- Communication and Media Research Institute
About me
I joined Westminster in 2013 following sixteen years at the BBC. I'd worked there as a sound engineer, a researcher, a reporter, and a producer/senior producer specialising in arts, documentary and current affairs at Radio 3, Radio 4 and the World Service. My educational background is in Literature (BA York, MA SOAS), and my PhD (Sussex) examined the relationship between colonial ideology, writers and mid-twentieth century BBC Radio.
Teaching
I teach media theory and practice with a focus on journalism, audio, and on issues related to colonialism, race and feminism. My teaching encompasses a range of modules including Investigative Journalism, Podcast Production, Diversity and the Media, and other modules on the MA in Multimedia Journalism.
Research
I'm interested in cultural and political histories of twentieth-century Britain, especially as revealed through post-war media, writers and the mediation of imperial legacy. I have written on the history of radiogenic forms, and with Amanda Wrigley I co-edited Radio Modernisms: Features, Cultures and the BBC (Routledge). My current book (forthcoming) interrogates radio voice and racial liberalism in fifties Britain through a focus on six major authors, including Doris Lessing, George Lamming and Stuart Hall.
Another strand of my research fosters public engagement on questions of race, gender and class through the exploration of media archives. I was the Principal Investigator of the AHRC-funded project 'Reclaiming a Lost Past: Black British Women, Visibility and the BBC', tied to the BBC's centenary in 2022 and in partnership with BBC History, the Feminist Library, the podcast Letter To A Black Girl, and the Young Vic Theatre.
I work with the Stuart Hall Foundation to nurture political public education, chiefly by presenting the Reading the Crisis series.
With Abigail Wincott, I am Editor of the journal RadioDoc Review.
Publications
For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.