Prof Martin Barker
| Job Title | Contact | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Professor in Film and Television Studies |
Martin dot Barker at uea dot ac dot uk
Tel: +44 (0)1603 59 7596 |
Registry And Council House 3.13 |
Biography
I took up my post at UEA in May 2012, on a three-year post-retirement contract to teach and research. Prior to coming here, I have been in HE for my entire working life, beginning with 29 years at Bristol Polytechnic/University of the West of England, where I gradually advanced from junior lecturer to Professor, and Head of School of Cultural Studies. I left there in 1998 to become Reader in Media Studies at Sussex University, but moved again in 2001 to become Professor of Film & Television Studies at Aberystwyth University, where I stayed until 2011. Technically, therefore, as an Emeritus Professor from Aberystwyth and now a Professor at UEA, I should be addressed as ‘Professor Professor’, but I think I prefer to be called ‘Martin’.
Key Research Interests
My research has covered a rather wide range, I realise looking back. From initial interests in the crossover between philosophy, social science and cultural studies, I moved to more empirical work, first on British racism, then on children’s comics (exploring their production regimes, textual properties, and audiences). This latter linked with a growing interest in censorship campaigns. I studied the horror comics campaigns of the 1950s, the banning of the British comic Action in 1976, and the video nasties controversy of the 1980s (in which I became quite publicly embroiled). The Action research was the beginning of a new interest, which has dominated the remainder of my research career: the problems and practices of studying audiences. The full transition to film came for me with the making of the (honestly, awful) film of Judge Dredd. I succeeded with an ESRC application to study the audiences for this. Following this came other funded audience projects, on David Cronenberg’s Crash (which for a year the Daily Mail sought to have banned) and a follow-up project on responses to a stage adaptation on J G Ballard’s book Crash, on The Lord of the Rings (on which I led a 20-country study), on students’ responses to studying A Clockwork Orange, and then on a study funded by the British Board of Film Classification to audience responses to screened sexual violence. Alongside this, more personal projects have included a book-length investigation of the history of adaptation of Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans, an investigation of films addressing the recent conflicts in Iraq, and – most recently – an examination of the emergence of ‘livecasting’, or the digital transmission of live performances to cinemas. A running side-interest has been in questions of methods of cultural studies and film studies, at both research and teaching levels. I am currently involved in a major collaborative study with colleagues at Sunderland and Sheffield Hallam University into people’s engagements with online pornography.
Other activities
I have been involved since the early 1970s in the various attempts to build a national organisation in the UK to bring together academics in our broad field, and to represent our interests to Government and other national bodies. This began with the Cultural Studies Network, then the Association of Cultural Studies (which added the word Media to its title in the 1980s). Eventually around 2000, the Standing Conference on Cultural, Communication and Media Studies in HE emerged, and – after realising the impossibility of saying this – it became, through merger with the major academic association, the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association. I was a member of the Executive of this for some years, and now regularly attend its annual conferences.
I was a QAA Assessor in the 1990s, then a member of the national Benchmarking Group for our subject area, and of the RAE Panel in 2006-7. I have also been a research assessor for other countries, notably Finland and Rumania.
In 2003, I proposed, and then helped develop, the first Journal devoted to the area of audience and reception studies, Participations (www.participations.org). This has now been running and indeed growing for 8 years, and I am one of its Joint Editors.
Article
Barker, Martin (2012) The reception of Joe Sacco's Palestine. Participations, 10 (1). ISSN 1749-8716
Barker, Martin and Mathijs, Ernest (2012) Researching world audiences: the experience of a complex methodology. Participations, 10 (1). ISSN 1749-8716
Barker, Martin (2011) Playing with Gollum: Uncovering the Cultural Life and Trasnational Travels of a Complex Character. Scope: online Journal of Film Studies, 19.
Barker, Martin (2009) Changing Lives, Challenging Concepts: Some Findings and Lessons from the Lord of the Rings Project. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 12 (4). pp. 375-94.
Barker, Martin (2008) The Pleasures of Watching an "Off-beat" Film: the Case of Being John Malkovich. Scope.
Barker, Martin (2006) Envisaging "Visualisation": some lessons from the Lord of the Rings project. Film-Philosophy - online Journal, 10 (3). pp. 1-25.
Barker, Martin (2006) Loving and Hating Straw Dogs: The Meanings of Audience Responses to a Controversial Film (Part 2). Participations: online Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 3 (1).
Barker, Martin (2006) I have seen the future and it is not here yet...; or, on being ambitious for audience research. The Communication Review, 9 (2). pp. 123-41. ISSN 1071-4421
Barker, Martin, Egan, Kate and Mathijs, Ernest (2006) De mondiale receptievan The Lord of the Rings; een methodologische uitdaging. Tijdschrift voor Communiatiewetenschap, 34 (1). pp. 7-27.
