Always Keep in Control: The Pattern of TV Policy Changes in China

This event is organised as part of the King's College London Asian Cultural Policy Seminar Series. Professor Kanghua Li and Shuan Jian (Shanghai Jiao Tong University) explain the recent trends of China's TV drama policy. China is a country with a distinct cultural system. The CCP is the central factor for everything, which naturally includes culture. There…

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Playing Queer and Queering Play – Effervescence and Transformation in Gaming Culture

Dr Gaspard Pelurson  “Queerness? What queerness? This is a question that often comes up when I casually mention my interest in queer game studies. Game studies is slowly, but surely, gaining ground in academia. There have been books, articles, conferences and conversations published over the last three decades, tackling diverse and understudied aspects of this…

CMCI Researchers publish “A Modern Guide to Creative Economies”

Prof Roberta Comunian and Prof Nick Wilson at CMCI, with international collaborators, have curated a collection of 16 chapters within a new Edward Elgar edited collection entitled ““A Modern Guide to Creative Economies”. The book brings together a series of new perspectives and reflections on creative economies; this insightful Modern Guide expands and challenges current…

The Experiential Translation Network

led by Ricarda Vidal (King’s College London) and Madeleine Campbell (University of Edinburgh) funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council https://youtu.be/4xNDBcYl3CE The video was produced by Fabian Broeker with financial support from the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London. The Network comprises international translators, artists and scholars with a…

See the “Intertwined: Fashion, Textile and Heritage in Nigeria” exhibition online

This exhibition was a collaborative creative project by photographer and King’s MA Arts & Cultural Management student, Bayo Omoboriowo, and King’s College London researchers: Dr Roberta Comunian and Dr Lauren England (Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries) and Dr Eka Ikpe (African Leadership Centre). In 2019, the researchers were awarded a King’s Together Seed…

Online Interviewing Tips for Researchers

Nina Vindum Rasmussen The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need to carry out qualitative interviews online. In my PhD project, I’ve used both in-person and online interviews. I’ve been surprised to learn that online interviews can produce equally rich and sometimes superior data. They can be cost-effective, convenient, and quick. But there are also specific…

CMCI in the News -Again.

CMCI’s academic staff continue to be in demand as expert commentators on worldwide news and current affairs. Our Head of Department, Professor Anna Reading, gave two filmed interviews on the media witnessing, news framing and impact of the “Charlie Hebdo” shootings in Paris. One was for the Associated Press and will be circulated globally, the…

A Critical Theory of Navajo Design

CMCI visual culture specialist Dr Richard Howells has a new scholarly article out this month. “Looking for Utopia: Creation, Creativity and a Utopian Theory of Design” combines cultural theory with a case study on Navajo design and appears in Thesis Eleven, a multidisciplinary journal: “reaching across the social sciences (sociology, anthropology, philosophy, geography, cultural studies,…

New Korean and Chinese Editions of Howells’ Visual Culture

Korean and Chinese editions of Dr Richard Howells' Visual Culture have just been published. These are translations of the second edition of Howells' successful publication, this version co-written with his former PhD student Dr Joaquim Negreiros. The first edition was reprinted eight times before the decision was taken to update and revise the original volume…

Research Funding Success for CMCI Doctoral Students

Two research projects led by PhD students at the Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries have won financial support from the King’s Cultural Institute’s Collaborative Innovation Scheme. Toby Bennett will be working in collaboration with UK Music to improve awareness of shared challenges and mutual communications between education and the music industry. For more…

A Century Apart

CMCI’s Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Dr Richard Howells has had book reviews published in two consecutive editions of the Times Higher Education supplement this month –even though the books were published over 100 years apart. The first was of HG Wells’ edited volume Socialism and the Great State of 1912; the second…

CMCI Expert Comments on Rolf Harris Case on Sky TV and LBC

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was called to give instant expert live reaction to Sky TV News about family entertainer Rolf Harris’ conviction on 12 counts of indecent assault between 1968 and 1986. Dr Howells said that in addition to the effect it obviously had on his victims and indeed Harris himself, there was a “collective…

A Matter of Debate

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has accepted an invitation to be a judge at the national finals of the Institute of Ideas Debating Matters competition at the British Library in London. The competition was open to sixth form students from across the UK: 72 qualifying rounds were followed by regional finals with just 12 teams eventually…

Gamechangers – CMCI on the South Bank

CMCI’s Dr Nick Wilson gave an invited talk titled ': Period Performance' at the South Bank Centre, Purcell Room. This formed part of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's 'Gamechanger' series this season (they are an orchestra in residence). The study day was hosted by Catherine Bott, singer and presenter, formerly of Radio 3…

Standing Room Only

It was standing room only at CMCI’s latest public event: “The Art of Re-enchantment: Making Early Music in the Modern Age.”This was an evening of discussion and musical performance to help celebrate Dr Nick Wilson’s new book The Art of Re-enchantment with Oxford University Press. It featured the celebrated writer, music journalist and scholar Professor…

Going “Globital”: Beyond Digital Memory in Brazil

Five researchers from CMCI have just returned from Brazil after playing a leading role in a British Council funded Researcher Links initiative between six UK academic institutions and the University of Sao Paulo. The fully-funded three-day workshop entitled ‘Beyond the Digital: Collective Memory and Conflict in the Digital Age’ intensively developed research collaboration between British…

A Strange and Ancient Reminder

A Strange and Ancient Reminder for Tuesday April 29: The Department of Culture, Media & Creative Industries has pleasure in inviting you to join us for THE ART OF RE-ENCHANTMENT: MAKING EARLY MUSIC IN THE MODERN AGE an evening of discussion and musical performance. This is to help celebrate Dr Nick Wilson's new book with Oxford University Press,…

