Bronwen Thomas

Professor Bronwen Thomas

  • Emeritus Professor
  • Weymouth House W311, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
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Biography

Bronwen Thomas taught on the Communication and Media degree at Bournemouth and helped design BA English and MA English and Literary Media. Bronwen was Head of the Narrative, Culture and Community Research Centre, and Head of Research and Professional Practice for the School of Journalism, English and Communication from 2014-17. Bronwen's recent publications include a textbook on Narrative (Routledge 2015) based on her experience of teaching on BU, and a co-edited Companion to Literary Media (forthcoming in 2023). Most of her current research interests are based on exploring creativity and storytelling in digital spaces. Her book on Literature and Social Media was published by Routledge in 2020. She has been a Principal Investigator on four UKRI funded projects exploring how digital technologies are transforming reading. In 2021 Bronwen received the World Literacy Award for Significant Contribution to Literacy by an Academic.

Research

My research involves exploring the impact of new digital technologies (ereaders, tablet computers etc) on readers and reading. I am also interested in how readers use online spaces and social media to discuss their reading and interact with other readers, and in investigating how we might draw on these activities to better engage our students as readers. This research involves working closely with a number of leading academics both in the UK and internationally. I also work closely with online and offline communities of readers and stakeholders, including reading charities, librarians, teachers and writers.

Favourites

  • Thomas, B., 2020. Literature and social media.
  • Mildorf, J. and Thomas, B., 2017. Dialogue Across Media. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
  • Thomas, B. and Round, J., 2016. Moderating readers and reading online. Language and Literature, 25 (3), 239-253.
  • Thomas, B., 2014. Highlights and Lowlights: Tracking Reader Response Online. In: IGEL 21 July-25 September 2014 Turin.
  • Thomas, B., 2013. 140 Characters in Search of a Story: twitter fiction as an emerging narrative form. In: Ensslin, A. and Bell, A., eds. Analysing Digital Fiction. London: Routledge.
  • Thomas, B., 2011. What is Fanfiction and Why Are People Saying Such Nice Things About it? StoryWorlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, 3, 1-24.
  • Page, R. and Thomas, B., 2011. New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age. Lincoln, NE, USA: University of Nebraska Press.

Journal Articles

Books

Chapters

  • Frost, S., 2023. Readers, Markets and a Packet of Literary Media, please – efferent readers and their ordering of a new economics. In: Ensslin, A., Round, J. and Thomas, B., eds. Routledge Companion to Literary Media. Routledge.
  • Thomas, B., 2021. Reading the readers : Ethical and methodological issues for researching readers and reading in the digital age. Linguistic Approaches to Literature. 179-195.
  • Thomas, B., 2020. “Stand Out From the Crowd!” Literary Advice in Online Writing Communities. In: Masschelein, A. and deGeest, D., eds. Writing Manuals for the Masses: The rise of the literary advice industry from quill to keyboard. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Thomas, B., 2017. All Talk: Dialogue and Intimacy in Spike Jonze's Her. In: Thomas, B. and Mildorf, J., eds. Dialogue Across Media. John Benjamins, 77-92.
  • Tonning, E., 2015. Introduction. 1-25.
  • Thomas, B., 2014. Fans Behaving Badly? Real Person Fic and the Blurring of the Boundaries between the Public and the Private. In: Thomas, B. and Round, J., eds. