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Dr Angela Smith has co-written an article with Professor Philip Drake (Edge Hill University) which considers the format and cultural politics of the hugely successful UK television program Top Gear (BBC 2002–2015). 'Belligerent broadcasting, male anti-authoritarianism and anti-environmentalism: the case of Top Gear ' analyzes how—through its presenting team—it constructed an informal address predicated around anti-authoritarian or contrarian banter and protest masculinity. Regular targets for Top Gear presenter’s protest—curtailed by broadcast guidelines in terms of gender and ethnicity—are deflected onto the “soft” targets of government legislation on environmental issues or various forms of regulation “red tape. Repeated references to speed cameras, central London congestion charges and “excessive” signage are all anti-authoritarian, libertarian discourses delivered through a comedic form of performance address. Thus, the BBC’s primary response to complaints made about t...

The journal Irish Studies Review is shortly to publish a special commemorative 1916 edition entitled ‘Commemorating Connolly’. Amongst the seven invited papers for the issue is an article by Dr Alison Younger entitled 'A terrible beauty is bought: 1916, commemoration and commodification'. Mindful of Benedict Anderson’s emphasis in Imagined Communities on the power of print culture – and print-capitalism – to shape and share national ideas and identities, her article offers a comparative analysis of the commemorations in Ireland of 1798 and 1916 by looking at commemorative ephemera: kitschy memorabilia, themed merchandise, newspaper cuttings and advertisements, handbills and inventively branded commodities, as important cultural texts which purveyed ideological values and meanings at the time of their production. It suggests that the consumer sphere allows us to shed light on the commemorative discourses these ephemeral objects produce, retelling and retailing the risings in ...

Every summer, the Department of Culture publishes a selection of some of the best dissertations in English, History & Politics and Languages in its online scholarly journal Codex . This year topics range from the representation of witches in Early Modern English drama to classroom discourse. Read the articles here .

Dr Angela Smith was invited to give a paper at the second FoodKom seminar, held at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, on 16-18 June.  Her paper, 'Cooking to be Happy: Simply Nigella and the rise of mindful cooking', explored how the current trend in self-help therapy glossed as 'mindfulness' has recently extended to cookery programmes.  Through an exploration of Nigella Lawson's cookery series in the UK (BBC November/December 2015) and its associated cookery book, Angela suggests that mindfulness is actually central to this show rather than its more peripheral place in others, and that this is part of a growing trend for such self-help psychology.  

Katie Ward (Culture), Ammar Said Suliman (Pharmacy) and Olugbenga Oyeniyi (Pharmacy)     Culture PhD student Katie Ward has won first prize in the Regional Three Minute Thesis competition, in which 14 competitors from across North East England had to summarize their research in three minutes to an audience and panel of judges. Students from Sunderland swept the board, taking the top-three slots.

We are pleased to announce the 2016 Postgraduate Conference at the University of Sunderland. This one-day multidisciplinary conference is designed to give postgraduate students from any institution an opportunity to present and discuss their research. The conference is focused on Critical Approaches to Research, and aims to encourage the development of student communication and research networks. Research students will be giving papers based on their own research and will have the opportunity to meet peers who engage in similar research activities and get valuable feedback. The event will be held on Tuesday 21st June in David Goldman Building – Room 107, St. Peter’s Campus, University of Sunderland . More information, and instructions about how to book your (FREE) place can be found here .

The Department of Culture's new writer-in-residence Rob Young will be giving a talk called 'How to Write a Movie' on Friday 3rd June 2016 ( 1-2pm, Priestman Building 118 ). Rob was born and bred in South Shields. He is an award-winning writer and BAFTA Screenplay Judge. His feature film - Miranda (2002) - won the main prize at London's Raindance Film Festival. Everyone is welcome to this crash-course in screenwriting from a local boy made good!