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Dr Beth Johnson

Dr Beth Johnson

  • Position: Associate Professor in Film and Media; Director of Student Education
  • Areas of expertise: television; film; performance; gender; social class; sex on screen; representing the North; representing poverty; political performance; emotion.
  • Email: B.L.Johnson@leeds.ac.uk
  • Location: 1.02 Clothworkers' North
  • Website: Researchgate | ORCID

Profile

I undertook my AHRC funded PhD at Lancaster University, completing in 2008. After this I worked briefly as Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellow in Media at Liverpool Hope University before taking up post as Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Keele University. Over six and a half years at Keele I inaugurated successful undergraduate and postgraduate Film Studies degree programmes. I was awarded a 18 month Leverhulme Research Fellowship in 2013 for a project on the transnational success and style of the television serial Shameless (Channel 4, 2004-2013; Showtime 2011- ), and became Programme Director of Film Studies on my return to work in summer 2014. I joined the University of Leeds in January 2016 taking up post as Associate Professor in Film and Media. I am the author of Paul Abbott (Manchester University Press, 2013) and I have published widely on screen representations of gender and class. I co-edited a dossier on English Television Stardom and Performing the North (with David Forrest, University of Sheffield) for Journal of Popular Television (2016, 4:2), and co-edited, again with Forrest, a book collection entitled Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017). My latest co-edited collection, Teenage Dreams: Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media (with Bentley and Zieleniec), was published by Palgrave in May 2018.

I am the Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity lead/Co-I on the £6.4m Screen Industries Growth Network (SIGN) project, 2020-2022, and Chair of MeCCSA Women's Studies Media Network (2019- ).

I am an External Examiner for the University of Manchester, Southampton Solent University and Leeds Trinity University.

Responsibilities

  • Director of Student Education

Research interests

My main research interests concern representations of gender, social class, poverty and place on film and television. In particular, I have a strong interest in visual articulations of the North of England on screen. I am also engaged in research on activism, performance, emotion and politics.

I am co-convener of the Visual Media and Communication Research Group in the School of Media and Communication. 

Across 2018-19, I led and convened the Sadler Seminar Series 'The Performance of Political Feeling', funded by the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/leeds-arts-humanities-research-institute/doc/performance-political-feeling. My co-conveners were: Professor Stephen Coleman, Dr Kim Allen and Dr Philip Kiszely. 

A selection of recent press interviews include:

https://theconversation.com/caroline-flacks-death-is-yet-another-reason-to-be-angry-at-the-way-the-media-treats-women-131920

http://www.electionanalysis.uk/uk-election-analysis-2019/section-8-personality-politics-and-popular-culture/tune-in-turn-away-drop-out-emotionality-and-the-decision-not-to-stand/ (with Dr Katy Parry)

https://theconversation.com/laurence-fox-thanks-for-the-chance-to-talk-about-the-inequality-that-is-rife-in-the-uks-entertainment-industry-130310

https://www.redpepper.org.uk/how-television-informs-our-ideas-about-class/

https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/18/the-jeremy-kyle-shows-popularity-showed-we-are-a-society-lacking-in-kindness-9585235/?ito=article.mweb.share.top.email

https://metro.co.uk/2019/04/16/all-hail-phoebe-waller-bridge-and-the-revolution-of-the-bond-girl-9221729/

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/business/channel-4-relocation-to-leeds-worth-1bn-over-next-decade-as-experts-hail-economic-and-cultural-benefits-of-move-1-9424209

https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/yorkshire-film-locations-uk/

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working 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>

Qualifications

  • PhD
  • MA (Distinction)
  • BA (Hons)

Professional memberships

  • SCMS (Society for Cinema and Media Studies)
  • MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association)
  • BAFTSS (British Association for Film, Television and Screen Studies)
  • PSA (Political Studies Association)
  • RTS (Royal Television Society)
  • Chair of MeCCSA Women's Studies Network
  • ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association)

Student education

I am Director of Student Education in the Schol of Media and Communication. The Director of Student Education has a dual Faculty and School role and is directly responsible to the Faculty, through the Pro-Dean for Student Education, for the quality assurance, standards and quality enhancement of the School's learning and teaching provision. 

Research groups and institutes

  • Gender
  • Visual Media and Communication
  • PRIA

Current postgraduate researchers

<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>