Staff Profile
Dr Tyson Mitman
Senior Lecturer and Course Lead for Postgraduate Studies
I am a senior lecturer in Sociology and Criminology and Social Sciences Postgraduate Course Lead at York St John University.
I study space, how we use it, how we make our lives in it, and how we position and debate power, identity and representation through it. Much of my research is on graffiti, graffiti culture, and public aesthetics. Specifically, how individuals who produce graffiti construct their identity within their subculture, how their interaction with public space produces a type of political discourse, and how it affects spaces and those who use those spaces. I examine how graffiti's presence affects the way spaces are ideologically constructed, and how producing graffiti affects the individual from a subjective and cultural perspective.
My other research interests include craft beer and its producers. I look at how those producers work to find space within a crowded marketplace that is dominated by large-scale brewers, and how they create and maintain their identity and 'authenticity' while they find their position within that market.
Additional research interests include memes, subculture studies, visual culture, deviance, politics of resistance, theories of democracy, access to political voice and agency, and morality.
- School – York Business School
- Email – t.mitman@yorksj.ac.uk
- Phone – 01904 876 184
Teaching
Courses Taught on:
- Sociology
- Criminology
- MRes in Social Science
- MSc Criminology
Module Taught:
- Introduction to Sociological Theory
- Terrorism, State Crime and Political Violence
- Critical Criminology
- Spatial Sociology
- Crime and Deviance in the Contemporary World
- Sociology of Everyday Life
- Advanced Research Methods 2
- Exploring Society
- Crime and Media
- Spacial Sociology
- Advanced Research Methods
- Criminological Theory and Practice
Publications
Book
- Shumar, w. & Mitman, T. (2023). Producing and Consuming the Craft Beer Movement. Routledge.
- Mitman, T. (2018). The Art of Defiance: Graffiti Culture in Philadelphia. Intellect Books.
Book Chapters
- Mitman,T. (2015). Advertised Defiance: How New York City Graffiti went from “Getting Up” to “Getting Over”. In Lovata T. and Olton E. Understanding Graffiti. Left Coast Press.
- D’Ovidio, R., Mitman, T., El-Burki, I. and Shumar, W. (2011). Adult-Child Sex Advocacy Websites as Learning Environments for Crime. In K. Jaishankar (Ed.), Cyber Criminology: Exploring Internet Crimes and Criminal Behavior. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group.
Journal Articles
- Mitman, T., & Denham, J. (2024). Into the meme stream: The value and spectacle of Internet memes. New Media & Society, 0(0)
- Bryning, E., Kendall, C., Leyland, M. Mitman, T., & Schofield, J. (2022) Fame and recognition in historic and contemporary graffiti: examples from New York City (US), Richmond Castle and Bristol (UK), World Archaeology, 53 (3) 435-450
- Mitman, T. (2019). Dead Graffiti Writers Never Die, They Just Fade Away: Memorializing and remembering dead graffiti writers. Nuart Journal, 3 32-39.
- Mitman, T. (2018). Kick the Hive, Get the Bees: graffiti writers as assemblage and direct action political actors in their battle against H&M. Palgrave Communications, 4 (128)
- Farkas, A., Mitman, T. & Porpora, D. (2015). Terrorism as Failed Political Communication. International Journal of Communication, 9 1120-1139
- Mitman, T., Nikoleav, A., Porpora, D. (2012). The Critical Moral Voice on American Newspaper Opinion Pages, Communication, Culture and Critique, 5(3) 392-408
- D’Ovidio,R., Mitman, T., El-Burki, I. & Shumar, W. (2009). Adult-Child Sex Advocacy Websites as Social Learning Environments: A Content Analysis, International Journal of Cyber Criminology, 3(1) 421-440
Other creative and critical work
- Mitman, T. (2023) ‘Why craft beer fosters better communities than its corporate competitors.’ The Conversation.
- Mitman, T. (2020) 'Coronavirus murals: inside the world of pandemic-inspired street art.' The Conversation.
- Mitman, T. (2020) 'Quand la pandémie inspire le street art.' The Conversation.
- Mitman, T. (2019) ‘Banksy: graffiti has become more valuable for what it is than what it says’. The Conversation.
- Mitman, T. (2013). Tagging Over Banksy, Why NYC ‘Writers’ Do It. New York Post, Oct. 25, 2013. p. 31.
- Editor and Feature Author, The Infamous Magazine, Issues 1-9. (2009-2016)
Research Reviews
- Mitman, T. (2009) Book Review, Virtually Criminal: Crime, Deviance, and Regulation Online. Security Journal 22, 170–171
Grants
- November 2023-Present, £37,305 Historic England
Primary Investigator
Ghost Signs of York: Preserving faded history and public memory
York St John University, York, UK - December 2022-August 2023, QR Funding Bid
Primary Investigator
Ghost Signs of York Project: Preserving public memory and curating public space.
