My research specialisms include media audiences/fans and participatory cultures; self-identity and self-narrative; material cultures and audiences/fans; celebrity cultures (especially the relationships between audiences and celebrity, local forms of celebrity, and subcultural celebrity); and place and space (particularly how television represents and creates ideas of place, and media tourism).
I have published four books; two monographs, Theme Park Fandom: Spatial Transmedia, Materiality & Participatory Cultures (2020, Amsterdam University Press) and Post-Object Fandom: Television, Identity & Self-Narrative (2015, Bloomsbury) and the edited collections Everybody Hurts: Transitions, Endings & Resurrections in Fan Cultures (2018, University of Iowa Press) and Torchwood Declassified (2013, I.B. Tauris). I also edited a special issue of the Journal of Fandom Studies on the topic of fan endings, transitions and resurrections in 2018. I am currently co-editing (with Paul Booth) the collection Fan Studies: Methods, Ethics, Research for the University of Iowa Press and co-editing (with Lucy Bennett) a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist on the topic of fan controversies.
I have published over 35 pieces in edited collections or international journals including Popular Communication, Critical Studies in Television, Continuum, Media History, Journal of British Cinema and Television, Gothic Studies, Popular Music and Society, Television and New Media, Series: International Journal of TV Serial Narratives, Cinema Journal , European Journal of Cultural Studies , Celebrity Studies, and Participations. I have been interviewed as an expert on media audiences and fandom in national and international media including print media (including The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, Verdens Gang (Norway), Information (Denmark)), on radio (for BBC Wales, BBC World Service and BBC Radio Coventry, and Heart Radio Wales), and television (BBC One Wales: The Wales Report).
I am a member of the Steering Group of the Centre for Media and Culture in Small Nations, and sits on the Editorial Boards of Celebrity Studies , Journal of Fandom Studies , Transformative Works and Cultures and the Editorial Advisory Board of Intensities: Cult Media Journal I am also former member of the Management Committee of Cyfrwng: Media Wales Journal and previously held the role of Book Reviews Assistant for Critical Studies in Television. I served as a member of the Steering Committee for the Fan & Audience Studies Special Interest Group for the Society of Cinema & Media Studies between 2018 and 2020.
I am engaged in mentoring external junior scholars via mentoring schemes with the SCMS Fan and Audience Studies Group, and Fan Studies Network North America. As a Member of the Board of the Fan Studies Network I co-organised the Network’s annual 2018 conference, one of the world’s largest gatherings of international fan studies scholars, held at Cardiff University. In December 2018 I was an invited participant for a Japan Fan Studies Tour involving research activity and knowledge exchange with colleagues in higher education in Japan, with a focus on comparative culture and transcultural fandom.
Module Leader for:
Teaches on:
Supervises and co-supervises a wide range of undergraduate dissertations and postgraduate research students.
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