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Personal Profile For Dr Daniel Ashton
Senior Lecturer: Media and Cultural Studies. School of Humanities and Cultural Industries.
BA(Hons) [ ], GDL [ ], MA [ ], PhD [Lancaster University].
Personal Statement:
My research focuses on media industries, media work/labour, and digital culture.
Current research focuses on transitions into various media industries from higher education. This develops previous research in my AHRC funded PhD titled 'The industry of creativity: economic visions, creative subjects and innovative technologies in process'. From March 2009 I have been funded as part of a Bath Spa University Research Fellowship to carry out research into media industries, higher education and employability.
I am also particularly interested in media education research (inc. critical media literacy) and have reviewed titles for the Art Design Media Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy. I have several working papers in progress attempting to connect this literature with my own teaching. I am on the editorial board for Media Education Research Journal.
During 2008-09 I have been developing a number of new/revised modules.
I am currently researching a book on media industries and media work.
Professional Qualifications:
Certificate of Achievement in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
Membership of Professional Bodies/Subject Associations:
I am a member of the Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association and have previously served on the executive committee of the Postgraduate Network.
I am an Associate of the Higher Education Academy.
I have previously been a member of the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR) and the Digital Games Research Association (DiGRA).
Teaching Specialism:
In 2009-10 I am coordinating the following modules:
MC5001 Media, Power and Audiences
MC5003 Journalism and Citizenship
MC5006 Understanding Print Media
MC6008 Reporting Risk
Also, teaching on:
MC4001 Understanding Media Communications
MC6001 Dissertation
Key Publications/Exhibitions/Performances:
Book chapters:
Ashton, D. (2008) ''Simple, meaningful graphics': Digital gaming counter-mobilisations and the politics of graphics' in Grindon, G. (ed.) Aesthetics and Radical Politics. Cambridge Scholars Press, pp.26-41 [ISBN: 1-84718-979-2].
Journals:
Ashton, D. (2011) 'Productive passions and everyday pedagogies: Exploring the industry-ready agenda in Higher Education, in Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education 9(1) [ISSN: 1474273X]
Ashton, D. (2010) 'Archives and prefigurative practices: digital games walkthrough archives as record and resource', Scope [ISSN 1469-9166].
Ashton, D. (2010) 'Player, Student, Designer: Digital Games Design Students and their Changing Relations with Games', Games and Culture 5(3) [ISSN 1555-4120].
Ashton, D. (2009) 'Critical thinking across contexts', Politics and Culture 10(4)
Ashton, D. (2009) 'Making it professionally: Student identity and industry professionals in higher education', Journal of Education and Work 22(5): 283-300 [ISSN 1363-9080].
Ashton, D. (2009) 'Interactions, Delegations and Online Digital Games Players in Communities of Practice', Participations: International Journal of Audience Research 6(1) [ISSN 1749-8716].
Ashton, D. (2009) 'Thinking with Games: Exploring Digital Gaming Imaginaries and Values in Higher Education', Journal of Media Practice 10(1): 57-68 [ISSN: 14682753].
Ashton, D. (2008) 'Digital gaming upgrade and recovery: enrolling memories and technologies as a strategy for the future', M/C Journal 11(6) [ISSN 1441-2616].
Ashton, D. (2008) 'Policy, Productivity, Passion and Piracy: Drawing Lines around Innovation in a Knowledge-based Economy', eSharp 12 [ISSN 1742-4542].
Book Reviews:
For the Art, Design, Media Subject Centre (The Higher Education Academy):
Issues in Information and Media Literacy (2009) Leaning, M. (ed.)
Screen Education (2009) Bolas, T.
Transformative Learning (2009) Fisher-Yoshida, B., Dee Geller, K. and Schapiro, S.A (eds.)
Ashton, D. (2008) 'Book review of Rethinking Media Education (2007) Nowak, A., Abel, S. and Ross, K. (eds.)' in Networks 4. Brighton: Art-Design-Media Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy. pp. 27-29
Media Literacy (2007) Silverblatt, A.
Other publications:
Ashton, D. (2010) 'You just end up feeling more professional: Media production and industry-ready personhood' in Networks 10
Ashton, D. (2009) 'Media Studies and the Industry-Ready Agenda' in Networks 7. p.29
Ashton, D. (2006) 'Values in design and politics and programming made ordinary' in TeamEthno-online issue 2 pp. 127-129. Available http://www.teamethno-online.org.uk/Issue2/
Conference papers (selection):
'Mediating industry and employability: Images and accounts from a hybrid space', Employability in the Curriculum; Beyond the Bolt-On?, University of Central Lancashire. 22-23.06.10.
'Spectacular technologies, spectacular futures: showcasing perpetual
innovation', Glorious Technicolor, Breathtaking CinemaScope conference, University of Warwick, 27.02.09
'Digital gaming and the documentary form: Agency, engagement and designed experiences',
Documentary Now 2010, Birkbeck College, 15-16.01.10
'You just end up feeling more professional: Media production and industry-ready personhood', MeCCSA 2010, LSE. 6-8.01.10.
'Students in studios and user-creativity in professional practices: An analysis of media production, amateur interests and professional practices'. Media Education Summit, Liverpool John Moores University. 8-9.09.09.
'Repositioning the 'remix generation': consumer-creators in/for the creative economy'. Popular Culture and World Politics: Practices of Production and Consumption, University of Bristol. 13.07.09.
'User-generated media and professions: machinima and the negotiation of industry transitions and professional practices'. Ephemeral Media Workshop 1: Internet Attractions: Online Video and User-Generated Content, AHRC Beyond the Text/Nottingham University. 22-23.06.09.