New Book from CMCI’s Jessica Rapson

Congratulations to CMCI’s Dr Jessica Rapson on the publication of her edited volume The Transcultural Turn: Interrogating Memory Between and Beyond Borders.This new book, co-edited with Lucy Bond, is in the interdisciplinary field of memory studies, in which CMCI has a particular strength. Jessica’s volume pays particular attention to transculturalism, which sees remembering as a…

Being Human

Dr Richard Howells, our Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, gave a public lecture “Utopia by Design: Creation, Creativity and Visual Culture” as part of the King’s College London Arts and Humanities Festival under the theme: “Being / Human”. He is pictured here in festival action at the Old Anatomy Lecture Theatre. The lecture…

The Intimate, the Private and the Public

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was an invited speaker at the Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia (Centre for Studies in Sociology at the University Institute of Lisbon), Portugal. The occasion was an international, interdisciplinary conference on “The Intimate, the Private and the Public: Bridges and Ambiguities.” The conference was organised…

Higher Love

Our Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, Dr Richard Howells, contributed the double-page Culture section to this week’s Times Higher Education magazine. His feature article: “Faking Cats and Dogs: Shades of Grey Among the eBay ‘Lowrys’” marks the closure of Tate Britain’s blockbuster “L.S. Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life” this month. Howells’…

News from Nowhere

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has given a research paper at the 14th international conference of the Utopian Studies Society. Howells spoke on “Discord in Harmonie: George Rapp’s Ideal Communities in the United States, 1805-1905”. He compared these “lived Utopias” with British social reformer Robert Owen’s attempt to establish a similar community at New Harmony, Indiana…

BoB’s Your Uncle

CMCI’s Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Dr Richard Howells has accepted an invitation to serve on the British Universities Film and Video Council Research Education Space (RES) Academic Working Group. This is a new initiative with the BBC and Jisc (the UK universities’ digital technology champion), which will result in additional access to…

Opening up Speech Archives

Our Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries Dr Richard Howells continues his work with the British Library (BL)on archiving speech and moving pictures –and especially speech to text transcription technology for scholarly research. This month he attended both the BL’s advisory board on the project, and an invitation-only conference “Opening up Speech Archives.” The…

Going Strong

Cambridge's Polity Press have announced that the second edition of CMCI's Dr Richard Howells' Visual Culture (2012) is already being reprinted for the second time. This second editon of the 2003 original was revised, updated and expanded with the help of Dr Howells' former CMCI PhD student Dr Joaquim Negreiros.

Royal Standard

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was an invited participant in an overnight consultation meeting at Windsor Castle, an official residence of Her Majesty the Queen. The event was set up to discuss “The Value of Culture and The Crisis of Judgement” and was hosted by St George’s House: “a place where people of influence and responsibility”…

Two Cambridges and a Titanic

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was the invited guest lecturer at the Annual General Meeting of the Emmanuel College Society at Cambridge University at the weekend. The attendees also included representatives of the Harvard Club of the United Kingdom. Dr Howells spoke on “Re-Sinking the Titanic: One Hundred Years On”. Here, he showed how the myth…

The Titanic on Hampstead Heath

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was a guest lecturer last weekend (November 18th) at Kenwood House, the neo-Classical Hampstead mansion that is home to the Iveagh Bequest including a very famous self-portrait by Rembrandt. Other artists represented include Vermeer, Hals, Turner and Reynolds. On this occasion, however, Howells was talking not about fine art but the…

Outrage: A Hat-trick for Dr Howells

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells is delighted to announce the publication of his latest book: Outrage: Art, Controversy, and Society, which he has co-edited with Andreea Ritivoi and Judith Schachter, his colleagues from the Center for the Arts and Society, based at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. In addition to being a joint editor, Howells…

Frieze: We’ve Got You Covered

The Frieze Art Fair is an annual “must see” event in the contemporary art calendar. CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was invited to the professional preview: This year’s Frieze ranges –as ever- from the mediocre to the magnificent (and much else besides). There is –as usual- too much to take in, but a few impressions stand…

Guten Abend, Herr Bond

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has been interviewed by ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen), Germany's national public service television station, about the 50th anniversary of James Bond on film. The interviewers were keen to know how Bond had changed over the years, especially in the films’ representations of Britishness and women since the first picture (“Dr No”)…

Howells to Speak at Battle of Ideas: Student Discounts

  CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells will be among the speakers at the Battle of Ideas 2012, an annual festival of ideas, debate and discussion, organised by the Institute of Ideas. The event, now in its eighth year, takes a “fresh and considered view of key issues confronting contemporary society”, and will for the first time, be…

CMCI on American Network TV News

Our Reader in Culture, Media and Cretaive Industries Dr Richard Howells was interviewed by ABC network television news in the USA for a feature “Titanic Folklore Exposed”. See: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/titanic-folklore-exposed-nick-schifrin-busts-myths-famous-shipwreck-entertainment-16145404 (but apologies for the annoying commercial that precedes it). You can also hear him talk about the Titanic and its myths on an iKing's podcast: http://www.kcl.ac.uk/newsevents/Podcasts.aspx

Women and Children First!

It’s been a very busy period for CMCI’s resident Titanic expert Dr Richard Howells. First, the Centenary Edition of his monograph The Myth of the Titanic has just been published by Palgrave Macmillan’s scholarly division. This is an updated and expanded version of the 1999 original, and is available for the first time in paperback.…

Colonel Gaddafi’s Hat

They were sitting in the aisles for CMCI’s event with Sky News war correspondent Alex Crawford. Alex, who was the first journalist into Tripoli with the rebel forces last year, was in conversation with CMCI’s Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries, Dr Richard Howells. Alex vividly shared her experiences about reporting war in both…

100 Years of the Titanic on Film

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has marked the centenary of the Titanic disaster with a new journal article: “100 Years of the Titanic on Film”. Here, Howells analyses all the major films on the Titanic since 1912, beginning with the earliest newsreels (some of which were faked) to James Cameron’s Oscar winning blockbuster, which is due…

