Dr Rebecca Williams
Rebecca Williams is a lecturer in Communication, Cultural and Media Studies and currently teaches on the modules Perspectives on Contemporary Media, Media and Culture in Wales, Core Concepts, and Introduction to Media Theory.
She completed her PhD – a comparative study of online TV fans and their use of fandom to perform identity work – at Cardiff University, where she also worked as a researcher on a BBC Trust funded project entitled ‘Accuracy and impartiality in coverage of the four nations’. This research formed part of the BBC Trust’s 2008 King Report on Impartiality.
Since arriving at the University of Glamorgan in 2008 Rebecca has worked on audience research on a Welsh reality television programme, Coal House/Coal House at War, and is currently working with Prof Steve Blandford, Prof Stephen Lacey and Dr. Ruth McElroy on a BBC Trust/Audience Council for Wales project on the portrayal of Wales and Welshness in landmark TV drama.
Rebecca has produced articles on articles on female fans of Doctor Who & David Tennant, participants in historical-reality television, representations of TV Horror in Torchwood, fan responses to the demise of television shows, and a co-authored piece on transnational fans of the Twilight franchise. She is currently working on papers on theoretical approaches to fandom and, with Dr. Ruth McElroy, audiences of local historical-reality television.
Her research interests include audiences and fandom, cultural identity, stardom and celebrity, online research, Welsh media and culture, mainstream and middlebrow media, and issues of quality, canonicity and cultural value.
Rebecca is book reviews editor for the journal Critical Studies in Television.
She is currently preparing an edited collection, Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television for I.B.Tauris.
Email: rwillia3@glam.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1443 668519
