Dr Neil Ewen

Biography

Dr Neil Ewen joined the School of Media and Film in January 2015 as Lecturer in Media and Communication and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in March 2017. He became Programme Leader of the BA in Media and Communication in June 2017, and continues to teach a broad range of modules across the programme, including "Key Concepts in Media and Communication", "Media in the 21st Century", "Celebrity Culture" and "Politics and the Media". He holds a first-class BA (hons) in English Studies with Film and Media Studies from the University of Stirling (2001), and a MA (2003) and PhD (2010) from the University of East Anglia, where he wrote a thesis on football culture and national identity in England and Scotland.

Neil’s research interests lie in the politics of contemporary media and culture. From a critical media and cultural studies perspective, he writes about celebrity, sport, politics and politicians, film, television, and journalism. He regularly presents his work at conferences in the UK and abroad, and his writing has appeared in a variety of academic publications. He is the co-editor of First Comes Love: Power Couples, Celebrity Kinship, and Cultural Politics (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015) and Capitalism, Crime and Media in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2019). He is also the Cultural Report section editor of the journal Celebrity Studies (Routledge).

Neil convenes the Faculty of Arts Research Seminar Series, and sits on the Faculty RKE and Senate RKE committees as a representative for his department and faculty. He is a member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA), and the Political Studies Association (PSA). He also serves as the External Examiner for the MA Film Studies at University College Dublin (2018-2022) and the BA Social Media Management at the University of Sunderland (2018-2022).

Areas of expertise

• Critical media studies | Cultural Studies | Celebrity Studies
• Critical Theory | Ideology | Political Economy
• Globalization | Neoliberalism | Nationalism | National identity
• Nostalgia | cultural memory
• Generation X and 1990s popular culture​

Publications

Books

• First Comes Love: Power Couples, Celebrity Kinship, and Cultural Politics, eds. Shelley Cobb and Neil Ewen (New York and London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015).
• Capitalism, Crime and Media in the 21st Century, eds. Neil Ewen, Alan Grattan, Marcus Leaning and Paul Manning (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2019)

Edited Special Issues

• National Populists: Celebrity Right-wing Politicians in Contemporary Europe, co-edited with David Zeglen, Celebrity Studies (forthcoming, 2018).
• Friends Reconsidered: Cultural Politics, Intergenerationality, and Afterlives, co-edited with Shelley Cobb and Hannah Hamad, Television and New Media (forthcoming, 2018).​

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Neil Ewen 2018. If I don’t input those numbers…it doesn’t make much of a difference”: Insulated Precarity and Gendered Labour in Friends. Television and New Media (forthcoming 2018).
• Neil Ewen 2018. Hiding in Plain Sight on the ‘Anti-Establishment’ Right”: Nigel Farage, Celebrity Politics, and Affective Eccentricity. Celebrity Studies (forthcoming, 2018).
• Shelley Cobb, Neil Ewen & Hannah Hamad 2018. Introduction: The Cultural Politics of Friends. Television and New Media (forthcoming, 2018).                    
• Neil Ewen & David Zeglen 2018. Introduction: National Populists: Right-wing Celebrity Politicians in Contemporary Europe. Celebrity Studies (forthcoming).                    
• Neil Ewen and Shelley Cobb 2016. The 90s are officially over: Gen X celebrity break-ups. Celebrity Studies, 7. (3). 429-432
• Neil Ewen 2013. John Terry and the Predicament of Englishness: Ambivalence and Nostalgia in the Premier League Era. Sport in History, 33. (4). 465-487. DOI:10.1080/17460263.2013.850268
• Neil Ewen 2012. Team GB, or No Team GB, That Is The Question: Olympic Football and the Post-War Crisis of Britishness. Sport in History, 32. (2). 302-324. DOI:10.1080/17460263.2012.681357