CMCI Link with the British Library

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has accepted an invitation to join the advisory board of a British Library (BL) research project to investigate the use of speech-to-text technology in archiving and (crucially) cataloguing radio and television programmes for academic use in the arts and humanities. The BL have only relatively recently become involved in storing “time-based”…

The British Universities Film and Video Council

CMCI's Dr Richard Howells has been re-appointed to the Advisory Board of the British Universities Film amd Video Council. The British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) is a representative body for universities and colleges in the UK. It supports the advancement of education by promoting the production, study and use of moving image, sound…

New Book from CMCI

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells is delighted to announce the publication of a second, fully revised and updated edition of his Visual Culture book from Polity Press. The first edition came out in 2003 and has been reprinted every year since. Improvements for the second edition include more theoretically advanced sections: Prominent among the new provocateurs…

One Byron, Three Brontes and Two Beckhams

Richard Howells' 'Philosphy Salon' at the National Potrtait Gallery was picked out by The Times as their number one recommendation for talks in their Going Out guide. If you are reading this... you already missed it, but Dr Howells introduced and led a discussion on 'The Changing Nature of Celebrity', with the sub-title: ' One…

National Portrait Gallery / CMCI Triple Bill

CMCI’s Dr. Richard Howells is giving a triple bill of events at London’s National Portrait Gallery. They all tie in with the gallery's current "Glamour of the Gods", an exhibition of studio stills from the golden age of Hollywood portrait photography. The events are: 1. A public lecture titled "From Actors to Icons", showing how…

“Groundbreaking Work”

There is glowing praise for a CMCI-based publication in the latest edition of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. It takes the form of a review of Using Visual Evidence, devised and edited by CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells, together with Professor Robert Matson of the University of Pittsburgh. Quotations for the marquee include:…

The Titanic in Modern Memory

Richard Howells gave the keynote lecture at IAMHIST XXIV, the 24th conference of the International Association for Media and History, held this year in Copenhagen, Denmark. The conference theme was ‘Media History and Cultural Memory’, Dr Howells lectured on ‘The Titanic in Modern Memory’. He anticipated next year’s 100th anniversary of the sinking by showing…

“Top-Notch”

There’s a glowing review of the CMCI-related volume The Public Value of the Humanities in The Times Higher Education Supplement. This is a book of essays from “leading humanities scholars” including CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells, and edited by Jonathon Bate. According to reviewer Malcolm Gillies, vice-chancellor of London Metropolitan University and a former president of…

A Fire in my Belly

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has been in the USA to discuss the American National Portrait Gallery’s removal of David Wojnarowicz's film "A Fire in My Belly" from its "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" exhibit. The Catholic League and two Senators complained about a clip showing ants crawling over a crucifix. The removal of…

Atheistic Christianity

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was a plenary speaker at the “No Future” conference staged by the Institute of Advanced Study at the University of Durham. His paper, “Beyond Bloch: Creation, Creativity and a Utopian Theory of Design” linked the visual arts with Bloch’s concept of “atheistic Christianity” and was ironically counter-pointed by the bells of…

Sorting The Sheep from the Sheep

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has a chapter in a new book which has just been launched at London’s Tate Modern gallery. Speakers at the launch event included Universities Minister David Willetts, Lord Robert Winston, Baroness O’Neill and Arts and Humanities Research Council Chairman Sir Alan Wilson. In this book, “a group of distinguished humanities scholars”…

Toys Story

CMCI's Dr Richard Howells made two television appearances over the festive period. He turned up as an expert cultural sociologist on two programmes about toys, both presented by James May. In the first he talked about soldier dolls including Action Man, while in the second he opined on the differences between toys marketed to girls…

Korea Opportunity

Dr Richard Howells' Visual Culture is to be translated and published in Korean. Lost in CCI learns that the Korean rights have been acquired by the The Kyungsung University Press, for publication in 2012. This follows on from the Chinese (simplified character) version, which was published by the Guangxi Normal University Press in 2007. The…

Bloch Party

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells was a guest speaker at “The Politics of Utopia: Marxism, Myth and Religion”, a workshop organised by the Centre for Ernst Bloch Studies and the Bakhtin Centre at the University of Sheffield. He gave a paper “Creation and Creativity: Utopia and Navajo Design”, which is part of Howells’ wider research on…

Are we all cultural workers now?

That is the provocative question asked at a forthcoming workshop in Sydney , Australia at which CMCI’s Rosalind Gill will be giving the opening keynote. The talk will review “what we know” about the features of cultural and creative work, discussing issues such as precariousness, bulimic patterns of working, and the intensification and extensification of…

Homage to Catalonia

Fresh off the plane from Vancouver, CMCI’s Rosalind Gill turned up in Barcelona to give the inaugural address to the Catalunyan Insitute for Women on the topic of ‘The representation of women in the media.” Examining the sexualisation of women in the media and the rise and increasing acceptability of sexism, Professor Gill addressed several…

CMCI at the Vancouver International Film Festival

Professor Rosalind Gill gave the opening keynote address to Women in View’s SEXMEDIAMONEY conference last month – attended by film-makers, academics, policy-makers and festival goers. Rosalind’s speech, entitled Unveiling the New Normal, examined the persistence of inequalities in the film and media industries, discussing the latest research from Skillset, Women in Film and Television, The…

Andy’s new publication

Andy has another new publication out today, a book chapter in the second, and expanded, edition of Key thinkers on space and place. It now runs to 528 pages! This is an encyclopaedia style book organised by author – 65 key thinkers on space and place. Unique in its concept, the book is a comprehensive…

New Journal, new paper

Andy is pleased to announce the publication of a new article, in a new journal: City, Culture and Society. Copies can be downloaded from this web site. The article is entitled "Creative cities: Tensions within and between social, cultural and economic development. A critical reading of the UK experience." City, Culture and Society 1:13-20. The…

Harry Potter and the Deathly Howells (Part One)

