Committee Members
All the current committee members are listed below with contact details and short bios
Introduction to the Committee
The chair(s) and vice-chairs apply for this position when the vacancy arises. The steering group consists of experienced MeCCSA members and also newer colleagues.
Nathalie Weidhase
Co-Chair
Birmingham City University – n.weidhase@surrey.ac.uk
Nathalie Weidhase is a Lecturer in Media and Communication in the Department of Sociology. Before joining the University of Surrey in September 2020, she researched and taught at Bournemouth University, Birmingham City University, the University for the Creative Arts, and Roehampton University. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies from Roehampton University. Her research is situated within the field of feminist media studies, with a focus on formations of feminism and postfeminism in popular culture and media. She is especially interested in the construction of these formations in popular music on the one hand, and political communication (in its broadest sense) on the other. At Surrey, she teaches on the undergraduate modules on the BSc Media and Communication and supervises undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).
Fiona McKay
Co-Chair
Strathclyde University fiona.mckay@strath.ac.uk
Fiona McKay is a Lecturer in Journalism, Media and Communication at the University of Strathclyde. Her research interests relate to media, gender and politics, and journalism practice. This is combined with more than six years of journalistic industry experience with several prominent Scottish news publications.
Karen Boyle
Steering Group Member
Strathclyde karen.boyle.101@strath.ac.uk
Karen Boyle is a Professor of Feminist Media Studies at the University of Strathclyde and the Head of Department of Journalism, Media and Communication Studies. Her areas of expertise are violence, gender and representation and she has recently worked on projects looking at the use of ‘trigger warnings’ in higher education and the representation of women of colour in Scottish news (as part of Pass the Mic).
Bridget Conor
Steering Group Member
KCL bridget.conor@auckland.ac.nz
Bridget has studied Film, TV and Media Studies and History at Waipapa Taumata Rau and then went on to complete an MA (Hons) in Communication Studies at AUT. Her MA research focused on the filming of the first Lord of the Rings trilogy in Aotearoa and its effects on the local film industry. She was appointed Lecturer in Communication Studies at AUT in 2004. In 2007 she began her PhD research at Goldsmiths College, University of London, studying the creative labour of screenwriters working in the UK and Europe. After completing her PhD she was appointed Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London. She worked at KCL for ten years, teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students and returned to Aotearoa in 2020. She is Pākehā and grew up in Tāmaki Makaurau.
Melody House
Social Media Contact
Strathclyde melody.house@strath.ac.uk
Melody House is a Ph.D. student, Graduate Teaching Assistant, and Research Assistant at the University of Strathclyde. She has worked on research projects exploring the use of trigger warnings in HE, and the representation of women of colour in Scottish news media. Her research explores social media commentary on reputation in high-profile cases that involve sexual violence and misconduct. She has previously published on media reactions to high-profile men accused of sexual violence.
Maryam Ishaq
Social Media Contact
Queen Margaret University Mishaq@qmu.ac.uk
Maryam Ishaq is a Ph.D. student and a teaching assistant at Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, UK. She has a background in Nutrition and Food Science and MSc in Gastronomy. Alongside teaching media and digital communication, her research currently explores spatial food networks in Scotland and how discourses around local food are construed by social media influencers on Instagram.
Deborah Jermyn
Steering Group Member
Roehampton D.Jermyn@roehampton.ac.uk
Deborah Jermyn is an Associate Professor in Film at the University of Roehampton and the Deputy Research Degrees Convenor for Media, Culture & Language in the School of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences. Her areas of expertise are women, feminism(s), contemporary screen industries, US cinema and genres, cultures of celebrities, crime and popular culture, and audience studies.
Beth Johnson
Steering Group Member
University of Leeds B.L.Johnson@Leeds.ac.uk
Beth Johnson is a Professor of Television and Media Studies at the University of Leeds, and the EDI Lead for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures. Her areas of expertise are television, film, social class, gender, performance, inequalities, politics, and emotions.
Kaitlynn Mendes
Steering Group Member
Western University, Canada Kaitlynn.mendes@uwo.ca
Kaity Mendes is an Associate Professor at Western University, Canada, and a Research Chair in Inequality and Gender. Her areas of expertise are media, education, and politics with a focus on adopting an intersectional feminist perspective to better understand and combat gender inequalities.
Barbara Mitra
Social Media Contact
University of Worcester b.mitra@worc.ac.uk
Barbara Mitra is a Principal Lecturer in Media and Culture at the University of Worcester, and the current Joint Head of the Department of English, Media & Film Studies. Her areas of expertise are television, gender, advertising, children, social media, body image, and eating disorders. You can find out more about Barbara on her website: https://www.mediaandculturalstudies.co.uk/.
Karen Ross
Steering Group Member
Newcastle Karen.Ross@newcastle.ac.uk
Karen Ross is Professor of Gender and Media, the first such named chair in the UK. She joined Newcastle in 2016 from her previous position at Northumbria University and has previously held positions at the universities of Liverpool, Coventry, Gloucestershire and Birmingham.
Hannah Yelin
Steering Group Member
Oxford Brookes hyelin@brookes.ac.uk
Hannah Yelin is a Reader in Media and Culture, and Subject Coordinator for the BA Communication, Media and Culture degree programme. Before returning to academia to do a PhD at UEA, Yelin had a 12 year career in the media, producing award winning work for organisations such as the BBC and UKTV. Yelin also runs the Celebrity Culture Club, a series of events bringing together academics, those working in the media, and interested members of the public to discuss the important issues of the day relating to celebrity culture.
Milly Williamson
Steering Group Member
Goldmsiths Milly.Williamson@gold.ac.uk
Milly Williamson co-convenes the BA Anthropology and Media and convene the BA Promotional Media. She also teaches the following courses: Media Rituals on the BA Media and Communications, and Branding 1 on the MA Brands, Communication and Culture. She is interested in the relationship between the media and citizenship and the mediated means by which individuals and social groups are either marginalised or validated. Her research thus spans key questions of our time – from the growth of racism to the huge rise of promotional content and the growth of celebrity culture in online and offline media.
Michele Paule
Committee Member
Oxford Brookes mpaule@brookes.ac.uk
Michele Paule is a Reader in Gender, Audiences, and Culture at Oxford Brookes University. She researches girlhood subjectivities in relation to culture and institutions. She recently led the national ‘Girls, Leadership and Women in the Public Eye’ project, which explores girls’ activism and ideas about leadership in contexts of austerity and misogyny. Her impact work focuses on building girls’ activism from data. Michele‘s books include: Who Runs the World?: Girls, Leadership and Women in the Public Eye (Rowman & Littlefield 2024), Interrogating the Neoliberal Lifecycle: The Limits of Success (Palgrave Macmillan 2019) and Girlhood, Schools, and Media: Popular Discourses of the Achieving Girl (Routledge 2017).