Dr Alec Charles is Principal Lecturer in Media at the University, where he also serves as Sub Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts, Technologies and Science and Chair of the Ethics Committee for Creative Arts, Technologies and Science.
He also leads the Journalism & Communication Research Group, and serves as a member of the University’s Diversity Forum, External Examiners Appointments Committee, Quality Forum, Teaching Quality & Standards Committee and FE/HE Liaison Committee.
He finished a BA and MA in English Language and Literature at Oxford University, where he went on to complete an M.Phil. in twentieth century studies and a D.Phil. on the relationship between Modernism and Postmodernism in twentieth century cultural history, literature and philosophy.
He has taught literature, cultural studies and media studies at Falmouth College of Arts (now University College Falmouth) in the UK, at Kumamoto University and Kumamoto Prefectural University in Japan, and at the Estonian Institute of Humanities, Concordia University and Audentes University in Estonia – where he held the positions of Professor of Media, Head of Communications and Adviser to the Rector.
He has worked as a writer, journalist and producer of cultural documentaries for BBC Radio 3, as a freelance writer for various newspapers and magazines in Britain, Japan and the Baltic States, as a screenplay consultant and voice-over artist in Latvia and Estonia, and as a volunteer teacher in Africa. He has also designed the journalism training programme for Latvia’s largest newspaper.
In 2002, he directed a production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Old Town Studio theatre in Tallinn, Estonia; and he features as a regular media commentator on BBC Three Counties Radio, and recently appeared on Tonight with Sir Trevor MacDonald.
He has published academic papers in Britain, the United States, Estonia, Lithuania and Japan, including essays on W.B. Yeats, Virginia Woolf, horror films, Alfred Hitchcock, journalism, globalization, EU enlargement, media politics and the Teletubbies. Recent papers include essays in ‘The Films of Tod Browning’, ‘The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer’ and ‘Time and Relative Dissertations in Space’, as well as pieces in ‘British Journalism Review’, 'Science Fiction Studies', 'The Journal of Contemporary European Research', 'Colloquy', 'Convergence' and ‘Scope’.
He has edited the book Media in the Enlarged Europe (2009), as well as EU Enlargement – One Year On (2005) and Transatlantic Cooperation: Europe, America and the Baltics (2004).
He has presented conference papers in Japan, Estonia, Lithuania and Sweden. Recent conference papers include appearances at the Pacific Sociological Association (Hollywood), the Political Studies Association (Swansea, Manchester & Glasgow), the Utopian Studies Society (Limerick), the Australian Utopian Studies Society (Melbourne), Hollywood and the Culture Wars (Leicester), Conflict and Communication (Glasgow) and The European First Year Student Experience (Teesside).
He has organized international conferences on ‘Transatlantic Cooperation’ and ‘EU Enlargement’ in Estonia, and co-organized conferences on ‘Media in the Enlarged Europe’ and 'The End of Journalism' at the University of Bedfordshire.