Barker, Martin, Mathijs, Ernest and Mendik, Xavier (2006) Menstrual monsters: the reception of the Ginger Snaps cult horror franchise. Film International (Issue 21), 4 (3). pp. 68-77.
Barker, Martin (2005) The Lord of the Rings and "identification": a critical encounter. European Journal of Communication, 20 (3). pp. 353-78.
Barker, Martin (2005) Understanding vernacular experiences of film in an academic environment. Art, Design and Communication in Higher Education, 4 (1). pp. 49-71.
Barker, Martin (2005) Loving and Hating Straw Dogs: The Meanings of Audience Responses to a Controversial Film (Part 1). Participations: online Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 2 (2).
Barker, Martin (2004) News, Reviews, Clues, Interviews and Other Ancillary Materials - a Critique and Research Proposal. Scope: on-line Film Studies Journal.
Barker, Martin (2003) Crash, theatre audiences, and the idea of "liveness". Studies in Theatre and Performance, 23 (1). pp. 21-39.
Barker, Martin (2003) Assessing the "quality" in qualitative research: the case of text-audience relations. European Journal of Communication, 18 (3). pp. 315-35.
Barker, Martin (2002) Kicked in the Gutters: or, "My Dad doesn't read comics, he studies them". International Journal of Comic Art. pp. 64-77.
Barker, Martin (2002) Crashing out. Screen, 43 (1). pp. 74-8.
Barker, Martin and Austin, Thomas (2000) Reply to Brereton's review of From Antz To Titanic. Film-Philosophy, 4 (27).
Barker, Martin (1998) Film audience research: making a virtue out of necessity. IRIS (French/American Film Journal), 26. pp. 131-48.
Barker, Martin (1995) Violence. Sight and Sound. pp. 10-14.
Barker, Martin (1993) POSY: Three go mad in the Guardian. Magazine of Cultural Studies, 5. pp. 16-19.
Barker, Martin (1991) Iwo Jima: the photograph as symbol. Magazine of Cultural Studies, 4. pp. 13-16.
Barker, Martin (1991) BIFF: man bites god. Magazine of Cultural Studies, 4. pp. 26-29.
Barker, Martin (1990) Sunlight on Salman. Magazine of Cultural Studies, 1. pp. 9-11.
Barker, Martin (1988) Television and the miners' strike. Media, Culture & Society, 10 (1). pp. 107-112.
Barker, Martin (1987) Mass media studies and the question of ideology. Radical Philosophy, 46. pp. 27-33.
Barker, Martin (1983) Empiricism and racism. Radical Philosophy, 33. pp. 6-15.
Barker, Martin and Beezer, Anne (1983) Scarman and the language of racism. International Socialism, 18. pp. 108-25.
Barker, Martin (1980) Kant as a problem for Weber. The British Journal Of Sociology, 31 (2). pp. 224-45.
Barker, Martin (1978) Kant as a problem for Marxism. Radical Philosophy, 19. pp. 24-29.
Book Section
Barker, Martin (2011) Watching Rape, Enjoying Watching Rape... How Does a Study of Audiences Cha(lle)nge Film Studies Approaches? In: The New Extremism in Cinema: from France to Europe. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 105-16.
Barker, Martin (2011) "America hurting": making movies about Iraq. In: Screens of Terror: Representation of War and Terrorism in Film and Television since 9/11. Abramis, London, pp. 37-50.
Barker, Martin (2010) "Typically French"?: mediating screened rape to British audiences. In: Rape in Art Cinema. Continuum, New York, pp. 145-58.
Barker, Martin (2009) Fantasy audiences versus fantasy audiences. In: Film Theory and Contemporary Hollywood Movies. Routledge, London, pp. 286-309.
Barker, Martin (2008) Analysing Discourse. In: Research Methods for Cultural Studies. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, pp. 150-72.
Barker, Martin and Mathijs, Ernest (2007) Seeing The Promised Land From Afar: The Perception of New Zealand by Overseas The Lord of the Rings Audiences. In: How We Became Middle-earth: A Collection of Essays on The Lord of the Rings. Walking Tree Publications, Switzerland, pp. 10-28.
Barker, Martin and Sabin, Roger (2007) A Very American Fable: the Making of a Mohicans Adaptation. In: 19th Century American Fiction on Screen. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 9-28.
Barker, Martin (2006) On being a 1960s Tolkien reader. In: From Hobbits to Hollywood: Essays on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings. Rodopi, Amsterdam, pp. 81-100.
Barker, Martin (2006) Making Middle-earth Sound Real: the Cultural Politics of the BBC Radio Edition. In: The Lord of the Rings: Popular Culture in Global Context. Wallflower Press, London, pp. 61-70.
Barker, Martin (2004) Violence redux. In: New Hollywood Violence. Manchester University Press, Manchester, pp. 57-79.
