Feminism, Gender and Sexuality Studies
Debates about the politics of gender, sexual identity and sexuality - and the ways these intersect with other discourses and institutions in the formation of power through media and popular culture. We have also researched and written in areas such as:
- Feminist Poetics (Terry Threadgold);
- Sexual violence and the media (Cindy Carter and Jenny Kitzinger);
- Gender and power in the news room (Cindy Carter and Jenny Kitzinger)
- Queer representations and Queer theory (Sara Gwenllian-Jones);
- Popular cultural images of female sexuality and the managment of sexual 'reputation' (Jenny Kitzinger)
- Science fiction, feminism and techo-science (see Genome and Culture Project)
- Feminist Methodologies in Discourse Analysis (Terry Threadgold);
- Gender and the representation of asylum (Race, Representation and Cultural Politics Group);
- Constructed masculinities in presidential campaigns (Karin Wahl-Jorgensen);
- Representations of class and sex in British motorcycle magazines (Tim Holmes).
The School has also worked with Stonewall Cymru to challenge homophobia in the Welsh media. We were instrumental in setting up 'Look Out' - a group made up of media professionals and those working on Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) issues in Wales in order to build relationships between LGB people and the Welsh media. We helped secure funding from Comic Relief to support this work.
In addition we have a strong group of PhD students foregrounding gender and/or sexuality issues in their research.
PhD Projects
PhD projects include: ‘Socially Constructed Identities of Gender and Sexuality in cyberspace’ (Claudia Viera); ‘The media history of the feminism’ (Kaity Mendes) ‘The media construction and conflation of murder and rape of women’ (Jane Monckton-Smith); ‘Male Readers and the Discursive Construction of Gender Identity’ (Amy Luther); ‘Gendering Discourse of Time in South Korean Self-help Literatures’ (Choon Key Chekar); ‘The Technologization of Femininity ‘ (Jen-Yi Chen); ‘Reporting of Women and Crime in the Daily Express’ (Sadie Clifford).
Publications
Members of staff have contributed key books to the field, including:
- Carter, C. and Steiner, L. (eds) (2004) Critical Readings: Media and Gender, Maidenhead and New York: Open University Press.
- Carter, C. and Weaver, C.K. (2003) Violence and the Media, Buckingham and Philadelphia: Open University Press.
- Carter, C., Branston, G. and Allan, S. (eds). (1998) News, Gender and Power, London and New York: Routledge.
- Kitzinger, J. (2004) 'Framing abuse: media influence and public understandings of sexual violence against children’ (Pluto, 2004)
- Threadgold, T. (1997) Feminist Poetics: Poeisis, Performance, Histories, London, Routledge.
- Kitzinger, J. (1994) 'Challenging sexual violence against girls: A public awareness approach to preventing sexual abuse', Child Abuse Review Vol 3 no4: 246-248 Challenging Sexual Violence Against Girls...[37KB]
- Morland, I. (2005) Queer Theory, edited with Annabelle Willox (Basingstoke: Palgrave)
- Morland, I. ‘Regions of Sexuality’, edited with Wendy O’Brien, special issue of Transformations: Online Journal of Region, Culture and Society 8 (2004).
In addition many chapters and articles address aspects of these debates (see individual staff pages) and Cindy Carter is co-editor of the journal: Feminist Media Studies – an international refereed journal devoted to the investigation and discussion of feminist theories and modes of inquiry.