York St John University, York, UK - April 2019-September 2020, QR Funding Grant
Primary Investigator
To Build A Better Beer: An examination of the reciprocal relationship between production and consumption in the northern England craft beer market.
York St John University, York, UK - January 2007-June 2007
Research Assistant (P.I., Robert D’Ovidio, Ph.D.)
Adult-Child Sex Advocacy Websites as Social Learning Environments: A Content Analysis
Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa. USA
Editorial Boards Served On
- Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
- Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
Journals and Publishers Reviewed For
- Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour
- Visual Anthropology Review
- The Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology
- Humanities & Social Sciences Communications
- Berghahn Books
Grant and Fellowship Review Boards Served On
- Independent Social Research Foundation (ISRF): Seventh Independent Scholars Research Fellowship Competition
- The Leverhulme Trust
Invited Talks
- Georgia State University - Graffiti as Crime (CRJU 4900):
Discussion of The Art of Defiance: Graffiti Culture in Philadelphia. (25/01/23). - University of York - The Built Environment, Economics, and Ecology Seminar Research Group:
Discussion of Ghost Signs as cultural artefacts (30/11/23).
Awards
- York St. John Inspirational Teaching Award Nominee, 2018
- Outstanding Dissertation Award for the College of Arts and Sciences, 2016
Scholarly Works in Progress
- Open Museums Project: Reframing Public Space as Curated Sites of Public Memory
- Morality and Roleplaying Games, Does roleplaying complex moral characters help individuals might think more critically and creatively about morality?
Presentations
February 2023
Producing and Consuming the Craft Beer Movement(Tyson Mitman) York Business School Seminar Series, York, UK.
September 2020
Dead Graffiti Writers Never Die, They Just Fade Away: Memorializing and remembering dead graffiti writers.
(Tyson Mitman) Death and Culture Conference, York, UK
February 2020
Graffiti: What does mark-making tell us?. (Dr. Tyson Mitman, Charlie Kendall (York St. John University), Prof. John Schofield, Emma Bryning, Megan Leland (University of York)). YorNight. York, UK.
April 2018
Wicked Style: Graffiti as Cultural History, Identity Construction, and Terroir in Philadelphia (Tyson Mitman) British Sociological Association, Newcastle, UK
September 2017
Kick it Wicked: Graffiti as Cultural History (Tyson Mitman) World Congress of Psychogeography, Huddersfield, UK
April 2015
Producing, Distributing, and Consuming the Craft Beer Movement (Tyson Mitman, Wes Shumar, Nora Madison) Popular Culture Association, New Orleans, Louisiana
April 2014
You Suck Until Further Notice: The Rules and Politics of Graffiti (Tyson Mitman) Popular Culture Association, Chicago, Illinois
April 2014
Mediated Worlds: Navigating the hybrid spaces of craft beer (Tyson Mitman, Wes Shumar, Nora Madison) Theorizing the Web, Brooklyn, New York.
November 2013
Navigating Capitalist Production: The Craft Beer Movement (Tyson Mitman, Wes Shumar, Nora Madison) American Anthropological Association, Chicago, Illinois
August 2012
The Critical Moral Voice in the Public Sphere (Tyson Mitman, Alexander Nikolaev, Douglas Porpora) International Communication Association, Phoenix, Arizona
April 2012
Terrorism as a Communicative Act (Ashley Farkas, Tyson Mitman, Douglas Porpora) Eastern Communication Association, Boston, Massachusetts
November 2011
The Writing on the Wall: Constructing the “Graffiti Problem” (Tyson Mitman), American Anthropological Association, Montreal, Canada
October 2011
The Writing on the Wall: Constructing the “Graffiti Problem” (Tyson Mitman), Culture of Remix Conference, Lisbon, Portugal
March 2011
The Writing on the Wall: Constructing the “Graffiti Problem” (Tyson Mitman) Paper Presentation, Drexel Research Colloquium Speaker Series, Philadelphia, PA
April 2010
“Look Who’s Talking?: Who Authors Opinion Pieces in Newspapers?” (Alexander Nikolaev, Tyson Mitman, Douglas Porpora.) Paper Presentation, Eastern Communication Association Conference, Baltimore, MD
March 2007
“Deviant Communities Online: An Examination of Adult-Child Sex Advocacy Website” (presented with Tyson Mitman, Robert D’Ovidio, and Wesley Shumar) poster presentation Drexel University Research Day, Philadelphia, PA
