Research Students

Mark Adams

PhD student whose research challenges the influential theoretical models that see authorship as a major source of social control and thus sees audiences that ‘poach’ meanings from texts as engaged in rebellion. His work examines fan-producers in contemporary television, and the complex links and interactions between producers and fans, contributing to the current reassessments of the way media audiences are theorised. This research will ultimately seek to construct a workable model for understanding fan practices. Mark previously completed a First Class Film Studies BA with Honours at Southampton Solent University and a Masters with Merit in Cult Film and TV at Brunel.

Julie Angel

Completing a practice-based PhD that aims to document the practice of parkour through the visual anthropology of space, place and the body. Her work involves participant observation and a feedback loop of collaborative production. She explores the documentary form using a range of styles and techniques to create 'parkour led' films where the participants voice is heard. Julie is part of the parkour collective Parkour Generations and continues to work and travel with them, exploring new ways to communicate parkour (www.parkourgenerations.com/biography.php?p=julie). She is an independent filmmaker, directing, shooting and editing self-initiated projects as well as commercial commissions. Julie specialises in documentaries and participatory, shared cinema in a variety of contexts. With a keen interest in visual anthropology, her work has been screened internationally at festivals, in galleries, broadcast internationally and has a large following online (www.julieangel.com/screenings.html www.youtube.com/slamcamspam).

Douglas Brown

PhD candidate investigating the way Suspension of Disbelief operates in videogames and game narratives. His research interests include videogame storytelling and MMOs’ development as narrative worlds. He is a graduate from Oxford University (English Literature), and the MA: Digital games – Theory and Design. He has industry experience at Square-Enix where he contributed to RPGs including Final Fantasy XII and Chrono Trigger, Doug teaches game theory on the MA and BA games courses at Brunel.

Stephen Curran

PhD candidate whose research seeks to account for the existence of the screenwriting guru or teacher in the American film industry since the earliest days of Hollywood. Stephen’s interest in this subject matter was inspired by his desire to understand the screenwriting process as part of his own writing for the screen. He was the winner of the Euroscript (European) Screenwriting competition in 1998 and 1999, where his first original screenplay had agency representation and was pitched to all the major European film directors. He is still writing and looking for his first big break in the UK film business. Stephen is currently working on his fourth full-length feature film script. He is also a trained actor and former English and drama teacher with an MA in Educational Theatre (1992), a BA in music (2003) and BA in Theology (1982).

Sarah Harman

Currently studying for a PhD with the working title of Femininity, Feminism and Masochism: The Female Masochist Body in Paracinema, Sarah Harman's research examines adaptations of sadomasochistic texts, through a prism of feminist, psychoanalytical and socio-political analysis. In addition she is currently co-editing a collection for publication titled Screening Twilight: Critical Approaches To A Cinematic Phenomenon (I. B. Tauris, forthcoming). She is also Peer Editor for Roehampton University's journal for performance and creative research, Activate, as well as for Goldsmiths' Cultural Studies department magazine, Nyx, a Noctournal. Sarah Harman is also a member of the Onscenity Research Network and was co-organiser of the 2012 Sexual Cultures Conference at Brunel.

Eirini Konstantinidou

Currently working on her first feature script as part of a practice-based PhD. Her principal research interests lie in the field of science fiction film. She is investigating the filmic representation of artificial memories and their impact on personal identity. Her project is self-reflexive exploring these themes and their close relation to the medium of film. She intends to shoot a third of the film as part of her PhD. Erini has a BSc in Economics (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki/Greece) and did an MA in Media and Communication (Fordham University, New York) as well as an MA in Film Studies (UCL, London). She has also received a film directing certificate from New York University. She has directed 4 short films, and her film "I love you...?” won first prize in the 2007 Thessaloniki Short Film Festival (previously known as AZA Digital Film Festival). In addition, the film "Snapshots" that she co-directed with Lorenzo Fabrizi and Robin King won the first prize at the Dorset Cereals Film Competition.

Vanessa Long

PhD student analysing the structural interplay of the user to game with especial reference to the violent act and psychoanalytic theory. Other topics of interest include avatar composition and theory, and the effects of the imposition of rules. Her previous academic experience has been in Psychoanalysis and Contemporary Society (MA), and BA English and Psychology, both at Brunel University.

Paul Martin

PhD candidate looking into the role of videogame maps in shaping players’ experience of space. Other topics of interest to him include play as performance and the character of moral decisions in videogames. His previous academic experience has been in psychology (University College Dublin), and English literature (University College London).

Clive James Nwonka

A British writer-director from London whose work is within the British social realism genre. His research offers a retrospective analysis of the form and its declining use as an instrument of social change. Influenced by the films of the British and German New Wave and Ken Loach, his film work investigates different issues and themes that characterise 21st Century working class living through screenplays about realistic individuals engaged in personal struggles with narrative elements that fall into wider socio-political statements. The writer-director’s own social background creates an interesting context to his work, and explains parts of his sociological and aesthetic expression. He has completed a BA in Visual Art and an MA in Creative Writing (Screenwriting), completing the feature script Eskimo Kisses for his dissertation.

The research project will initially attempt to define what is meant exactly by the term ‘social realism’ and the ways in which the British cinematic offshoot relate to this formulation. It will examine the current films being produced within the British Social Realism orbit, comparing them with the first generation of films in this genre and assessing the changes in tone of voice, the imperatives and objectives of the storyteller and the cinematic devices employed. It will consider whether the assimilation of the traditional working class into a new social structure, orchestrated by New Labour, has led to a diminution in the number of social realist films and the watering down of the fierce social messages for which this genre has traditionally been the medium. It will argue that a greater commitment to the sociological rather than the aesthetic elements of screenwriting/film making is required to change the existing tone of British Social Realism from simply documenting working class existence to that of a reformative imperative.

The thesis will be accompanied by a feature length screenplay, in which the plot investigates the inequities of working class and minority existence with a commitment to creating a socio-political debate using narrative techniques associated with British social realism.

Justin Parsler

A PhD candidate researching the nature of player agency within games. He took the MA Digital Games: Theory and Design and comes from a background of professional games design. He is interested and engaged in creating all sorts of games, not just digital ones. He is now a member of the games teaching team focusing on design on the BA and MA courses.

Vered Pneuli

A PhD candidate researching aspects of gender construction in relation to video games culture. This study broadly includes issues concerning the gendered practice of gaming, play as a mediated communication form, and video games’ convergence with other media. Vered’s previous academic experience has been in Design Management (UCA, Farnham), and Film and TV Studies (Tel-Aviv University).

Neil Stott

PhD is on the use of digital games as a source of anticipatory socialization for the military. examines what digital games contribute to imagining, rehearsing, and preparing for future roles, occupations or organizational memberships. It also examines what organizations perceive as the utility of digital games in the anticipatory socialization process. Given representations of military work are an enduring staple of digital games and military organizations increasing engagement, the research focuses on the anticipatory socialization potential of digital games in the context of military work and how militaries perceive their utility. Neil is Chief Executive of a charity and worked extensively on community and social enterprise projects in poorer UK neighbourhoods. He has BA Peace Studies (Bradford) Post Graduate Certificate in Sociology & Politics (Anglia Ruskin) and MSt in Community Enterprise (Cambridge).

Dan Williams

A reconsideration of the work of Ingmar Bergman.