I am a Senior Lecturer and the Course Leader for Media and Communication and Film Studies. I have undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications in both subjects and teach regularly on both these courses. My research specialism considers the relationships between film and various media formats (such as social networking sites, television, and music) and mental ill health. My PhD was on this topic, and I have several publications in leading journals and compendiums exploring the varied ways that mental ill health and media intersect and interact.
I have taught an extensive range of modules across both Media and Film Studies at all levels of undergraduate and postgraduate study. This has included content on visual culture, music and media, film and the American imagination, film history, the future of media and technology, and employability focussed modules that help students build creative-critical skills that enhance their potential to find work in the Creative Industries.
My most recent work examines the ways that TikTok is used by adolescents to create content themed around their experiences of mental ill health and psychiatric inpatient experiences. The article explores the issues this content raises as well as what it may tell us about the uses of social media to make useful and progressive impacts upon young peoples' experiences of mental illness and treatment.
I have published in the past about the use of sound design and film scores as sonic techniques for representing mental illnesses in various fictional films, as well as research that considered the visual tropes often used to represent mental ill health in particularly gendered ways.
I have given several papers and keynotes at conferences and public engagement events in the UK and internationally in places including the USA, Canada, and Greece.
Recent publications
I am an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA).
I am currently level 1 coordinator for the Media and Joint Honour Film and Media programmes, meaning I am academic tutor for all first-year students on those degree programmes.
I am a registered NHS volunteer, having previously used my film studies research into representations of mental illness on screen to help put together a series of screenings for use in mental health provision.
