Karen Forrest
Karen left us after almost six years’ administering research postgraduates, the SMRI and the MSc programmes in Media Management and Media Research. She now works in the Institute of Retail Studies as Administrator of the MBA in Retailing by distance learning and the BA (Hons) in Retailing, both situated in Singapore.
Richard Kilborn
Richard joined us from the Department of German in 1983. Having retrained in London, he returned with one of the first Masters degrees in Media Education. The specialist knowledge he acquired there helped him prepare and deliver modules, but qualifications alone do not make him an engaging teacher. That’s down to his acute awareness of what it’s like to be an undergraduate or postgraduate, so his relationship with them is sympathetic, lively, interested.
Richard loves to travel and meet people. This has led latterly to his involvement in the European Doctoral Programme. It also makes him the ideal man to do field research in his specialist subjects – documentary and factual television. Read other academics on either and you are likely to find that they have cited his publications approvingly. His latest, Staging the Real: Factual TV Programming in the Age of Big Brother (2003) is informed, clear and authoritative. A new book on ‘long docs’, the films of documentarists who return to their subjects regularly over a long period, will appear soon.
The Department has always been fortunate in having staff who support colleagues when their lives are going through difficult times. But no-one is more caring than Richard. He has an extraordinary memory for his friends’ life stories, a delicate sense of when it is appropriate for each individual to open up personal issues, and endless patience in giving his help, not least during his term as Head of Department. He will be missed when he finally departs, so it’s good to know that he will be around, part-time, for at least a couple more years.
John Izod
Myra Macdonald
Colleagues bid a reluctant farewell last summer to Dr Myra Macdonald, Reader in the Department since 2005, who retired after a distinguished career spanning three universities. After English Literature degrees at Aberdeen and Cambridge (her PhD was examined by Raymond Williams), she worked at Glasgow Caledonian University and its predecessors for over 25 years, a core member of the team which developed its pioneering degree programme in communication and media. She then moved to the north-east of England in 2000, spending five years at the University of Sunderland, subsequently as Principal Lecturer and Subject Leader in Media and Cultural Studies.
Myra’s research was very well received and influential. Representing Women: Myths of Femininity in the Popular Media (1995), her book on media representations, has been continuously cited. Exploring Media Discourse (2003) is a major study and a notable addition to the literature, achieving the difficult task of making discourse analysis luminous. Further publications addressed questions of documentary, current affairs and the representation of Muslim women.
Myra was admired by colleagues in all her institutions for an especially strong commitment to her students, who appreciated her as an enthusiastic and meticulous teacher and supervisor. She was the most reliable of colleagues and much liked by all who worked with her. Happily, Myra will maintain a connection with the Department as an Honorary Senior Research Fellow. She continues to serve on the advisory and editorial boards of several journals.
Despite that, she and Willie are now able to enjoy a life of increased leisure in Sunderland, their adopted home. We wish them the very best for the future.
Neil Blain
Stephanie Marriott
Stephanie, a dynamic figure in departmental life since 1996, moved on in January 2009 to become Reader and Head of the School of Creative Studies and Media at the University of Bangor. While her creativity, academic rigour and formidable organisational skills are ideally suited to this new job, her leaving is an occasion for sadness among staff and students at Stirling.
Alumni will remember with fondness Stephanie’s teaching on our moving image courses. In 2007 she published Live Television: Time, Space and the Broadcast Event, which analysed the unfolding television coverage of global news events. More recently her research has contributed groundbreaking and courageous work on the altogether different, late-night world of the interactive porn channels that lurk in the deepest, darkest recesses of our digiboxes.
Many students regard Stephanie as a mentor, and as a colleague she has been no different. She offers support, understanding and a sympathetic ear but also an invaluably sharp and critical eye on one’s work. Academically speaking, Stephanie and I approach things differently. When confronted with a new text I will ask: ‘Where is this coming from?’ Stephanie’s starting point is: ‘Where is it going?’ This eye for the future augurs well for her new position.
Stephanie is a party queen, a lover of eccentrically useless gadgets, of all manner of diversions, novelty health foods, arcane horror films, of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Akira Kurosawa movies and computer games. Stirling’s loss can only be Bangor’s gain. We all wish her and Steve the very best in the future.
Mark Brownrigg
