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Dr Debra Benita Shaw

Reader in cultural theory

Centre for Cultural Studies Research, Humanities and Creative Industries, Arts and Digital Industries (ADI)

Debra Benita Shaw is a Reader in Cultural Theory in the School of Arts & Digital Industries. She is also co-director of the Centre for Cultural Studies Research and editor of the Radical Cultural Studies book series (published by Rowman & Littlefield International). From September 2017 she will be Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Urban Cultures.

  • EB 1.18, Docklands Campus
    School of Arts and Digital Industries (ADI)
    University of East London
    Docklands Campus
    London
    E16 2RD
  • D.Shaw@uel.ac.uk +442082237474

    Debra Benita Shaw is a Reader in Cultural Theory at the University of East London, co-director of the Centre for Cultural Studies Research and editor of the Radical Cultural Studies book series (published by Rowman & Littlefield International). She is author of Women, Science & Fiction: The Frankenstein Ineheritance (Palgrave, 2000), Technoculture: The Key Concepts (Berg, 2008) and editor (with Maggie Humm) of Radical Space: Exploring Politics & Practice (Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016). She has published widely in international journals on subjects ranging from the connection between Timothy Leary, LSD and the internet to the significance of the space suit as a cultural icon. She also serves on the editorial advisory boards of Science as Culture and New Formations. Her most recent interest is the study of technoscience, the city and posthuman bodies. Posthuman Urbanism: Mapping Bodies in Contemporary City Space is forthcoming from Rowman & Littlefield International.



    Overview




    Debra is currently working on her third book which will explore the usefulness of theories of posthumanism to understanding the cultural life of contemporary cities and the possibilities for social justice now and in the future. In collaboration with Open School East and fellow members of CCSR she runs seminar series and open access classes which bring contemporary ideas and debates within Cultural Studies to a broad cross-section of the general public.


    Collaborators

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    Research

    Radical Space: Exploring Politics & Practice

    Shaw, DB & Maggie Humm (eds). 2016. Rowman & Littlefield International.

    ‘How can it not know what it is?’: Blade Runner as an ambiguous dystopia’

    Shaw, DB. 2016. <i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">Science Fiction Film & Television. </span></i><span style="font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">9:1 </span><br> .

    Technoculture: The Key Concepts.

    Shaw, DB. 2008. Berg (Bloomsbury).

    Systems, Architecture & The Digital Body' in Parallax, 14:3, August, 2008, pp74-87. ISSN: 1460-700X (electronic) 1353-4645 (paper)

    'Sex and the Single Starship Captain: Compulsory Heterosexuality and Star Trek: Voyager' in Femspec, Vol VII, Issue 1, 2006, pp66-85. ISSN: 1523-4002

    ‘Bodies Out of This World: The Space Suit as Cultural Icon’ in Science as Culture, Vol 13, No 1, March, 2004, pp123-144. ISSN: 0950-5431

    ‘The Scientist Goes Surfing: Timothy Leary, LSD & The Internet’ in New Formations: Complex Figures, No. 49, Spring, 2003, pp110-123. ISBN: 0-85315-974-2 ‘Making Starship Troopers’ in Bad Subjects, No 63, April, 2003,

    ‘The Video Word Made Flesh: Spectacular Transgressions in David Cronenberg’s Videodrome’ in Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction, No 84 (Spring, 2002), pp22-35. ISSN: 0306-4964258

    Women, Science & Fiction: The Frankenstein Inheritance, Palgrave (Macmillan) Press, 2000.

    ‘Virtually Human: Replication & Subjectivity in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner’ in Wojciech Kalaga and Tadeusz Rachwal (eds) Signs of Culture: Simulacra and the Real, Frankfurt, Berlin, New York: Lang Verlag, 2000, pp203-214. ISSN: 1434-0313, ISBN; 3-631-36559-4, US-ISBN: 0-8204-4775-7

      'Strange Zones: Science Fiction, Fantasy & The Posthuman City' in City: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action. 17:6, December, 2013, pp778-791

    ISBN 9780415840972. 

      ‘Streets for Cyborgs: The Electronic Flâneur and the Posthuman City’ Space and Culture. August, 2015: 18, pp230-242. ISSN: 1206-3312 (first published on December 29, 2014 ‘Online First’ 1206331214560105)

    Publications


    Funding
    Debra is interested in cultural theory and its application to everyday life with a particular emphasis on science and technology, the city and popular culture. She is also an expert in science fiction criticism and teaching. 


    Interests

    Portfolio




    Reading Cultures: The Politics of Representation
    Culture, Technology & Power
    Popular Culture: Studies in the Culture of Capitalism
    Realism, Fantasy & Utopia
    Culture, Power & Resistance in the 21st Century
    Technoculture: Technology & Social Realities  
    BA (Hons) Cultural Studies (Single and combined honours)
    Centre for Cultural Studies Research 

    Teaching