Now that the cast have trodden a rather rain-sodden red carpet in Leicester Square, CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells is able to reveal his thoughts on “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” Part One) which premiered on November 11. Howells has so far been keeping deliberately quiet as he actually saw the film at a cast…

Andy lectures at the Institute for Urban Design

Andy visited Zurich, this week (Nov. 4th) to give a lecture to architects at the Institute for Urban Design , at Switzerland’s top university, ETH “The creative city?”, Institute for Urban Design. His talk was based upon a critique of creative cities that he published in Geografiska Annaler Series B-Human Geography 90B:107-117. entitled "Creative cities:…

Andy in Donostia, Gipuzkoa

Andy gave a paper at the World Urban Development Congress INTA 34 held in Oct 25-26 in San Sebastián, the Basque Country, Spain (or as the Basque locals call it Donostia, Gipuzkoa). The conference took place at the Kursaal Palace, one of the architectural highlights of the Basque country (aside from Bilbao). His paper was…

Young women’s negotiations of heterosexual conventions: Theorizing Sexuality in Constructions of ‘the Feminist’

Christina Scharff has a new publication is Sociology 44(5): 827-842. The article draws on her Ph.D. research and explores young women’s constructions of ‘the feminist’. Amongst other things, the article is about haunting and sticky stereotypes. Read the abstract if you’d like to find out more: ABSTRACT Even though the normativity of heterosexuality has come…

New Reviews for “Duke Ellington’s America”

Several reviews have come in recently for CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press). In their 28 October issue, the New York Review of Books devoted 4,000 words to the book, including: "Of many artists it can be said that deep cultural currents can be read through…

Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway Autumn Events in Los Angeles and London

CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen will be appearing at several public events in the next month. On Wednesday 10 November, he will be offering a multi-media presentation entitled "Duke Ellington in his Own Words" at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The event is hosted by jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell, director of…

Andy Pratt has a new publication in Italian:

Andy Pratt has a new publication in Italian: 'La cultura e le politiche basate sulle industrie creative : connettere produzione e consumo' in F. Angeli (ed), Nuovi scenari per l'attrattività delle città e dei territori: dibattiti, progetti e strategie in contesti metropolitani mondiali. Details of the book can be accessed here. For those who do…

A busy time for Dr. Ruth Adams…

Dr Ruth Adams has had a busy couple of weeks, squeezing in a conference paper and two publications either side of the start of the academic year. On 10 September 2010 she gave a presentation at the 9th International Colloquium on Arts, Heritage, Nonprofit and Social Marketing, which was organized by colleagues in the Department…

UN/SIDA ‘Expert brainstorm’

In mid September, CMCI’s Professor Rosalind Gill took part in a prestigious United Nations/Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency ‘expert brainstorm’ to reflect on why there has been a lack of progress in achieving gender equality, fifteen years after the UN’s famous Beijing meeting, which felt so hopeful to many at the time. The focus of…

“Duke Ellington’s America” Heads to the London Jazz Festival and Guildhall School

Duke Ellington's America, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book, now in its 2nd printing from the University of Chicago Press, will be the focus of two major free events in the next two months. First, on 27 October 2010 at 7:00PM, Cohen will be featured with the Guildhall Jazz Band and their leader/conductor…

Reputation

Andy presented a paper at the Work employment and society conference, Brighton, 7-8th September. The paper was entitled ‘Reputation work/the work of reputation’ and was part of a whole day ‘strand’ to the conference on cultural work. The paper argues that this provides us with a way to discuss the diverse ‘values’ of work that…

Cultural economy and development

Andy gave a series of lectures for ILO/UNESCO/University of Torino on the creative economy and policy for MA in "World Heritage at Work"/”Cultural Projects for Development” 13-14th September. Andy is a visiting professor on this programme which attracts international students engaged in policy and practice work for conservation bodies, especially the World Heritage Organisation. The…

‘Ellington’s America’ Resonates in London

Tomorrow, Friday 3 September at 2:00PM, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen will be discussing his new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press) live on Carole Chant's Sound Out programme on Resonance FM Radio 104.4 here in London, and on their website. The programme will not be archived, so if you want to…

“Duke Ellington’s America” Airs Across America

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press), currently in its second printing, has been receiving attention lately on the airwaves in the United States, from coast to coast. This Friday, 20 August 2010, at 6PM London time, Cohen will be interviewed about his book on "Metro Connection,"…

Rude Britannia

Lost in CCI was delighted to find a CMCI connection with Tate Britain's current “Rude Britannia” exhibition. There's a room within the exhibit called the Sitting Room, and it features the display of various books about comic culture, visual culture, and the history of humour in Britain. The display is full of old 1950s furniture…

Prof.Dr. Leilei Li

The Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries has been hosting the research visit of Prof.Dr. Leilei Li, College of Mass Communication, Shenzhen University (December 2009-July 2010). Sadly she has now returned to Shenzhen. Prof. Li has been working with Andy Pratt developing ideas about researching and teaching the cultural and creative industries. Amongst other…

‘Rethinking the Cultural and Creative Economy of Cities’

Andy Pratt gave a paper at the International Sociological Association’s annual meeting in Gothenberg on July 12th. Andy’s paper was entitled Rethinking the Cultural and Creative Economy of Cities and was part of a panel called “Creative Cities” after the Fall of Finance as part of the RC21 strand (Urban Sociologies) that Andy co-organised with…

Read it Like Beckham

A new book about celebrity comes complete with a CMCI endorsement. Fred Inglis’s A Short History of Celebrity is just out from Princeton University Press. Here, Inglis argues that our seemingly modern obsession with celebrity needs to be seen in its social historical context. CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells loaned a “useful hand” at the typescript…

Dr. Ruth Adams contributes chapter to Gender, Sexuality and Museums

Dr Ruth Adams has contributed a chapter to a new book called Gender, Sexuality and Museums. According to the publisher, this book provides the only repository of key articles, new essays and case studies for the important area of gender and sexuality in museums. It is the first reader to focus on LGBT issues and…

