Research Clusters

The Creative Industries cluster provides a focus for academics exploring the realities of creative, media and cultural industries practice. We take a critical perspective to investigate the challenges of working in the creative sector and explore the impact of cultural policy on areas such as the economy, heritage, urban regeneration, education and enterprise.

Our work is underpinned by social theory and has an emphasis on lived experience of culture and creative production, offering new perspectives for professionals working in the creative industries. In particular, we research the impact of cultural policy and practices on specific communities. Recent research has addressed the following topics:

• Cultural work
• Amateur cultural production
• The politics of expertise
• Film, television, radio and new media
• Creative industries and education
• Equality and diversity
• The cultural ecologies of the creative industries
• Cultural entrepreneurship

Cluster leads: Professor Rajinder Dudrah & Dr Annette Naudin

We are working closely with colleagues in the Institute for Creative Innovation on the University's STEAMHouse project. We are just one of several research teams within the Birmingham Centre for Media and Cultural Research at Birmingham School of Media. For more information please visit the BCMCR website.

Media and Cultural Studies PhD Research Degree

We have a strong community of doctoral students contributing a wide range of research on our Media and Cultural Studies PhD research degree course. Students can work on traditional dissertations or through practice-based research. We place a strong emphasis on ensuring that our research engages with the music and radio industries and with a range of social media activists.