Staff Profile
Dr Matt Selway
Lecturer in Media and Film Studies
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I graduated with a First Class honours degree in Media from York St John University in 2011. In 2012 I completed my MA in Cinema, Television and Society at the University of York, graduating with Distinction. From there, I won a fully-funded studentship to complete a PhD in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia (UEA), successfully defending my thesis in 2016. Whilst studying at the UEA, I also taught as an associate tutor on a number of undergraduate modules. In 2017, I returned to York St John as a full-time academic staff member.
- School – School of Humanities
- Email – m.selway@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 107
- Postgraduate Research Supervisor
Further information
Teaching
My current teaching is varied across both the BA Media and Joint Honours Media and Film programmes and across all 3 undergraduate year groups.
I teach on the following modules:
- Media, Publics and Power
- Media Research
- Critical Perspectives
- Visual Cultures
- Media Enterprise
- Convergence Cultures
- Gender and Sexualities
- Media Geographies
I also supervise a number of undergraduate dissertations on a range of topics including:
- Social media
- Celebrity culture
- Mental illness and disability in the media
- Film genres
- Body image and the media
- Gender
- Film and television adaptations
Research
My main area of research concerns the representation of mental disorders in the media (primarily, though not exclusively, film). This work has been developed from my PhD thesis, which considered the depiction of mental disorders in the contemporary American biopic film. In particular, I am interested in the intersections of mental illness with other discourses of identity such as national identity, race, gender, and class, and how narratives focused on mental illness can be interpreted in ways that tell us more about the wider social context in which they were produced.
Publications and conferences
Selway, M. (2014). Gender, Melancholia and the “Fallen Woman”: Gendered Visions of Mental Illness in The Hours. In: Guerra, L, G. & Nicdao, J, A. (eds.) Narratives of Suffering: Meaning and Experience in a Transcultural Approach. Oxford: Inter-Disciplinary Press.
Conference experience (speaker)
- Brains for Hire: Psychiatric Consultation and Film Production Practices – Montreal, Canada. SCMS Annual Conference – 25th March 2015.
- Mental Illness, American Exceptionalism and National Narrative in A Beautiful Mind and The Aviator. Seattle, Washington. SCMS Annual Conference – 23rd March 2014.
- Monster: A Critical Perspective of the American Dream – Norwich, UK. UEA Study Day: ‘Imagining a Community’: Media and National Identity. – 20th February 2014.
- Re-evaluating Discourses on Children’s Exposure to Mental Illness on Television. – Norwich, UK. UEA Study Day: ‘Kid Culture’: Thinking Differently About Children’s Media. – 6th November 2013.
- Gender, Melancholia and the “Fallen Woman”: Gendered Visions of Mental Illness in The Hours. – Athens, Greece. ‘Making Sense of Suffering’ Conference. – 11th November 2013.
Conference experience (organiser)
- 2 to 3 July 2013. MeCCSA Postgraduate Network (PGN) Annual Conference. University of East Anglia.
Professional activities
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.