Private View

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has had the unusual experience of being invited to open an art exhibition. He responded with “a few well-chosen words” at the private view of the Leamington Studio Artists 2010 Summer Exhibition. The show was organised by the sociologist Gordon Fyffe, a good friend to CMCI, and Richard (pictured on the…

Perfect companions – Small Business Management & Entrepreneurship

Two new books on entrepreneurship and small business have just been launched, co-authored by CMCI's Nick Wilson. The books offer a comprehensive review of entrepreneurship theory and practice across small and large firms, private and public sector organisations. With a strong international perspective, the CCI reader will find both books packed with useful content, ideas…

Radio Days and the Page 99 Test for “Ellington’s America”

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press) has been appearing on the airwaves lately and on one literary website. For more info, read on... Cohen has a one-hour guest slot discussing his book on the latest edition of the Radio Open Source programme. Some Ellington music will…

Beryl Bainbridge

The death of British novelist Beryl Bainbridge (1932-2010) this month was particularly resonant with CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells. Beryl was the first person Richard interviewed in his former career as a radio producer. She was recording a television series re-creating JB Priestley’s English Journey, and Richard’s interview was itself filmed and became part of the…

Join the MA CCI Alumni group on LinkedIn!

Dear friends, colleagues, mates, acquaintances, comrades; past, present and future students: we invite you all to join our MA CCI Alumni group on LinkedIn, in order to exchange experiences, divulge internship and job opportunities, or discuss about whatever you fancy. And it's free to register. Spread the word!

CMCI ‘downunder’

In April, Professor Rosalind Gill gave the keynote at the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists in Perth, Western Australia. The title of a 45 minute plenary address was “Objectification: what is it good for?” Those old enough to remember will recognize this as a play on the song ‘War what is it good for’. Whilst…

Burrell, TLS and NY Times weigh in on “Ellington’s America”

More reviews are filtering in for CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen's new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press). Jazz guitar legend Kenny Burrell, who also serves as the Director for Jazz Studies at UCLA, will assign the book in his classes during the forthcoming school year. He had this to say: "Harvey G.…

“A Definitive Anthology”

Richard Howells and Robert Matson’s Using Visual Evidence (Open University Press 2009) has received a sparkling review in the latest edition of the journal Film and History. Highlights include: "…two media historians—drawing upon years of detailed research—have compiled a definitive anthology. Clearly, Using Visual Evidence presents a unique interpretation of historical analysis where thirteen writers,…

Dr. Ruth Adams gave a paper at the Fourth Annual Comedy Conference

Earlier this month Dr. Ruth Adams gave a paper at the Fourth Annual Comedy Conference in Manchester, 'So Funny It Hurts' - http://www.famss.salford.ac.uk/page/4th-comedy-conference-2010 Ruth gave a paper on Mike Leigh's iconic 1970s play Abigail's Party, in which she discussed - drawing on the writings of the French philospher Henri Bergson - whether this was, as…

Secrecy and Silence reviewed in today’s Times Higher

Professor Rosalind Gill's latest book Secrecy and Silence received a glowing review in this week's Times Higher. A copy of this review can be read here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=412114

Professor Andy Pratt gave papers at two conferences earlier this month.

The first was on culture and the post-industrial city, and was given at the International Congress "Postmetropolis Cerdà": Governance of the Metropolitan Regions in the 21st Century, held at the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). Andy’s paper was on Urban policies and the compact city: from social segregation to the economy of culture.…

Duke Ellington’s America out front in the TLS

Duke Ellington's America, the new book by CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen, is the cover story in the current issue of the Times Literary Supplement. Unfortunately, it is not online, so you'll have to go out to your local newsstand if you'd like to sneak a look.

Ellington’s early years spotlighted on BBC Radio 3’s Jazz Library

On Saturday afternoon, 5 June 2010, CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen guested on Jazz Library for an hour on BBC Radio 3, hosted by Alyn Shipton, who was recently named Jazz Broadcaster of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. From the Cotton Club to national icon, Cohen traces Ellington's finest output from the decade…

Ros Gill awarded International Gender and Language Association Prize

Professor Rosalind Gill in the Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries Research has just been awarded the International Gender and Language Association’s 2010 prize for her book Gender and the Media (Polity Press). This is a a bi-annual prize that recognises ‘the most outstanding scholarship on gender, language and communication’. It will be awarded…

The Future of Cultural Work

Ros Gill and Andy Pratt (KCL) are organising a special one day conference along with Mark Banks and Stephanie Taylor (OU) on ‘The future of Cultural Work’ to take place in London on Monday June 7th, 2010. The programme is available here. The event is a collaboration between the ESRC research centre CRESC (Centre for…

Duke Ellington and Modernism on BBC Radio 3

CMCI Lecturer Harvey G. Cohen appeared last night on BBC Radio 3's Nightwaves programme, discussing his new book Duke Ellington's America (University of Chicago Press) with a panel that included musician/journalist Kevin LeGendre and novelist John Harvey. Nightwaves host Philip Dodd wanted to focus on Ellington's connection to modernism, so Cohen discussed how Ellington fit…

Researching Cultural and Creative Industries in London

There was a public launch of the RCCIL database on 11th May 2010 at City University London, which included a keynote address given by Professor Andy Pratt (King’s College London), together with a demonstration of the RCCIL website. Andy gave a talk entitled ‘Constructing an evidence base for research and governance of the cultural and…

Lena Horne, vocalist and activist

Yesterday on the BBC World Service's Newshour, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen provided commentary on the significance of African American performer Lena Horne, who died on Sunday 9 May at the age of 92. Though she enjoyed worldwide success as a jazz vocalist, film and TV star, recording artist, and Broadway performer, she is…

THE’s Book of the Week

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen's new book "Duke Ellington's America" (University of Chicago Press) has been named Book of the Week in the current issue of the Times Higher Education. For the full review, consult here.

