Personal statement

I teach and research across the interdisciplinary areas of Childhood and Youth Studies, Audience and Fan Studies, and Trauma Theory and Visual Culture. As a Senior Lecturer in Media Communications,  I serve as Module Leader for Audiences and Fans, Writing For The Media, Media Ethics, and Exhibitions and Public Audiences, and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Since completing my PhD thesis on cultural histories of childhood sexual abuse and its contentious relationship to comedy, my research into humour studies, shock cultures, digital media and visual cultures of violence has been published in First Monday, Galactica Journal, Blind Field Journal, and the Palgrave Macmillan collections Discourses of Anxiety Over Childhood and Youth Across Cultures (2020), and The Palgrave Handbook for Violence in Film and Media (2022).

In 2023, I guest edited a special issue of The International Journal Of Creative Media Research on Digital Nostalgia and Creative Technology. My current research is exploring the subject of affect theory, nostalgia, and material cultures of grief and horror, with a particular focus on children's television and children's mascots. I am currently working towards a single-authored academic monograph on this subject, alongside a short story collection exploring themes of horror and sentimentality.

In the 2023-2024 academic year, I joined the Wellcome Trust's We Are The People team as a Research Fellow, exploring the subject of disability arts and LGBTQIA+ experiences of accessibility. In addition to this, I am a member of The Research Centre for Mental Health, Wellbeing and Creativity due to my ongoing interest in mental health, trauma theory and participatory media.

I am always happy to hear from prospective PhD students working in these areas and beyond.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD, Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, 2019
  • MA, St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford, 2014
  • BA (Hons), Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
  • FHEA - Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Teaching specialisms

  • Childhood and Youth Cultures
  • Online Harms and Media Ethics
  • Trauma Theory and Mental Health
  • Comedy Studies, Horror and Transgressive Media

Research and academic outputs

Go to ResearchSPAce