Research in the Department of Media and Film is divided into three key themes and explores the materialities, the technologies, and the politics, of cultural forms and formations.
Research Student Handbook: Research Student Handbook [DOC 284KB]
Research Themes and Centres:
1 - Media technology, form and experience
2 - Cultural histories/cultural politics
3 - The politics of representation
Centre for Material Digital Culture
Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies
Research Centres
Research Centre in Material Digital Cultures, Directed by Caroline Bassett. This department-led centre is concerned with exploring the relationship between media technologies, media forms, and modes of experience: supporting conferences, housing a journal (The Senses and Society), acting as a springboard for research grants and network bids (ECREA European symposium on Digital Media, AHRC network bids), promoting collaborative work at international levels, and networking D. Phil students beyond the University. Events in 2007 have included a lecture by the MIT art historian Dr Caroline Jones; a symposium and book launch on sexuality and digital media; and a workshop on European perspectives in digital media scholarship, drawing together researchers from across the European area.
Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies, Directed by Sally R. Munt. The Centre hosts the AHRC funded 'Queer Spiritual Space(s)' an investigation into the practices of non-hegemonic queer spiritual communities. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK), Religion and Society Programme, 2007-9. Other work in the centre includes Ben Highmore's project on diasporic taste cultures and Sally R. Munt's exploration of class, identity and abjection, (both AHRC funded), and Andy Medhurst's work on comedy and national identity. The Centre also supports cultural policy initiatives, for example Nannette Aldred's Arts Council funded investigation of galleries and young people.
A third cross-departmental Research Centre for Visual Fields supports work on the politics of representation. It gathers together research in theory and practice, collating critical interventions in aesthetic theory and research (Rosalind Galt), and exploring performance and its theorization, including a strong focus on non-fiction (Thomas Austin, Melanie Friend, Wilma de Jong, Lizzie Thynne). Other activities that relate to this centre include involvement in the new Brighton Documentary Festival; Lizzie Thynne's work on non-fiction film form, including her film, Playing a Part: The Story of Claude Cahun; Mary Agnes Krell's work on interactive history and the Lee Miller project; and Melanie Friend's engagement with war and the visual. This Centre provides a focus for the further development of doctoral work in both creative practice and film studies.