Global and World Cities lecture

Andy delivered the 12th annual Global and World Cities (GaWC) lecture on 28th April entitled ‘Global Cities and the Creative Economy’. Previous annual lectures have been delivered by well known speakers such as Prof Saskia Sassen and Prof Sir Peter Hall. Andy’s lecture highlighted the lack of attention that global city researchers had paid to…

UK events announced for “Duke Ellington’s America”

In the next few months, several public events will focus on "Duke Ellington's America", the forthcoming book by CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen, which will be released in Europe in mid-June and in the US in mid-May on the University of Chicago Press. Using extensive new research, the book offers a new look at…

Debates on both sides of the Atlantic

Yesterday morning, on the Breakfast Show on BBC London radio, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen commented on the history of American presidential campaign debates, in light of the first British Prime Minister debates taking place this week. He spoke about how such debates have served to focus the electorate on the campaigns, and have…

Andy at the Arts Council

On March 18th Andy Pratt was a member of a round table discussion at the Arts Council England. At the session Andy and other leading cultural policy experts were invited to give their views on the Arts Council's proposed ten-year strategic framework, which is currently out for consultation. A copy of the consultation document can be…

Andy Pratt’s European travels

Germany: CMCI's Prof. Andy Pratt gave a keynote lecture entitled ‘The cultural economy and the creative city’ to policy makers and academics in Mannheim on March 25th. He was speaking at a Creative City Forum organised by the City Council, and was introduced by the Mayor, a key supporter of policy to support the music industry…

Controversy, Art and Power

CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells has just returned from the Unites States where he had been invited to give a public lecture at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Richard argued that controversies in the arts are rarely only about the arts. While he agreed that some controversies are deliberately created for publicity and commercial reasons,…

Brick Lane: Innovation space

Andy Pratt and Kate Oakley (visting Professor at City University) have written a paper about Brick Lane in East London as an innovation space. The paper is part of four case studies in a report Local Knowledge published by NESTA (The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts). This report shows how innovative economic…

CMCI hosts Animation seminar

CMCI hosted the "Animation industry in Japan and China: insiders’ views" seminar on 18 March 2010. Prof. Leilei Li from Shenzhen University gave a presentation on the Chinese animation industry from the perspective of media, geography and policy. This was followed by a talk by Mr Daisuke Okeda on current issues of the anime industry…

CCI joins UNCTAD network

CMCI has just been invited to join the UN Conference on Trade and Development's (UNCTAD) Creative Economy Academic Network. CMCI staff are involved in knowledge exchange and policy advice for UNCTAD and other UN family agencies. In particular, Prof. Pratt has recently helped to draft the UNCTAD "Creative economy report", and gave a presentation at…

Hollywood’s 100th birthday

CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen guested this morning on the BBC World Service programme World Update, and commented on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the first film to be filmed in Hollywood (D. W. Griffith's In Old California, in case you're wondering). He explained why Los Angeles became a center of film…

CMCI professor to address Council of Europe

On Monday, March 8, as part of an event to celebrate International Women’s Day, Prof Rosalind Gill from the Centre for Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College, will give a keynote address to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg on representations of women in the media. The event is part of a number…

Creatives, academics and workplace stress

According to CMCI's Prof Rosalind Gill we should look in an unlikely place to get a barometer of what the contemporary workplace is really like: the greetings card industry. 'Happiness is an empty inbox' declares one card Gill has noticed. 'Nothing beats the satisfaction of crossing things off lists', remarks another, and (Ros's particular favourite,…

The Cultural Impact of UK Film: Questions and Evidence

The full report of the seminar “The Cultural Impact of UK Film: Questions and Evidence” has now been published online. It includes the contribution of CMCI’s Dr Richard Howells, who was invited to present his thoughts on the issue. By way of background: In 2008 the UK Film Council commissioned a consortium of Narval Media,…

Tough marks for Obama from CMCI Lecturer

Last Wednesday, on the first anniversary of the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, CMCI Lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen was asked by Metro International newspapers in Sweden and Denmark to produce a report card for Obama, judging his performance so far in five categories, with one sentence for each category (not a lot of…

New faces at CMCI!

It’s a new year and there is lots of news from CMCI, in particular some new faces (seven: count them!) that you’ll see around. I hope that you’ll make them all welcome. First, we are very happy to welcome Professor Ros Gill who officially began at KCL on Jan 1st; although she has popped in…

Sing CMCI

Thanks and congratulations to the CMCI Singers, who marked the end of term with a charity Christmas recital in the college chapel. The choir was made up of students on the MA in CCI, supplemented by lecturer Dr Ruth Adams and conducted by our own Dr Nick Wilson. The programme ranged from Rutter to Ellington,…

Can the Arts Save the Economy?

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells' contribution to the Battle of Ideas debate on "Can the Arts Save The Economy" is now available via online audio at: http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2009/session_detail/2548/ The event was held at the Royal College of Art in London: joining the discussion with Richard were James Boyle, former controller of BBC Radio 4, Angus Kennedy,…

Deep Impact

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells was an invited speaker at a UK Film Council event to launch their latest report: “Stories We Tell Ourselves About Ourselves: The Cultural Impact of UK Film 1946-2006.” Richard praised the allusion to Clifford Geertz in their title, but (controversially) criticised their focus on “impact” at the expense of “value”…

Thank You for the Music (terms and conditions apply)

Music copyright is a very hot issue at the moment, and so Lost in CCI recommends a recently published and highly topical special issue of the journal Information, Communication and Society (Vol 12.2) edited by CMCI’s Professor Andy Pratt with Martin Kretschmer. The article is titled: ' Copyright, and the Production of Music', and here…

Keeping ITCH up to Scratch?