'User-generated archives, collective memory and prefigurative practices: a case study of digital walkthroughs'. CRESC Visual Archive, The Open University. 28-29.05.09.
'The archive and the ephemeral: A digital games based case study into questions of who and what to archive'. Using Moving Image Archives in Academic Research conference, University College London. 7-9.01.09.
'The professional in the age of the amateur: Higher education and journalism on-the-job' for 2008 International Journal Conference: The End of Journalism? Technology, Education and Ethics conference. University of Bedfordshire. 17-18.10.08
( http://theendofjournalism.wikidot.com/danielashton )
'Games to think with: Exploring design through object-centred focus groups' at MeCCSA 2008, Cardiff University [poster presentation]. 9-11.01.08.
'Becoming serious and translating realms: Online games in educational contexts?' at Internet Research 8.0: Let's Play, Association of Internet Researchers hosted by Simon Fraser University. 17-20.10.07 ( http://aoir.org/conferences/past-conferences/ir-80-lets-play-2007 )
''The games industry is a proud member of these industries': Digital games industry-education collaborations and fostering creative talent' at CRESC 2007: Re-thinking Cultural Economy, University of Manchester. 5-7.09.07.
'Games for Change: A Cultural Studies and social impact gaming dialogue' at Cultural Studies Now, University of East London. 19-22.07.07 ( http://www.uel.ac.uk/ccsr/journals.htm )
''Simple, meaningful graphics': Digital gaming counter-mobilisations and the politics of graphics' at Aesthetics and Radical Politics, University of Manchester. 03.02.07.
'Values in Design and politics and programming made ordinary' at Ethnographies of Code, Lancaster University [position paper]. 30-31.03.06.
Postgraduate conferences (selection):
''On the other hand, there are moral obligations to consider': Digital social impact games and contexts of closure', Communication Technologies of Empowerment, University of Leeds. 18.05.07.
Ashton, D. (2007) 'The cultural objecthood of digital games: The translation of commercial games into educational contexts' in Proceedings of the 2007 Salford Postgraduate Annual Research Conference. Salford University pp.64-67.
'From piracy to hacking: Playing with code in the context of film Digital Rights Management', Journeys Across Media: Manifestations of Media Technology, University of Reading. 21.04.06.
Invited papers:
'Game Studies and 'sub-Marxist gobbledegook': Criticism in Higher Education digital games teaching' at The London Games Research Group (at the London Knowledge Lab). 12.12.07. For information http://playhouse.wordpress.com/london-game-research-group/
Current Scholarship:
My research interests include media and cultural industries and work, media practice, critical media literacy, and digital culture.
Broadly, I am developing previous research on working in the UK digital games industry into a cross media comparison. This study explores questions of identity and understandings of work in relation to amateur production, user-creativity, higher education and industry training. It seeks to make links with a range of industry practitioners to investigate developments in media training and practice. For further information visit: http://mediaeducation.wikidot.com/
Current research falls within three projects:
1) Media Studies, Higher Education Pedagogy and the Industry-Ready Agenda
This project is funded by Bath Spa University as part of a Promising Researcher Fellowship. The project will explore industry collaboration and employability agendas in relation to the media and creative industries. Through research with industry bodies, teachers and students, the project will investigate how broad discourses of employability and specific discourses of students being industry-ready shape and are negotiated in course design and students' approaches to learning.
2) Journalism, higher education and amateur production
This research study explores how journalism students negotiate their interests in amateur production in relation to becoming 'industry-ready'. This is a fascinating tension given the purported challenge amateur production is said to present to professional journalism. Exploring how students enroll their amateur activities with regard to preparing themselves as industry-ready offers a lens for addressing how amateur and professional news production sit together.
3) Digital Archives
This research stems from my involvement in the AHRC Using Moving Image Archives in Academic Research programme. A number of conference papers and journal articles are under development exploring user-generated digital gaming material as archives.
Other External Roles:
Member of editorial board for Media Education Research Journal (Auteur Press).
Article Editor for Participations: Online Journal of Audience Research.
Part of External Validation Panel for BA Global Media Practice, Media School, Bournemouth University, October 2009.
Recent Professional Updating:
MeCCSA event, 'Mending the Gaps: Rethinking Media Theory and Practice', SOAS, May 2008.
UCU, 'Challenging the Market', London, May 2008.
ESRC, 'Building Capacity in Visual Methods Symposium', Oxford, July 2008.
Royal Television Society and UWE, 'Old hacks new tricks and new hacks a good start', Bristol, 11th November 2008.
Refreshing the curriculum, 'Mainstreaming research and enquiry through the curriculum', Bath Spa University, 17th November 2008.
ADM-HEA, 'The Challenge of New Media Forum', Bristol Watershed, 12th December 2008
1812 Group, '1812 Group re-loaded: an employability exchange', Bath Spa University, 18th December 2008.
University of the Arts London, 'Creative Engagement Conference', London College of Fashion, 26th March 2009.
CRESC/The Open University, 'Cultural work and creative biographies', The Open University, 1st April 2009.
The Reinvention Centre, 'Fourth Symposium on Social Learning', Oxford Brookes University, 6th April 2009.
Oxford Centre for Staff Learning and Development, 'Engaging Learning with Social Software', Oxford Brookes University, June-July 2009.
Bath Spa University, 'Enhancing E-Learning', 6th July 2009.
Campaign for Press and Broadcast Freedom, 'Media for all', 31st October 2009.
Last Updated: 01 February 2010.
This page is created by the above named individual. The views expressed are theirs and are not those of Bath Spa University. BSU is not responsible for the content of any external sites referenced.