Book Chapters

• Neil Ewen 2017. Politics, charisma, and the celebrity spectre of Nigel Farage. UK Election Analysis 2017: Media, Voters and the Campaign: Early reflections from leading UK academics. eds. D. Jackson, E. Thorsen, D. Lilleker. Bournemouth: PSA, CSJCC Bournemouth University. Available here
• Neil Ewen 2016. The Age of Nigel: Farage, the Media, and Brexit. EU 2016 Referendum Analysis: Media, Voters and the Campaign: Early reflections from leading UK academics. eds. D. Jackson, E. Thorsen, D. Wring. Bournemouth. Bournemouth: PSA, CSJCC Bournemouth University, 86. Available here.
• Shelley Cobb and Neil Ewen. 2015. Introduction in First Comes Love: Power Couples, Celebrity Kinship, and Cultural Politics, eds. Shelley Cobb and Neil Ewen.
• Neil Ewen. 2015. The Good, The Bad, and The Broken: Forms and Functions of Neoliberal Celebrity Relationships in First Comes Love: Power Couples, Celebrity Kinship, and Cultural Politics, eds. Shelley Cobb and Neil Ewen.
• Neil Ewen 2015. Nigel Farage: Celebrity Everyman. UK Election Analysis 2015: Media, Voters and the Campaign: Early reflections from leading UK academics. eds. D. Jackson and E. Thorsen. Bournemouth. Bournemouth: PSA and CSJCC Bournemouth University, 99. Available here

Book Reviews

• The Passion of Tiger Woods: An Anthropologist Reports on Golf, Race, and Celebrity Scandal, by Orin Starn, Celebrity Studies, 6:1, 144-147, Jan 2015. DOI:10.1080/19392397.2015.995901
• Marxism, Cultural Studies and Sport, edited by Carrington, B. and McDonald, I., International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics, 3:2, 301-303, 2011. DOI:10.1080/19406940.2011.579865
• (En)Gendering a Nation, Review of Contemporary Scottish Women Writers, eds. Aileen Christianson and Alison Lumsden, English: Journal of the English Association, 53:206, 169-171, 2004. DOI:10.1093/english/53.206.168

Editorial

• Neil Ewen 2018. Cultural Report: Australia Celebrity Dossier Introduction. Celebrity Studies (forthcoming).
• Neil Ewen 2017. Cultural Report: Korea Celebrity Dossier Introduction. Celebrity Studies, 8. (1).
• Neil Ewen 2016. Cultural Report: Nordic Celebrity Dossier Introduction. Celebrity Studies, 7. (3). 390-391.

Other publications

• Wedding! Divorce! Scandal! And taking celebrity relationships seriously…, co-authored with Shelley Cobb, 2015. Available here.
• All That's Bad in the English Game? Sports Scandals and Englishness, In Media Res, 2 Dec 2011. Available here.

Conference Presentations

• "I'm trying to work on my social anxiety: Capitalism, 90s nostalgia and the crisis of masculinity in Mr Robot". Console-ing Passions, Bournemouth University (July 2018).
• “An unholy alliance: Trump and Farage’s Celebrity Populism".  Celebrity Studies Conference, Sapienza University, Rome (June 2018). 
• "Where is my mind?: Capitalism, Crisis and 90s Nostalgia in Mr. Robot".  SCMS, Toronto, Canada (March 2018).
• “Somewhere between a Martin Scorsese film and a scene from the heyday of the Third Reich”: Trump and Farage’s blossoming populist union. Love Across the Atlantic: An Interdisciplinary Conference on US-UK Romance, University of Roehampton (June 2017).
• “All Political Lives…End in Failure”: Enoch Powell, Nigel Farage, and the Limits of the Celebrity Politician. Political Studies Association Annual Conference. University of Strathclyde (April 2017).
• “All Political Lives…End in Failure”: Enoch Powell, Nigel Farage, and the Limits of the Celebrity Politician. Culture-Media-Text Research Centre Symposium, University of Winchester (April 2017).
• "Celebrity Politics and Englishness" Sharing Expertise in English Issues Seminar, University of Winchester (March 2017). 
• "Nigel Farage, Celebrity Politics, and the rise of Populism in Europe" Political Studies Association, Media and Politics Group, Annual Conference, London School of Economics and Political Science (December 2016). 
• "Slackerwipe: Contemporary Celebrity Journalists and Generation X Authenticity", Celebrity Studies biennial conference, University of Amsterdam (July 2016).
• "Hiding in Plain Sight on the ‘Anti-Establishment’ Right”: Nigel Farage, Celebrity Politics, and Affective Eccentricity, RKE Symposium, University of Winchester (April 2016).
• "Taking Down This Virtual Reality: Corporate Crime and Capitalist Realism in Mr Robot", Capitalism, Crime and Media conference, University of Winchester (April 2016.
• "If I don't input those numbers…it doesn't make much of a difference: Insulated Precarity and Gendered Labour in Friends", Console-ing Passions, UCD, Dublin (June 2015).
• "Hiding in Plain Sight on the 'Anti-Establishment' Right: Nigel Farage, Celebrity Politics, and Affective Eccentricity", SCMS Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada (March 2015).
• "Behind Every Man? The Value of the WAG in Western Media Culture", co-authored with Shelley Cobb, Celebrity Studies biennial conference, Royal Holloway, University of London (June 2014).
• "Pomp, Circumstance, and 'Multicultural Crap': A Critical Analysis of the London 2012 Olympic Ceremony and Other Recent British Events", SCMS annual conference, Seattle, WA. (22 March 2014).
• "In a Galaxy Far, Far Away?: The Beckhams as a Globalized Couple", 2007 – the Present SCMS annual conference, Chicago, IL. (9 March 2013).
• "John Terry and the Betrayal of English Football: The Historical Decline of National Character and Style", British Society of Sport History annual conference, London, (11 September 2010).
• "Doesn't it make you proud to be Scottish?: political devolution and cinematic representations of Scottishness", National PCA/ACA Conference, San Diego, CA. (26 March 2005).
• "The flowering of Scotland: Glasgow in cinema since 1990", City and Literature Conference, Oxford University (20 September 2003).