Artists working in any medium and writers expressing themselves in any form or genre are invited to submit work for the fifth issue of ITCH Online. The "theme" is: ?* ITCH is a creative submissions magazine started by CMCI’s own Dr Mehita Iqani and Bell-Roberts Publishing in 2003. It features a variety of writing as…

Welcome, Tracey

We are delighted to welcome Tracey Jensen to the CMCI team as a Teaching Fellow on the MA in Cultural and Creative Industries. Tracey got first class honours in Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge, and an MSc in Gender Studies with distinction at the LSE. She passed the Certificate in Learning and Teaching in…

Congratulations, Fred!

Lost in CCI is delighted to congratulate teaching fellow Frederik Lesage on the birth of baby Finn Lesage (pictured: ahhhh). He was born on Friday, 20 November at 4:26 am at University College London Hospital. He weighed 3.9 kilograms. Baby and mother Gillian are both doing well. If Fred looks a little tired on his…

Welcome, Hatty

We are delighted to introduce our latest MA CCI Teaching Fellow, Hatty Oliver. Hatty got her MSc with distinction at the LSE before enrolling on AHRC-funded PhD at Goldsmiths under the supervision of Angela McRobbie. She has taken the Postgraduate Certificate in the Management of Teaching and Learning, also at Goldsmiths. Hatty’s research speciality is…

Fitting the Bill

CMCI was delighted to stage a guest lecture on “Creativity in Fashion: Fashion Design in the Cultural Economy” from Dr Amanda Bill, from Massey University, New Zealand. Dr Bill has been involved with creative industries for over twenty years and has been a lecturer in design since the inception of design degree programmes in New…

More from Andy

CMCI’s new professor Andy Pratt is certainly keeping both busy and productive: he reports two more publications and a keynote conference paper. The publications are Pratt, A.C. (2009) "Cultural Economy" in R. Kitchen and N. Thrift (eds.), International Encylopedia of Human Geography, Volume 2, Elsevier, Oxford, pp 407-10. Pratt, A. C. (2009) "Critical Realism/Critical Realist…

Manga, Anime and Scanlation

Congratulations to CMCI’s Dr Hye-Kyung Lee, who has just had an article published in the highly respected journal Media, Culture and Society. “Between fan culture and copyright infringement: manga scanlation” is based on her successful presentation at last year's CMCI symposium on anime and manga. Hye-Kyung is already known for her work on cultural policy…

Andy’s Swiss Role

CMCI’s Professor Andy Pratt is recently back from Geneva, where he was attending an expert meeting on “Developing guidelines to assess the economic, social and cultural impact of intellectual property in the creative industries” at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (an agency of the United Nations). It is hoped that this group will develop means…

Media Clusters

CMCI’s Professor Andy C Pratt gave a paper at an international seminar held in London on the topic of media clusters. The conference, organised by Prof R.Picard of Jonkoping International Business School in Sweden is one of three that has been held in the last 18 months and has as its objective the production of…

Shadow (Minister) Boxing

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells will be debating Shadow Minister for Culture Ed Vaizey, MP at the annual Battle of Ideas this weekend. “Can the Arts Save the Economy” will be the topic under dispute at the event, staged by the Institute of Ideas and held at the Royal College of Art in London. Joining…

Museums and Urban Regeneration

CMCI’s Professor Andy Pratt has been busy presenting ongoing work about museums and urban regeneration. He recently presented a joint paper at a seminar at LSE, written with Corinna Dean and Caroline Donnellan of LSE Cities Programme, entitled ‘The Tate Modern: pushing the limits of regeneration’. The paper discussed a range of tensions created within…

MediaFest

CMCI joined with the National Media Museum to present “MediaFest”, which concentrated on the role of women in today’s media. The event as hosted by Professor Ros Gill, and also attended by our Media Liaison Officer, Fernanda Fain-Binda. Fernanda reports a “stirring and provocative” key note speech from Emily Bell of the Guardian, who argued…

After the Fall

CMCI’s Professor Andy Pratt is one of the organizers of the “Creative Cities: after the fall of finance” event at the World Congress of Sociology in Sweden next year. He’s also calling for people to take part. The session will explore whether the global financial crisis is changing prospects and policies for cultural and creative…

Culture, Creativity -and Recession

Recession is all over the news –but what does this mean for the creative industries? Traditionally it was thought that culture and creativity would be the first victims of recession. However, CMCI’s new Professor of Culture, Media and Economy Andy C. Pratt argues in a new paper that this has changed and we need to…

Welcome Mehita and Fred

Lost in CCI is delighted to announce the appointment of two more new members of staff. Mehita Iqani and Frédérik Lasage come to us from the London School of Economics, where they both completed their Doctorates -and at the same time managed to achieve teaching awards. Dr Mehita Iqani comes from South Africa and her…

Doctor Who in Korea

Dr Ruth Adams was recently filmed for a programme about public service broadcasting in the UK by KBS, the leading public broadcast company in Korea. KBS stated that it wished to learn from the example of the BBC, which, they say, is known to be the public broadcaster to maintain the highest standards in the…

End of the world is near… on screen

CMCI lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen appeared last Saturday morning on SkyNews, discussing the rash of apocalyptic-themed movies arriving from America in the last couple of years (Cloverfield, Wall-E, and the upcoming 2012, Book of Ely and The Road). He argued that anxiety over 9/11 and global warming plays a part in this trend, just…

Women in Music

CMCI lecturer Dr Ruth Adams participated in a panel discussion on the topic of Women in Music at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham (Monday 31 August). Also on the panel were Miriam Kaufman who has worked in various areas of the music industry and also sings, sometimes with the band Snow Patrol, and singer-songwriter Lou…

You Are Not Watching Big Brother

Centre director Dr Richard Howells was quoted in the Daily Mail over the demise of the once popular TV "reality" show Big Brother. Chanel 4 have announced that the series is to be axed after one final outing next year. The show began in the year 2000, but ratings have fallen from a peak of…

