Centre for Media & Culture Research Autumn 2009 Events

Tuesday 27 October, 2pm, K806, Keyworth Street

Media, War and Terrorism Seminar Series

This seminar series addresses news and documentary representations of contemporary war and terrorism. Two further seminars are planned for the spring 2010 semester.

John Conroy is a BAFTA-nominated director and producer. He won the 2009 Broadcast Award for Best Multichannel Programme for Ross Kemp in Afghanistan, and was a 2009 BAFTA nominee for Best Factual Series. In 2008 John produced and directed the BBC’s world affairs editor, John Simpson, in a documentary for BBC2 on the dilemmas of war reporting, and directed ITV1’s Doctors and Nurses at War series. John’s presentation will focus on his current work preparing a new documentary series on the state of the war in Afghanistan.

Adania Shibli is a celebrated Palestinian novelist and short story writer, who has been described as ‘the most talked-about writer on the West Bank’. Adania has also recently completed a PhD at the University of East London. Her research focuses on Arab, Israeli, and European media discourses and visual representations of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the 9/11 attacks, and the ‘war on terror’. Her presentation, titled ‘Visual Terror’, will explore the issue of invisibility and its function within the visual representation of terror.

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Wednesday 4 November, 3pm, Studio 55, Keyworth Street

Berlin—Frankfurt—Istanbul: Turkish Hip-hop in Motion

Thomas Solomon is Associate Professor in the Grieg Academy – Department of Music, at the University of Bergen, Norway. His publications include articles in Ethnomusicology, Popular Music, and Yearbook for Traditional Music, as well numerous edited volumes. His current research focuses on popular musics in the Turkish diaspora in Europe, issues of gender in Turkish rap music, and musical imaginations of regional identity on the Turkish Black Sea coast. This paper explores the implications the experience of movement can have for feelings of belonging, arguing that multi-sited ethnography is an especially appropriate method for investigating these transnational communities of affect, following actors along the routes they take as they trace the itineraries of their identity.

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Wednesday 25 November, 3pm, Studio 55, Keyworth Street

Michigan’s Morphing Media: A US Test Case

Maria Marron is Professor and Chair of the Journalism Department at Central Michigan University, and is spending this semester as a Visiting Professor at LSBU where she is undertaking research on investigative journalism in the British Isles, examining attitudes toward investigative journalism, related levels of professionalism, and the effects of investigations on public policy.