inequality and injustice. 

Led by Dr Jilly Kay and Dr Ed Vollans, the cluster runs a variety of research activities, including reading groups, work-in-progress feedback sessions, and research seminars with external speakers. All staff and postgraduate research students are welcome to attend all events. 

We seek to provide a generative and inclusive space for supporting and developing research, and the specific topics we focus on are shaped by the interests and suggestions of members. Currently, cluster members are actively researching a highly diverse range of topics, including: the gender politics of voice, austerity and masculinity, promotional culture and film trailers, feminism and celebrity, transphobia and feminism, gender and Tiktok, the gender politics of incels, the work of Raymond Williams, and much more. 

Please do get in touch with Jilly or Ed for further information or details of forthcoming events. 

Some recent events we have hosted can be viewed here: 

• Keir Milburn: Political Generations, the Asset Economy and the Future of Generation Left 
• Claire Sedgwick: Cultural Economy in the East Midlands