Dr Gemma Commane
Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication, MA Cultural Studies
Birmingham School of Media
- Email:
- Gemma.commane@bcu.ac.uk
- Phone:
- 0121 331 5712
Dr Gemma Commane is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications. Broadly the areas of her expertise span the fields of media and cultural studies and gender and sexuality. Her research interests focus on contemporary cultural studies, gender and sexuality, queer studies, sexual economies and entrepreneurship, dangerous femininities and ethnography. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and edited collections. Gemma is also a reviewer for a range of academic journals, including Youth Studies, SAGE Open, YOUNG, Sexualities, and Health, Risk & Society. She is one of the founding members of Bean Flicks Birmingham’s only queer and ethical feminist porn festival.
Areas of Expertise
- Feminist Cultural Studies
- Gender and Sexuality
- Queer Studies
- Dangerous Femininities
- BDSM and Kink
- Burlesque
- Alternative Economies / Industries
- Media Theory
- Ethnography
Qualifications
- 2015 – PGCert, Academic Practice in Higher Education (Distinction, Coventry University)
- 2012 – PhD, Media and Cultural Studies (University of Kent)
- 2006 – MA, Continental Philosophy (University of Warwick)
- 2005 – 1st Class BA (Hons.) Communication, Culture and Media Studies (Coventry University)
Memberships
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts
- MeCCSA
- European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA)
Teaching
Gemma teaches theory on the BA in Media and Communication, and also supervises a range of PhD research projects on the Media and Cultural Studies PhD programme.
BA - Media and Communications
- Researching the Media.
- Dissertation Supervision.
- Gender, Sexuality and the Body.
- Professional and Academic Development.
MA – Cultural Studies
- Cultural Theory.
Research
Dangerous Femininities:
- Dangerous Femininities, Space and Commercial Pro-Domme Enterprise
- The Professional Dominatrix as Entrepreneur.
- Bad Girls, Dirty Bodies
Postgraduate Supervision
Gemma currently supervises doctoral students across of a range of topics related to gender, sexuality, identity, communities and cultural studies. Gemma is keen to attract students who wish to work on projects related to sexualities and sexual cultures (sexual deviancy, queer, LGBTQ+, kink and BDSM), BDSM / Kink / Fetish communities, neo-burlesque and body modification, risk and deviancy, subcultures, queer studies and ethnography.
Her current doctoral students are:
Nona Wyld “Integrating Transmisogyny in LGBTQ+ Spaces: An Ethnographic Study Collecting Experiences and Oral Histories of Transmisogyny Affected People”. (Director of Studies).
Emily Scarrott “Producing the Unfertilised Egg”. (2nd supervisor).
Lesley Gabriel ‘A social history of the development of the BDSM scene in Birmingham’. (1st supervisor).
Publications
Books:
Commane, Gemma (2020) ‘Bad Girls, Dirty Bodies: Sex, Performance and Safe Femininity’. London: Bloomsbury (http://www.bloomsbury.com/9781788311267)
Journal Articles:
Hazel Collie & Gemma Commane (2020) ‘Assume the position: two queens stand before me’: RuPaul as ultimate queen, Celebrity Studies, DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2020.1765081
Commane, Gemma and Potton, Rebekah (2018) ‘Instagram and Auschwitz: a critical assessment of the impact social media has on Holocaust representation’, A Journal of Culture and History, pp.1-25. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17504902.2018.1472879
Book Chapters:
Robinson, Jill, Hussain, Ajmal, Higson, Helen and Commane, Gemma (2017) ‘The Loft Birmingham,’ in ‘Effective Interventions for Unemployed Young People in Europe. Social Innovation or Paradigm Shift?’ eds. Tomas Sirovatka and Henk Spies, London: Routledge, pp.43-62.
