principal lecturer, interactive media, school of social sciences, media and cultural studies, university of east london
about : research interests : publications : interactive media production : conference papers : research grants : consultancy : teaching
I am Principal Lecturer in Interactive Media in the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London. With a history of researching new media in/equalities, of debunking some of the myths of cyberspace, and of collaborative new media production, my current research on Inclusive New Media Design focuses on new media design and production practices and is run from UEL's Rix Centre for Innovation and Learning Disability. I have published articles and edited a book on the subjects of gender, technology, in/equality and virtual identity. My interactive media practice includes a range of collaborative projects, on which I have worked as project manager, website builder and CD programmer. I teach on undergraduate and masters programmes in the Media, Communications and Screen Studies field in our school.
My research focuses on the politics of inclusion and in/equality in new media. In the mid-1990s, my work on Project @THENE focused on strategies to include disadvantaged communities, specifically black, working-class women from economically deprived areas of London, in the so-called information revolution. More recently, my research has focused on issues relating to the digital inclusion of cognitively disabled communities. This started in 2004 on Project @pple, on which I explored how contexts of consumption and processes of production affect the participation of people with learning disabilities in the WWW, and at the barriers that exist to achieving new media’s acclaimed potential. My current project, ‘Inclusive New Media Design’, funded by the AHRC, explores the most effective strategies for encouraging new media designers and developers to create websites which are accessible to people with cognitive disabilities, and is framed in the context of recent scholarship about media work.
Another theme throughout my research has been debunking the myths of new media. Initially, I focused on anonymity; more recently, I have criticised claims made about the potential for personalisation in new media. My current work looks at (the myth of) inclusion in new media, through an engagement with such notions as universal design and universal accessibility, and the ways in which the concepts of emotional and affective labour are mobilised in relation to new media work.
I am also interested in debates in cultural/media studies about the usefulness (or not) of the concept of identity, in practice-based research and in the interdisciplinarity of interactive media.
(2008, in preparation) ‘Emotional concerns, commercial imperatives and other complications in new media work’, Convergence: the international journal of research into new media
(2008, in press) ‘New media’s potential for personalization’ Information Communication and Society (vol 11 no 3)
(2008, submitted) (with Minnion, A.) ‘What can an (intellectually) disabled body do?’ The Senses and Society
(2006) (with Williams, P. and Bunning, K.) ‘ICTs and learning disability: multidisciplinary perspectives on Project @pple’, Aslib Proceedings vol 59 no 1 pp97-112
(2006) 'Beyond anonymity, or future directions for Internet identity research' New Media and Society vol 8 no 6 pp859-876
(2005) 'Subjective intersections in the face of the machine: gender, race, class and PCs in the home', European Journal of Women's Studies vol 12 no 4
(2003) 'Technobiography: researching lives, online and off', Biography , vol 26 no 1, pp120-139, ISSN 0162-4962
2001 Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies, Raw Nerve Press, F Henwood, H Kennedy, and N Miller eds, ISBN 0-9536585
2001 'HMTK meets htm: from technofraud to cyberchick' in Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies, (F Henwood, H Kennedy, and N Miller eds) York: Raw Nerve Press, pp.93-101
2001 (with F Henwood, G Hughes, N Miller and S Wyatt 'Cyborg Lives in Context: writing women's technobiographies' in Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies (F. Henwood, H. Kennedy, and N. Miller eds) York: Raw Nerve Press, pp.11-34
2003 Aiding and Abetting: global image, local damage?, CD-rom for AFFORD (African Foundation for Development). Collaborative project, my roles: project management and CD programming
2002 School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies website, for SCIS, University of East London. Collaborative project, my roles: project management and website building
2001 Chanting Heads: a glimpse of eleven visual artists working in Britain today, CD-rom for AAVAA (African and Asian Visual Artists Archive). Collaborative project, my roles: project management and CD programming
2001 Peruvian Wharf website, for Capital and Provident. Collaborative project, my roles: project management and website building
2001 UEL recruitment CD rom for University of East London. Collaborative project, my role: project management
2008 'Emotional concerns, commercial imperatives and other complications in new media work', Cultural Studies Now!, London, UK
2006 ‘New media’s potential for personalisation’, Southbank Arts & Media Seminar, London, UK
2005‘Democratising the WWW for learning disability communities: a case study in managing complexity, change and expectations’, PACCIT seminar, London, UK
2005 (with Andy Minnion, Simon Evans, Rod Paley) ‘Developing an online learning environment for learning disability communities on Project @pple’, Technology and Persons with Disabilities CSUN conference, Los Angeles, USA
2005 Middle Range Theory in STS: international seminar, invited disscusant, Amsterdam School of Communication Research, Amsterdam
2004, ‘Methodological issues on Project @pple’, PACCIT Methods Workshop, Knowledge Lab, London, UK (co-author/presenter)
2004, ‘Re-thinking multimedia and the World Wide Web through learning disability’, AOIR (Association of Internet Researchers) conference, Brighton, UK (co-author/presenter)
2004, (keynote speech) ‘Beyond virtual identity, or future directions for Internet identity research’, Internet Identities in Europe conference, Sheffield, UK (individual author/presenter)
2004, ‘Some Questions for Feminist Techno-Science’, The Future of Feminist Techno-Science ESRC seminar series, Surrey, UK (individual author/presenter)
2004, ‘Democratising the World Wide Web for learning disability communities’ The Joint 4S & EASST Conference, Paris, France (co-author/presenter)
2004, ‘Individual difference and the World Wide Web: developing an online learning environment for learning disability communities in Project @PPLe’, Adaptive Hypermedia 2004, Eindhoven, The Netherlands (co-author/presenter)
2002 'Technobiography: researching experiences of ICTs', Crossroads in Cultural Studies: 4 th International Conference , University of Tampere, Finland (individual author/presenter)
2007-2009: Inclusive New Media Design, Principal Investigator, funded by AHRC collaborative programme with EPSRC, Designing for the 21st Century
2004-2006: Project @pple (E Learning and the World Wide Web: accessibility and participation for people with cognitive disabilities), Co-investigator, funded by ESRC collaborative programme with EPSRC, People at the Centre of Communications and Information Technologies (PACCIT). Collaborative project with other colleagues from the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies and Psychology at UEL, Informatics at UCL, Speech and Language Therapy at UEA, Macromedia and Xtensis.
2002 Infonomics and New Media: postgraduate multimedia education in Europe ( for the International Institute of Infonomics)
Digital Graphics and Visual Culture (level one)
From Text to Hypertext: introduction to new media (level one)
Multimedia Design (level two)
New Media Management (level two)
From Hypertext to Cybertext and beyond: new media research methods (level two)
Information, Knowledge, Power (level three)
Interactive Media Project (level three)
Work Practices in the Media Industries (MA level)
Software as Culture (MA level)
Research and Production Project (MA level)
PhD supervision (currently supervising 3 PhD candidates, 2 near completion and 1 recently started, on the subjects of Women's Ezines, Videogames and Environments for Creative Encounters)