Season’s Greetings

Sami Souvenir Stall, North Cape, Norway

The Director and Staff of the Centre for Cultural, Media and Creative Industies Research wish all Lost in CCI readers, colleagues, friends and students past and present, a very merry Christmas and a happy new year -together with every good wish for which ever other seasonal holiday you may be celebrating.

King’s College, London opens again on Monday, January 5, 2009.

RAE 2008

British University insiders have been in a state of considerable excitement now that the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 2008 results have been published.

Briefly, the RAE is a periodic audit (the last one was seven years ago) of research quality in universities throughout the UK. Research-active programmes and departments submit examples work published by their academic staff, and these are read and assessed by panels of subject experts. The ensuing grades form the basis for government research funding for the next research cycle –to say nothing of the “bragging rights” of the departments concerned!

The School of Humanities (of which we are a part) provided the two strongest submissions within the college for RAE 2008. As an inter-disciplinary operation, The Centre for Cultural, Media and Creative Industries Research did not make an individual submission for 2008, but contributed to both Film Studies and American Studies. In Film Studies, a remakable 85% of the work submitted was rated “world-leading” or “internationally excellent”, while in American Studies, 50% of the work was similarly graded “world-leading” or “internationally excellent”. This is the first year that either Film or American Studies have been entered for the RAE, so it’s all the more impressive.

We therefore congratulate our colleagues in our related disciplines –while at the same time feeling just a little proud of ourselves.

Dr Richard Howells, Director, CMCI

Saturday Night’s Alright

Just as normal, decent people were enjoying a Saturday morning lie-in to celebrate the end of term, CMCI director Dr Richard Howells was appearing live on Sky Television News to talk about the renaissance of Saturday night TV in the United Kingdom. The item was put together in anticipation of the finals of The X-Factor and Strictly Come Dancing, which together with dramas such as Dr Who have seen viewing figures and popular interest rise after years in the ratings doldrums.

Richard explained the combination of family appeal, production quality and novelty value which added to the success of these shows, together with the extra factors of vicarious participation and viewer empowerment in these so-called “reality” TV programmes.

Myth, Film and Memory

CMCI PhD student Wendy Burke presented her research paper ‘Myth, memory and re-writing the past in film: The shifting image of resistance and collaboration in Dutch films about World War Two from the 1960s and 1970s’ at the UCL Centre for European Studies Symposium ‘Transitions: European Communities of Experience and Memory’. Lost in CCI understands that the paper was very well received, even by the more traditional histiorians present!

Wendy is in the final stages of ‘writing up’ her doctoral thesis under the supervision of centre director Dr Richard Howells. Wendy has agreed to give a seminar on her work to current MA CCI students next semester, and will also answer questions about what it’s like to be a research student here at CMCI.