Media, Film and Communication Studies

Research opportunities in the Faculty of Media, Art & Technology are available for either full-time or part-time study and are offered at all levels.

Research supervision in Media and Communications subjects is offered by an experienced team of research-active staff. Research activity embraces a wide range of theoretical areas with opportunity also for practical theory-based enquiry. There is also opportunity to undertake interdisciplinary research both within the faculty and across the University.

Supervision is offered within the department across a wide and diverse range of areas: Film and Television Genres, Audiences and Reception Studies, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture, Photography, National Cinemas, Issues of Authorship and Queer Identities, Popular Music, Critical, Cultural and Media Theories of Bodies, Gender and Technology, Comics and Graphic Novels, and Journalism (both broadcast and print-based). Subjects covered by research students, past and present include: Heterosexuality at the Movies: An Auto-Ethnographic Study Of Young Heterosexual Women and Their Viewing Experience; Narrative Unreliability in Contemporary Cinema with Deleuze and Wittgenstein in Film Theory; Ideology, Identity and Propaganda in Relation to the Representation of the Czech RAF Pilots in English and Czech Newspapers Produced During WW2; and The Construction and Reception of the Virtuoso Rock Guitarist.

Students currently enrolled on our Research Degrees come from both the UK and overseas and include recent graduates, practitioners, theoreticians and tutors in the Faculty of Media, Art and Communications. Many follow a Research Degree out of either professional development or personal interest however for some it is an important step towards a lecturing career in higher education. Peer group seminars and discussions together with campus-based and university-wide open lecture programmes underpin supervisory support for Research Degree programmes, and we expect all research students to contribute to the experience.

We encourage attendance at relevant conferences, as well as the giving of papers and publication of articles towards the later stages of studies. Our institutional policy of using a supervisory team, as opposed to an individual supervisor, lends itself well to research across different disciplines both within the Faculty and across the University as a whole.

Training in Research Methods
All research students who have not already completed a relevant Masters Degree or other appropriate postgraduate research methods training must complete the university's research methods training course: MR401 (philosophy and approaches to research) and MR402 (methodologies and methods).

Entry requirements

You will normally need an Honours Degree of upper second class or above from a UK university or equivalent in a subject area relevant to your proposed research
In exceptional circumstances, the University will consider applications from mature non-graduates with experience of undertaking research
Registration is usually for MA by Research or PhD
Candidates may register for PhD directly if they have a recent masters qualification in a relevant subject that contained appropriate research methods training

Staff offering supervision

Ben Calvert BA PhD
Dean of Faculty of Media, Arts & Technology
Popular Music; Media History; Media and Cultural Theory

Justin Crouch BA MPhil PhD
Lecturer in Film Studies
Avant-garde Cinema, Animation; Propaganda; Spectatorship; Media History (particularly in relation to high/low debates); 1950s Popular Culture/Film; Cinematic Authorship; Comics and Graphic Novels

Joanne Garde-Hansen BA MA PhD
Principal Lecturer in Media
Director of Centre for Media, Memory & Community
Critical, Cultural and Media Theories of Bodies; Media, Memory and Digital Culture

Abigail Gardner BA MSocSci
Director of Studies – Media/ Course Leader – Media Communications & Culture
Gender and Sexuality in popular music, Older women in music, Popular music and memory, Subcultural theory

Jason Griffiths BA
Course Leader - Radio Production
Dennis Potter, Forest of Dean cultural geography, UK radio.

Robin Griffiths BA MA PhD
Senior Lecturer in Film Studies
Lesbian/Gay/Queer Cinema & Theory; Postmodernism & the Avant-garde; Horror & Science Fiction Film; Underground & Independent Cinema; Contemporary Theatre & Performance

Sharon Harper BFA, MA, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Media Theory and Contextual Studies
Photography, History and Theory; Art/Media Connections; History and Theory of Art Production & Distribution; Contemporary Art Theory; American Art Post-WW11

Ros Jennings BA MA PhD
Head of Postgraduate Research Centre
Film & TV Audiences; Australian TV and Film; National Cinemas; Feminist, Postmodern & Queer Theoretical Approaches to Representation

Tico Romao BFA PhD
Deputy Head of Department - Communication and Media Production
American Cinema; Contemporary Hollywood Cinema; Film Theory; Cognitive Film Theory; Historical Poetics

Paul Shaw BEd MA PhD
Research Degree Tutor/Senior Lecturer in Media Theory
Influences on news selection; Representation and meaning in news content; Journalistic attitudes and behaviour

Thomas Soper BA
Lecturer in Popular Music
Popular Music

Tracy Symonds BA
Course Leader – Film Studies
Screenwriting; Narrative theory; Gendered spectatorship; British Cinema

Joe Wilson BA
Director of Studies – Art/Head of Popular Music
Popular Music, Post Punk, Industrial Music, Independent music 1979 - 1990, Contextual Studies, Conceptual and Digital Art Theory

Profile: Qiao 'Jo' Li

"There is no doubt that as an international student, my PhD studies at the University of Gloucestershire is a plus when I look for jobs in the higher education sector."

PhD Film Studies

Research Title: Crossing Cultures: Investigating Chinese cinemas within and beyond ‘the National’

I chose the University of Gloucestershire because of its good reputation for research. I have been awarded a PhD scholarship which enabled me to fully focus on my research. Gloucestershire appeared to be the best choice when I completed my Master degree in France and it has proven to be a right choice for me as well today.

My research project explores the important link between directors and national cinema within a more complex context than has tended to preoccupy studies of national cinema, namely, the individual nation state.

I have enjoyed the high standard academic supervision from my supervisors in Gloucestershire. Also, I have benefited from a range of research inductions and conferences regularly organized by the Postgraduate Research Centre at the University. These research activities have not only provided me with detailed guidance and support for how to complete a research degree, but have also facilitated a social network between research students across the whole university.

Completing a PhD at Gloucestershire is definitely an important step for my future career. There is no doubt that as an international student, my PhD studies at the University of Gloucestershire is a plus when I look for jobs in the higher education sector. I intend to do some teaching and publications based on my PhD studies and I am sure my qualification from Gloucestershire will take me there.

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