Commane, Gemma (2016) ‘Temporary Reflexive Disempowerment: working through fieldwork ethnography and its impact on a female researcher’ in ‘The Subcultural Imagination: Theory, Research and Reflexivity in Youth Cultures.’ eds. Shane Blackman and Michelle Kempson, London: Routledge, 108-121
Blackman, Shane and Commane, Gemma Ruth (2011) ‘Double reflexivity: the politics of friendship, fieldwork and representation within ethnographic studies of young people’ in ‘Innovations in Youth Research,’ eds. S. Heath and C. Walker,London, Palgrave, 229-246
Commane, Gemma Ruth (2010) ‘Bad Girls and Dirty Bodies: Performative Histories and Transformative Styles,’ in ‘Queering Paradigms,’ ed. Burkhard Scherer, Peter Lang, pp.49-64
Book Reviews:
Book Review (Sexualities, Journal): ‘The Afterglow of Women’s Pornography in Post-Digital China,’ Katrien Jacobs. RPRN 1235896: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2016.1235896
Online Case Study Reports:
CITISPYCE, The Loft Case Study Report (2015): http://www.citispyce.eu/sites/default/files/6%20Birmingham_The%20Loft.pdf
CITISPYCE, Beatfreeks Case Study Report (2015): http://www.citispyce.eu/sites/default/files/5%20Birmingham_Beatfreeks.pdf
Conference Activity:
Keynotes
ROLES, University of Birmingham. Kinktreprenurship: BDSM, Kink and the Creative Industries. May 2018.
Centre for Sex, Gender and Sexuality, University of Durham,plenary session at the Summer School, July 2016. ‘Against Erasure: reflections on researcher positionality, sexuality and stigma in ethnographic research.’
University of Turku: Media History Archives, March 2015.
University of Turku: The International Institute for Popular Culture (IIPC) Debate (https://iipcblog.wordpress.com/), March 2015.
Office for National Statistics: Annual Conference, January 2015. ‘The Value of Ethnography in Re-presenting Agency, Voice and Complexity when Researching Sexed-Spaces.’
Conference Panels:
Kinking Histories, Practices and Wellbeing: A Panel on Kinking Perspectives and Temporal Parameters in the UK (panel chair: Dr Gemma Commane) at the 1st Global Conference – Kink: An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference (Progressive Connections), Prague, Czech Republic, 2019
Conference Papers:
Gender and Communication Conference (ECREA), University of Pedua, Pedua Italy, 2019.“I can see your seafood platter”: Rupaul’s Drag Race and the performance of ridiculous femininity. Gemma Commane and Hazel Collie.
‘Kinktreprenurship: Framing the Pro-Domme as Entrepreneur,’ at the 1st Global Conference – Kink: An Inclusive Interdisciplinary Conference (Progressive Connections), Prague, Czech Republic, 2019.
‘Kinktrepreneurship and British Adult Entertainment’, Gorizia Spring School, Italy 2018.‘Kinktrepreneurship and Social Media: Debates, Rights and Female Subjectivity,’ AAG March 2017, Boston, USA.
‘RubberDoll: The Queer Art of Failure and the Significance of Sexual Otherness,’ AAG March 2016, San Francisco, USA.
For a full list of conferences, please visit: https://gemmacommane.wordpress.com/conference-activity/
Chairing Activities:
International conference: sex work panel at AAG 2016 and 2017
Book launch: ‘Austerity as Public Mood’ by Kirsten Forkert, CENTRALA 2018.
Film Festival: Screening Rights Film Festival, Tranny Fag / Bixa Travesty +Q&A, MAC 2018
Film Festival: Bean Flicks (see: https://www.bcu.ac.uk/news-events/news/birmingham-set-to-host-citys-first-feminist-erotic-film-fest).
Research Projects:
April 2015-Septemer 2015: CITISPYCE (researcher). CITISPYCE was funded £2.5 million pounds by the EU Seventh Framework Programme.
Funding:
BFI Film Hub Midlands Pitch Pots: awarded £2,000 – funding Bean Flicks: Ethics and Desires, 2020.