Presentations by Invitation

• "If I don’t input those numbers…it doesn’t make much of a difference: Insulated Precarity and Gendered Labour in Friends", Keynote address, MA Film and Screen Cultures Dissertation Symposium, University of Roehampton (June 2016).
• "More than twice the influence: coupledom and kinship in stardom and celebrity culture", co-presented with Shelley Cobb, Film Department, University of Southampton, (5 May 2015).
• "It takes two: celebrity couples, neoliberalism and aspirationalism", co-presented with Shelley Cobb, School of English, Drama and Film, University College Dublin (1 February 2012).
• "Football, national identity, and the post-war crisis of Britishness", Sport Research Cluster, School of Education, University of Southampton (11 November 2009).
• "Blair, Brown, Britishness and football, School of Film and Television Studies", University of East Anglia (5 February 2007).
• "Towards the condition of cinema: Alasdair Gray's Lanark and narratives of Scottishness", Identities and Cultures in Europe: Mellon Interdisciplinary Seminar Series, University College London (2 February 2005).
• "Scotland in the novel and fiction film since 1979", School of Film and Television Studies, University of East Anglia (17 May 2004).
• "The early days of a better nation?: contemporary narratives of Scottishness in cinema and the novel", University of Aberdeen (28 April 2004).

Media Appearances

• Ultimate Celebrity Couples 2016, STV Productions, Channel 5, 27 July 2016. Expert commentary.
• Live Chat: Celebrity Power Couples, Canada.com, 10 September 2012. Live chat session, answering questions from the public about the academic study of celebrity.
• Good Morning Wales, BBC Radio Wales, 1 September 2010. Live interview about corruption in sport.
• Good Morning Wales, BBC Radio Wales, 9 March 2010. Live discussion about sport and national identity.

Professional Activities (selected)

• Editor, Cultural Report section, Celebrity Studies (Routledge) (July 2015 – present)
• External Examiner, MA Film Studies, University College Dublin (2018 - 2022)
• External Examiner, BA Social Media Management, University of Sunderland (2018 - 2022)
• Peer Reviewer: Television and New Media (SAGE), Celebrity Studies (Routledge), Sport in History (Routledge), Kosmorama (Danish Film Institute).
• Convener, Faculty of Arts Research Seminar Series, University of Winchester, (2015 – present)
• Co-organizer, Capitalism, Crime and Media conference, University of Winchester (22 April 2016).
• Co-organizer, Celebrity Couples conference, University of Southampton (24 November 2012). 
• Organizing committee, Celebrity Studies Conference, Sapienza Univerity, Rome (26 - 28 June 2018).