Professor Kristyn Gorton

Profile

I am the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Culture, and Professor of Film and Television at the University of Leeds. I joined the University in August 2021. I was the Head of School for Media and Communication until May 2023. 

I have published extensively on film and television, particularly on feminist media studies, emotion and affect, British television history, and discourses on care in contemporary culture.

My latest publication, is titled Remembering British Television: Audience, Archive and Industry (2019).

I am currently writing a monograph on Sally Wainwright for Manchester University Press.

Responsibilities

• Deputy Dean

Research interests

Selected publications

• Gorton, K. and Garde-Hansen, J., Remembering British Television: Audience, Archive, and Industry, British Film Institute/Bloomsbury, 2019.
• Gorton, K. and Garde-Hansen, J., Emotion Online: Theorising Affect on the Internet, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
• Gorton, K., Media Audiences: Television, Meaning and Emotion, Edinburgh University Press, 2009.
• Gorton, K., Theorising Desire: From Freud to Feminism to Film, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
• Gorton, K. and Helsby, M., ‘BBC North and Women: the case of Youth Programming,’ Critical Studies in Television, 2022.
• Gorton, K., ‘Storytelling is Storytelling: Resilience, Gender and Screenwriting in Fair City,’ Journal of Popular Television, 2022.
• Gorton, K., ‘Don’t let the Bastards Grind you Down: Feminist Resilience/Resilient Feminism in The Handmaid’s Tale,’ Critical Studies in Television, 2021.
• Gorton, K., ‘On Writing Heroic Women: Sally Wainwright,’ Journal of British Cinema and Television, 2020, 399–414.
• Gorton, K., ‘Enlightened Melodrama: Excess, Care and Resistance in Contemporary Television,’ Screen,  2019, 606–623.
• Gorton, K., ‘Melodrama, Vicarious Pleasure & 1980s Feminist Television Criticism,’ Critical Studies in Television, 2017.
• Gorton, K., ‘“Walking the Line Between Saint and Sinner:” Care and Nurse Jackie (Showtime, 2009–2015),’ Critical Studies in Television, 2016, 151–163.
• Gorton, K. and Peirse, A., ‘“A Revolutionary Voice:” Analysing Maxine Peake’s Northern Stardom in Silk and Room at the Top, Journal of Popular Television, 2016, 213–224.
• Gorton, K., ‘Feeling Northern: “Heroic” Women in Sally Wainwright’s Happy Valley (BBC One, 2014–), Journal for Cultural Research, 2016, 73–85.
• Gorton, K., and Garde-Hansen, J., ‘From Old Media Whore to New Media Troll: the online negotiation of Madonna’s ageing body,’ Feminist Media Studies, 13 (2), 2013, 288–302.
• Gorton, K., ‘A Way to Go: Lisa Holdsworth,’ Journal of British Cinema and Television, 10, 3, 2013, 664–671.

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Student education

Current Postgraduate researchers

• Sarah Lahm
• Clementine Vann-Alexander
• Yuzhuo Wang

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>