Institute of Communication Studies - Faculty of Performance, Visual Arts and Communications

Dr Helen Kennedy

BA (Birmingham), MA (Birmingham), PhD (UEL)

Position: Lecturer in New Media

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I've been teaching, researching and doing new media for more than 12 years.

One of my main research interests is the politics of new media. In previous work, this has meant looking at in/equalities, inclusions and exclusions in new media consumption, in relation to gender, race, class and disability. Currently, I am focusing on the politics of new media work - not just the working conditions of the new media workforce, but also the consequences for consumption of particular practices in the production process.

I have just finished leading Inclusive New Media Design , a research project which aimed to identify the best ways to encourage web designers and developers to make websites accessible to people with intellectual disabilities, and to explore the place of accessibility in the work practices of web designers.

I am also interested in:

• the myths of new media;
  
• new media theory, practice and creativity;
  
• media industries and cultural labour.
  

And I am currently writing a book about the work of web designers, to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2010.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Journal articles

Kennedy, H. (submitted) 'Accessibility and the self-regulation of web designers', Cultural Studies.

Kennedy, H., Thomas, S. and Evans, S. (submitted) 'Can the web be accessible for people with intellectual disabilities?', The Information Society.

Kennedy, H. (2010, forthcoming) 'Net Work: the professionalisation of web design', Media, Culture and Society.

Kennedy, H. (2009) 'Going the extra mile: emotional and commercial imperatives in new media work', Convergence: the international journal of research into new media, vol 15 no 2 pp177-196.

Kennedy, H. (2008) 'New media's potential for personalization' Information Communication and Society vol 11 no 3 pp307-325.

Williams, P., Bunning, K. and Kennedy, H. (2006) 'ICTs and learning disability: multidisciplinary perspectives on Project @pple', Aslib Proceedings vol 59 no 1 pp97-112. Awarded the Emerald LiteratiNetwork outstanding paper award, 2008.

Kennedy, H. (2006) 'Beyond anonymity, or future directions for Internet identity research' New Media and Society vol 8 no 6 pp859-876. Reproduced in  Media Studies: A Reader, 3rd Edition, Sage Publications, 2009, edited by Sue Thornham, Caroline Bassett and Paul Marris.

Kennedy, H. (2005) 'Subjective intersections in the face of the machine: gender, race, class and PCs in the home', European Journal of Women's Studies vol 12 no 4 pp1350-1368.

Kennedy, H. (2003) 'Technobiography: researching lives, online and off' in Biography: An International Quarterly (special edition on online lives), vol 26 no 1 pp120-139. Reproduced in Harrison, Barbara (2009) Life Story Research. in the  Benchmarks in Social Research series, London: Sage in Vol IV pages 44-62.

Kennedy, H. (1999) 'Identity construction in a virtual world: The homepage as auto/biographical practice' in Auto/biography, vol 7 nos 1&2 pp91-98

Edited books

(2001) (with Henwood, F. and Miller, N.) (eds) Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies, York University: Raw Nerve Press

Book chapters

Kennedy, H., Thomas, S. and Evans, S. (2009) 'Inclusive New Media Design: The Place of Accessibility Guidelines in the Work of Web Designers' in Designing for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinary Methods and Findings, Gower Publishing

Leung, L. and Kennedy, H. (2008) 'Designing online experiences for cognitive disability' in L. Leung (ed) Unpacking Experience Design, Bristol: Intellect Books

Kennedy, H. (2001) 'HMTK meets HTML: from technofraud to cyberchick' in F. Henwood, H. Kennedy, and N. Miller (eds) Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies, York University: Raw Nerve Press

Henwood, F., Hughes, G., Kennedy, H., Miller, N. and Wyatt, S. (2001) 'Cyborg Lives in Context: writing women's technobiographies' in F. Henwood, H. Kennedy, and N. Miller (eds) Cyborg Lives? Women's Technobiographies, York University: Raw Nerve Press

Kennedy, H., Leung, L. and Miller, N. (2000) 'Tending the tamagotchi: rhetoric and reality in the use of new technologies for distance learning' in S. Wyatt, F. Henwood, N. Miller and P. Senker (eds) Technology and In/Equality: Questioning the Information Society, London: Routledge

Kennedy, H., Leung, L. and Miller, N. (2000) 'Project @THENE: widening access in virtual learning communities' in T. Butler (ed) Eastern Promise: Education and Social Renewal in London's Docklands, London: Lawrence and Wishart

Kennedy, H., Leung, L. and Poynter, G. (2000) 'Shipping in and shaping up? Profiling company employment patterns in London's Docklands and inner east London, in T. Butler (ed) Eastern Promise: Education and Social Renewal in London's Docklands, London: Lawrence and Wishart

Reports

Kennedy, H., Evans, S., Thomas, S., Staples, P. and Sweeney, P. (2009) 'Inclusive New Media Design: including people with intellectual disabilities in the web', project report.

Kennedy, H. (2002) ‘Infonomics and New Media: postgraduate multimedia education in Europe’ (for the International Institute of Infonomics,

Kennedy, H. (1998) Return to Learn: UNISON’s fresh approach to trade union education, London: UNISON

RECENT NEW MEDIA PRACTICE

Websites

(2007) Inclusive New Media Design:

(2005) School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies: ,

CD-roms

(2003) Aiding and Abetting: global image, local damage? for AFFORD (African Foundation for Development), (project manager/CD programmer)

(2001) Chanting Heads: a glimpse of eleven visual artists working in Britain today for AAVAA (African and Asian Visual Arts Archive), (project manager/CD programmer)

TEACHING

Interface Design (first year)

New Media Project (third year)

The Media Industries (MA)

PhD SUPERVISION Current & past topics include:

• Visual social networking
• Visual methods and social research
• Ethnicity and media production
• Narrative and play in video games
• Creativity and physical spaces
• Online DIY Feminism