Lecturer in Media, Sub-Dean Quality, Deputy Director Research Institute for Media, Art & Design
Alec Charles has previously taught at universities in Estonia, Japan and Cornwall. He has made documentaries for BBC Radio 3, has worked as a print journalist in eastern Europe and has written for British Journalism Review and Tribune.
He is the editor of Media in the Enlarged Europe (Intellect, 2009) and co-editor of The End of Journalism (Peter Lang, 2011). His recent publications include papers in Science Fiction Studies and Science Fiction Film & Television, as well as chapters in various books on film, television, literature and new media.
Qualifications
- 2011: Fellow, Higher Education Academy
- 1995: D.Phil.: ‘James Joyce, Modernism and Postmodernism’ (Oxford University)
- 1993: M.A., English Language and Literature (Oxford University)
- 1991: M.Phil. Twentieth Century Studies (Oxford University)
- 1989: B.A. English Language and Literature (Oxford University)
Teaching Expertise and Research Interests
- Media
- Journalism
- Literature
- Culture
Research Projects
External Roles
External validator for:
- University College Falmouth
- University of Buckingham
PhD Examiner
- University of Newcastle, Australia
Publications
Books
- 2011: Co-editor (with Gavin Stewart), The End of Journalism: News in the Twenty-First Century. UK: Peter Lang.
- 2009: Editor, Media in the Enlarged Europe: Politics, Policy and Industry. UK: Intellect Publishing; U.S.: Chicago University Press.
- 2005: Editor, EU Enlargement – One Year On. Estonia: Audentes University.
- 2004: Editor, Transatlantic Cooperation: Europe, America & the Baltics. Estonia: Audentes University.
Peer-reviewed Articles
- 2012: ‘Deer departed: a study of the news coverage of the death of the Exmoor Emperor’ in Journalism Education 1.
- 2011: ‘The crack of doom: the uncanny echoes of Steven Moffat’s Doctor Who’ in Science Fiction Film and Television 4:1, 1-24.
- 2010 (with Marc Conrad and Jo Neale): ‘This is my body: the uses and effects of the avatar in the virtual world’ in International Journal for Infonomics 3:4, 513-522.
- 2010: ‘The politics of Facebook friendship: the influence of the social structuration of the SNS upon the notion of the political’ in CEU Political Science Journal 5:4, 575-596.
- 2010: ‘Extraordinary renditions: reflections of the war on terror in British and American screen science fiction’ in Historia Actual Online 22.
- 2009: ‘Playing with one’s self: notions of subjectivity and agency in digital games’ in Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture 3:2, 281-294.
- 2009: ‘The flight from history: from H.G. Wells to Doctor Who and back again’ in Colloquy 17, 16-33.
- 2009: ‘Alfred Hitchcock and the monstrous gaze’ in Developments in Political, Legal, Societal and Cultural Thought: Proceedings of the Institute for European Studies 5, 180-196.
- 2009: ‘The electronic state: Estonia’s new media revolution’ in Journal of Contemporary European Research 5:1, 97-113.
- 2008: ‘War without end?: Utopia, the Family, and the Post-9/11 World in Russell T. Davies’s Doctor Who’ in Science Fiction Studies 35:3, 450-465.
- 2006: ‘Slavoj Zizek and Alfred Hitchcock: an unlikely alliance?’ in Soter 16, 149-155.
- 2005: ‘Baby talk: semiotics, psychoanalysis and the Teletubbies’ in Proceedings of Audentes University 7, 172-181.
- 2000: ‘My left shoes: the crippling myths of Jacob’s Room’ in Kumamoto Journal of Culture and Humanities 67, 15-33.
- 1999: ‘Some versions of Dracula’ in Language Issues 5:1, 119-150.
- 1998: ‘Air and angels: a close encounter with Leda and the Swan’ in Kumamoto Studies in English Language and Literature 41, 1-10.
Book Chapters
- Forthcoming: ‘The allegory of allegory: race, racism and the summer of 2011’ for Doctor Who and Race (ed. Lindy Orthia).
- Forthcoming: ‘Science Fiction’, Dracula, A Clockwork Orange and 28 Days Later for Directory of World Cinema: Britain (Intellect).
- 2011: ‘Pictures at an atrocity exhibition – modernism and dystopian realism in David Peace’s Red Riding Quartet’ in Analysing David Peace, ed. Katy Shaw (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). 61-76.
- 2011: ‘Resistance is useless’ in The End of Journalism (Peter Lang). 1-17.
- 2011: ‘Attack of the killer squirrels: a study of the fantastical symbolism of BBC News Online’in The End of Journalism (Peter Lang). 159-192.
- 2011: ‘What is my avatar?’ (with Marc Conrad and Jo Neale) in Reinventing Ourselves (Springer). 253-274.
- 2009: ‘Invisibility and insight: the unerasable trace of The Amazing Transparent Man’ in The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer, ed. Bernd Herzogenrath (Scarecrow Press). 245-263.
- 2009: ‘New media, new Europe’ in Media in the Enlarged Europe (Intellect Publishing). 207-219.
- 2009: ‘States of transition’ in Media in the Enlarged Europe (Intellect Publishing). 9-10.
- 2007: ‘Slavoj Zizek and Alfred Hitchcock’ in Humanities in New Europe 2 (Vytautas Magnus University Press). 84-92.
- 2007: ‘The ideology of anachronism: television, history and the nature of time’ in Time and Relative Dissertations in Space, ed. David Butler (Manchester University Press). 108-122.
- 2006: ‘Double identity: presence and absence in the films of Tod Browning’ in The Films of Tod Browning, ed. Bernd Herzogenrath (Black Dog Publishing, UK & U.S.). 79-93.
- 2005: ‘The traumas of transition’ in EU Enlargement – One Year On (Estonia). 119-128.
- 2004: ‘Spinning to the East from the West: the politicization of public discourse’ in Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe (Lithuania). 253-259.
- 2004: ‘Globalization and imperialism’ in Transatlantic Cooperation: Europe, America & the Baltics (Estonia). 27-33.
Other Articles
- 2011: ‘Strange new world: meditations upon 9/11 and the War on Terror in British and American screen science fiction’ and ‘Zamyšlení nad 11. zářím a válkou s terorismem v britských a amerických televizních sci-fi’ (Czech translation) in 25 FPS 46 (online cinema journal, Czech Republic).
- 2011: Review: The Video Game Theory Reader 2 in Convergence 17:1 (Sage Publications). 103-104.
- 2010: ‘The mediacratic subject: reflections upon the illusion of interactivity in contemporary mass media forms’ in The Evidence 3.
- 2009: ‘History & Who-topia: a Wellsian re-reading of Russell T Davies’s Doctor Who’ in Altertopian 1.
- 2008: Review: Ambivalence towards Convergence: Digitalization and the Media Age (Tanja Storsul and Dagny Stuedahl) in Convergence 15:1 (Sage Publications). 123-124.
- 2007: Conference report: ‘Hollywood / Babylon: Hollywood and the Culture Wars’ in Scope 8. Available at: www.scope.nottingham.ac.uk/confreport.php?issue=8&id=214
- 2007: Review: How to Do Things with Cultural Theory (Matt Hills) in Convergence, 13:2 (Sage Publications). 213-214.
- 2007: Review: The Intelligence of Evil (Jean Baudrillard) in Convergence, 13:1 (Sage Publications). 105-106.
- 2004: ‘Racist, or just animal crackers?’ in British Journalism Review 15:1 (Sage Publications). 68-72. Also available at: bjr.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/15/1/68.pdf
- 2004: ‘Spinning to the East from the West: the politicization of public discourse’ in Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe (Lithuania). 253-259.
Contact Details
T: +44 (0)1582 743432
E: alec.charles@beds.ac.uk
