Dr Joanne Knowles

I’m a senior lecturer teaching on the Media, Culture Communication and English and Media and Cultural Studies degree programmes at LJMU. My research background was originally in literary studies and I was awarded my doctorate by the University of Liverpool for my research on Henry James. I have broad research interests in popular narrative and culture from the nineteenth century to the present day.

**Current research interests**

a) gender and popular narrative and culture

Recent / in press publications examine recent ITV drama and broadcaster identity, and domesticity in contemporary popular fiction for women (relating to a long-standing interest in ‘chick-lit’). Currently completing a journal article on the BBC, public service broadcasting and drama/documentary about Victorian culture. This year I’ve presented papers which draw on my research with the Femorabilia archive of girls’ and women’s magazines held at LJMU, on teenage magazines, the Pet Shop Boys and the representation of pop, and on domesticity in teenage girls’ magazines, which are being written up for publication. I’m also writing on fashion and the professional woman in romantic comedy.

b) nineteenth-century popular writing and culture

Recent research / publications in progress explores the presence of gardens and nineteenth-century ideas about garden design in Victorian popular fiction. I’ve given several conference papers and been a keynote speaker on this topic. Several articles are in progress including one on Mary Elizabeth Braddon for Women’s Writing, forthcoming 2018. I’m also researching Mary Kingsley’s travel writing, gender and notions of scientific professionalism. I am an editorial board member for the Victorian Popular Fictions Association’s book series Key Popular Women Writers and New Paths in Victorian Fiction & Culture (both published with Edward Everett Root). I’ve previously published on Henry James, Dickens and Braddon.

c) persuasion, communication and new media

Recent project on local politicians use Twitter as a long-term PR activity, using content analysis to examine this through 2014 to the 2015 general election. I’m also interested in fashion blogging and questions of creativity, originality and copyright, as well as organisational blogging, lifestyle blogging and identity.

I’d be interested in supervising potential postgraduate students who wish to undertake research related to any of the above areas.

Degrees

2001, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, PhD, English literature

Academic appointments

Senior Lecturer in Media, Culture, Communication, Liverpool John Moores University, 2010 - present

Postgraduate training

Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, United Kingdom, Liverpool John Moores University, 2005 - 2007