Radio discussion on Cultural Decline

Dr Ruth Adams made a guest appearance on the BBC Radio programme Good Morning Wales on Friday 14 August 2009. Dr Adams and Peter Finch, poet and Chief Executive of Academi, the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers, were asked to comment on some controversial statements made by Jonathan Mills, the director…

Welcome, Fernanda

We are delighted to welcome Fernanda Fain-Binda as new member of the CMCI team. Fernanda, a Londoner whose family come from Argentina, has already brought enthusiasm and dedication to the new post of Arts and Media Liaison Officer, a role that will build on our existing strong relations with the cultural and creative industries. She’ll…

Leading the World

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells gets an honourable mention in the new AHRC report: “Leading the World: The Economic Impact of UK Arts and Humanities Research”, which is just out. He was among the 33 UK arts and humanities researchers selected by the AHRC to contribute essays on the value of arts and humanities research.…

Some Other Way Forward

CMCI staff member Dr Ruth Adams chaired a panel on Tuesday this week at a conference entitled 'Some Other Way Forward: The Legacy' held at the Southbank Centre. Some Other Way Forward, or SOWF, is a treasury funded project of the South Bank and Bankside Cultural Quarter - of which King's College is an educational…

New Book from CMCI Director

Lost in CCI is delighted to report the publication of centre director Dr Richard Howells’ latest book: Using Visual Evidence. It’s just out from the Open University Press in the UK and McGraw Hill in the United States. Using Visual Evidence is a collection of specially commissioned essays from scholars around the world. It seeks…

A License to Inform…

CMCI Director Dr Richard Howells has been interviewed by Finnish national public service broadcasting service YLE. Like the BBC, YLE is funded by a license fee and carries no advertising. Appropriately, Richard’s interview was about the license fee system in the UK, which is a topical issue in Finland due to proposed changes in the…

Manga scanlation interview

CMCI's Dr Hye-Kyung Lee recently gave an interview to a Japanese news agency about the scanlation of manga (comic books), on which she has been doing some research. Scanlation is defined by Wikipedia as 'the unauthorised scanning, translation, editing and distribution of comics from a foreign language into the language of the distributors'. An article…

In the Loop

CMCI academics Dr Richard Howells and Dr Harvey Cohen enjoyed a preview screening of “In the Loop”, the Anglo-American political comedy-satire directed by Armando Iannucci and starring (among others) James Gandolfini. There’s a lot of (hugely enjoyable) high calibre swearing combined with razor-sharp personal insults, and there has been much speculation on how much basis…

Goody Goody

CMCI Director Dr Richard Howells was a live guest on Sky Television News following the furore over Sir Michael Parkinson’s remarks about Jade Goody in next week’s Radio Times. Parkinson, the veteran journalist and former chat show host, said that reality TV star Goody, who died recently of cancer aged 27, represented “all that's paltry…

Free Speech in the Universities

Centre Director Dr Richard Howells is among the academics and students contributing to the new “Free D” campaign funded by the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills and supported by the National Union of Students, Universities UK and the Guardian. The campaign is intended to encourage students, academics, policy makers and members of the general…

Picture Perfect

Congratulations to CMCI lecturer Dr Harvey Cohen: The King’s College Humanities Research Committee has awarded him a welcome sum to help with the photographic costs for his forthcoming monograph Duke Ellington’s America. Lost in CCI thanks the committee in return. Harvey’s book is due out in spring 2010 with Chicago University Press.

The Red Carpet

Celebrity seems even more prominently in the news at the moment, fuelled by the Oscars and a cornucopia of other awards ceremonies with their attendant red carpets and flashing cameras. This has also added to the rich vein of research for centre director Dr Richard Howells, who continues to be in demand as a guest…

Movie star tantrums

On Wednesday afternoon, CMCI lecturer Harvey G. Cohen appeared on BBC Radio Wales to comment upon the recent release of a recording of movie star Christian "The Dark Knight" Bale cursing out his director of photography on the set of his new film "Terminator Salvation" for almost four minutes, using the f-word an average of…

John Updike 1932-2009

An appreciation by CMCI lecturer Dr. Harvey G. Cohen Just thought I would mention the passing of one of my favorite authors this week, John Updike, a prodigious writer of novels, short stories, non-fiction, poetry, and criticism, producing about a book a year for the last 55+ years. In my courses taught here at King's…

Managing Nicely

CMCI’s cultural management specialist Dr Lynne Nikolychuk has been more than a little busy lately... She was the lead researcher for a report just published on “UK Independent Television & Film Sectors: Exploring New Collaborative (Business) Models”. The project was funded by the London Development Agency and supported by King’s Business Ltd. It’s been published…

Inauguration event

Our own Dr Harvey G. Cohen will be speaking at a special presidential inauguration event at King's College this Tuesday, 20 January, to offer comments on the swearing in of Barack Obama as 44th President of the United States of America. The event runs from 4.30 to 6.30pm at the KCLSU Waterfront Bar, Macadam Building,…

Is It Becoz I Went to Cambridge?

The character of Ali G may not be famed for his intellectual capacities, but he was nevertheless the subject of a research paper that centre director Dr Richard Howells gave at Cambridge University. “It’s Semiotic, Innit?” explained the often contentious relationship between race, humour and television, and looked closely at how Sacha Baron Cohen, the…

Saturday Night’s Alright

Just as normal, decent people were enjoying a Saturday morning lie-in to celebrate the end of term, CMCI director Dr Richard Howells was appearing live on Sky Television News to talk about the renaissance of Saturday night TV in the United Kingdom. The item was put together in anticipation of the finals of The X-Factor…

The Contentious Museum

Last week Dr Ruth Adams attended the 6th University Museums in Scotland conference, on the topic of 'The Contentious Museum', at the University in snowy(!) Aberdeen. Session topics included 'Human remains and sacred items', 'Negotiating with communities' and 'The Legacy of empire and slavery'. Ruth contributed a paper to this last session which considered the…