Barker, Martin (2003) The Newson Report: A case study in "common-sense" (reprinted from Ill Effects). In: The Audience Studies Reader. Routledge, London, pp. 74-90.
Barker, Martin (2001) On the problems of being a "trendy travesty". In: Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate (2nd edition). Routledge, London, pp. 202-24.
Barker, Martin (2001) Reflections on "The Problems with Racism". In: Race Critical Theories: Text and Context. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 471-80.
Barker, Martin (2001) The Problems with Racism. In: Race Critical Theories: Text and Context. Basil Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 80-90.
Barker, Martin and Petley, Julian (2001) Introduction: from bad research to good - a guide to the perplexed. In: Ill Effects: The Media/Violence Debate (2nd edition). Routledge, London, pp. 1-26.
Barker, Martin (1999) Getting a conviction: or, how the British horror comics campaign only just succeeded. In: Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp. 69-92.
Barker, Martin (1999) Fredric Wertham - the sad case of the unhappy humanist. In: Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postward Anti-Comics Campaign. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, pp. 215-33.
Barker, Martin and Brooks, Kate (1999) Bleak futures by proxy. In: Identifying Hollywood's Audiences: Cultural Identity and the Movies. British Film Institute, London.
Barker, Martin (1998) Audiences R Us. In: Approaches to Audiences. Arnold.
Barker, Martin and Brooks, Kate (1998) On looking into Bourdieu's black box. In: Approaches to Audiences. Arnold.
Barker, Martin (1997) Taking the extreme case: understanding a fascist fan of Judge Dredd. In: Trash Aesthetics: Popular Culture and its Audience. Pluto Press, London, pp. 14-30.
Barker, Martin (1995) Drawing attention to the image: computers and comics. In: The Photographic Image in Digital Culture. Routledge, pp. 188-213.
Barker, Martin (1995) Very nearly in front of the children: the story of Alternity. In: In Front of the Children: Screen Entertainment and Young Audiences. British Film Institute, pp. 201-16.
Barker, Martin (1993) On seeing how far you can see: the fans of "Judge Dredd". In: Reading Audiences: Young People and the Media. Manchester University Press, pp. 159-83.
Barker, Martin (1992) Lost directions? Cultural studies and the turn to ethnography (Keynote address). In: Signifying Others: Selected Papers from the Second Cultural Studies Association of Australia Conference. University of South Queensland Press, pp. 1-6.
Barker, Martin, Beezer, Anne and Grimshaw, Jean (1983) Methods for cultural studies students. In: Introduction to Contemporary Cultural Studies. Longman.
Barker, Martin (1982) Biology and ideology: the uses of reductionism. In: Against Biological Determinism. Allison & Busby, pp. 9-29.
Barker, Martin (1981) Human biology and the possibility of socialism. In: Issues in Marxist Philosophy. Harvester, pp. 43-82.
Book
Barker, Martin (2012) "Live To Your Local Cinema": the Remarkable Rise of Livecasting. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1137288684
Barker, Martin (2011) A 'Toxic Genre': The Iraq War Films. Pluto Press, London.
Barker, Martin (2007) Watching the Lord of the Rings: Tolkien's World Audiences. Peter Lang, New York.
Barker, Martin and Austin, Thomas, eds. (2003) Contemporary Hollywood Stardom. Arnold, London.
Barker, Martin, Arthurs, Jane and Harindranath, Ramaswami (2001) The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception. Wallflower Press , London.
Barker, Martin (2000) From Antz to Titanic: Reinventing Film Analysis. Pluto Press, London.
Barker, Martin and Brooks, Kate (1998) Knowing Audiences: Judge Dredd, its Friends, Fans and Foes. University of Luton Press.
Barker, Martin (1997) Ill Effects: The Media-Violence Debate. Routledge.
Barker, Martin and Sabin, Roger (1996) The Lasting of the Mohicans: History of an Amercian Myth. University Press of Mississippi.
Barker, Martin (1992) Reading into Cultural Studies. Routledge.
Barker, Martin (1990) Action: The Story of a Violent Comic. Titan Books.
Barker, Martin (1989) Comics: Ideology, Power and the critics. Manchester University Press.
Barker, Martin (1984) A Haunt of Fears: The Strange History of the British Horror Comics Campaign. Pluto Press.
Barker, Martin (1984) The Video Nasties: Freedom and Censorship in the Arts. Pluto Press.
Barker, Martin (1981) The New Racism: Conservatives and the Ideology of the Tribe. Junction Books, London.
Other
Barker, Martin, Mathijs, Ernest, Egan, Kate, Sexton, Jamie, Hunter, Russ and Selfe, Melanie (2007) Audiences and Receptions of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Cinema - Report to the British Board of Film Classification. The British Board of Film Classification.
Key Responsibilities
I have taken on two main roles at UEA. The first is as Coordinator of Research Seminars for the School. The second is as Chair of the School’s Research Ethics Committee.
