Institute of Communications Studies
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Dr Paul Taylor
Senior Lecturer, Communications Theory
0113 343 5818
Clothworkers' Building North, 2.19
Office hours: Sem 2 Mondays 1-2pm, Thursday 12-1pm
MA (Edinb) PhD (Edinb)
Research Interests
My research interests focus upon critical theories of mass media culture – in particular, the works of Theodor Adorno, Siegfried Kracauer, and Jean Baudrillard; psychoanalytically-influenced media/film theory – including Friederich Kittler and Slavoj Zizek; and philosophically-informed perspectives upon the media – particularly the work of Martin Heidegger.
Teaching
Undergraduate Modules:
Media Philosophy: Technological Dasein (3rd Year Option)
Cinematic Themes (2nd Year Core Module)
Film Theory and Aesthetics (3rd Year Option)
MA Teaching:
Radical Journalism (with Dr Chris Paterson)
Publications
Books
(2011) Žižek and the Media. Polity.
The book: Describes the radical nature of Zizek's media politics; Uses Zizekian insights to expose the profound intellectual limitations of conventional ...
(2008) Critical theories of mass media. Open Univ Pr.
"This is a welcome critical corrective to complacent mainstream accounts of the media's cultural impact".
(2007) Critical Theories of Mass Media: Then and Now. Open University Press - McGraw-Hill. [Submitted]
A critical account of past and present theories of the media drawing upon a range of theorists.
(2005) Digital Matters: Theory and culture of the matrix. Routledge.
(2004) Hacktivism and Cyberwars: Rebels with a Cause?. Routledge.
(1999) Hackers. Routledge.
Freedom fighers or anarchists? InHackers, Paul A. Taylor looks at these characters and the perennial battle between computer hackers and the security industry.
Heidegger and the Media. Media Theory. Cambridge: Polity Press. [In preparation]
A co-authored monograph (with Prof David Gunkel of Northern Illinois University) that constitutes part of Polity Press's "Media Theory" publication series.
Zizek Goes to Hollywood. [In preparation]
Journal Articles
(2009) “'Media Studies 2.0 - The Debate'”, Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. 1.1
(2009) “'Critical Theory 2.0 and Im/materiality: The Bug in the Machinic Flows'.”, Interactions: Studies in Communication and Culture. 1.1
(2009) “'Exploitation of the Self in Community-based Software Production - Workers' Freedoms or Firm Foundations?',”, Capital and Class. 97: 99-120.
(2008) “'Baudrillard's Gallic Shrug - Reality Fundamentalism and the Heineken Effect'”, French Cultural Studies. 19.3: 273-285.
(2007) “The Death of a Symbol in King Herod's Creche”, International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. 5.1 [Accepted]
An account of Baudrillard's contibution to a symbolic understanding of semiotic communications orders.
(2006) “Pattern Recognition in Fast Capitalism: Calling Literary Time on the Theorists of Flux”, Fast Capitalism. 2.1
A study of the relationship between contemporary theories of the information society and fictional depictions of the informational zeitgeist.
(2005) “Baudrillard Bytes”, International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. 2.2: 1-22.
An account of the Baudrillard's contribution to the study of digital technology.
(2005) “Phantom Objectivity”, International Journal of Baudrillard Studies. 2.2: 1-22.
An examination of Baudrillard's contribution to Lukacs's concept of reification in the light of the contemporary mediascape.
(2004) “International Journal of Baudrillard Studies”, British Journal of Politics & International Relations.
(2003) “Waiting for the Barbarians & and the naked Emperor's Chicken”, Higher Education Review. 35.2: 5-23.
(2003) “Humboldt's Rift: the commercialisation of European Higher Education”, European Political Science. 3.1: 75-84.
(2001) “Informational Intimacy & Futuristic Flu: Love & Confusion in the Matrix”, Information, Communication and Society. 4.1: 74-94.
'Literature's Power and Fury in the Virtual Age'.
'From Mit-Sein to Bit-Sein; informational pattern recognition and a chronicle of a life foretold'.
'The Heineken Effect - Bauman, Baudrillard, and Zizek as thinkers of liquidity'. [In preparation]
Chapters
(2007) “Hacktivism”, The International Encyclopedia of Communication, Donsbach W (eds.). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. [Accepted]
2,000 word entry in the International Encyclopedia of Communications
(2006) “'Die Politik der Fiktion - oder warum Literatur mehr ist als das was ich im Zug auf dem Weg zur Arbeit lese'.”, Politik der Cultural Studies, Harrasser K; Riedmann S; Scott A (eds.). Hamburg: Argument Verlag.
The role of literary fiction within cultural studies
(2005) “'The pornographic barbarism of the self-reflecting sign"”, Media and Political Violence, Nossek H; Sreberny A; Sonwalkar P (eds.). Hampton Press.
'The pornographic barbarism of the self-reflecting sign" in Media and Political Violence - by Hillel Nossek, Annabelle Sreberny and Prasun Sonwalkar [eds.] Hampton Press, 349 - 366.
(2005) “Hacktivism”, The Handbook of Information Security., Bidgoli H (eds.). john wiley & sons.
Detailed entry upon the theme of Hacktivism
(2004) “Keyboard Protest: Hacktivist Spiders on the Web”, Anti-Capitalist Britain, Carter J; Morland D (eds.). New Clarion Press.
(2004) “Remote from Reality: Living in the New Plato's Cave”, Remote: Creativity, Technology and Remoteness, Posey E (eds.). Bloc Press.
(2003) “Hacktivists: Resistance is Fertile?”, The Blackwell Companion to Criminology, Sumner C (eds.). Blackwell Publishers.
(2003) “Misogynists or Maestros? Gender and the social construction of hacking”, Dot.Cons, Jewkes Y (eds.). Willan Publishers.
(2003) “TrickE-business: Malcontents in the Matrix”, The Economic & Social Impacts of E-Commerce, Lubbe S (eds.). Idea Group Publishers.
(2001) “The Social Construction of Hackers as Deviants”, Readings in Deviant Behavior, Thio A; Calhoun TC (eds.). Allyn & Bacon.
(2001) “Hacktivism: in search of lost ethics?”, Crime and the Internet, Wall D (eds.). Routledge.
Internet Publications
(2007) Why Zizek? Why Now?. Hosted by Institute of Communications Studies, University of Leeds.
The Editorial Introduction to the inaugral issue of The International Journal of Zizek Studies
External Appointments
I am the General Editor of the International Journal of Zizek Studies and Editorial Board Member of the International Journal of Baudrillard Studies , Fast Capitalism and the International Journal of Badiou Studies.
I am External Examiner for the MA in Mass Communications at the University of Leicester and the External Examiner for the Undergraduate Communications Programme of Keele University.
PhD & Postdoctoral Supervision
I currently supervise:
Vanon Aurajchatchairat
Paul Aitken
Imanol Galfarsoro
John MacWillie
Heidi Herzogenrath-Amelung
Stuart Shaw
Past Supervisions
Jesse Hearns-Branaman
Azeez Lukuman
Ting Wang
Jan Ll. Harris
David Kreps
Professional Practice
I have appeared regularly on various BBC Radio and World Service programmes as a commentator on a range of media and cultural issues. See for example: Woman’s Hour.
Links
ONLINE VIDEOS relating to my research include:
Screening Thought, The Media’s Philosophical Problem – with Slavoj Zizek, London May 2011.
Zizek’s Violence – a lecture given as part of Bradley Evans’s Histories of Violence project.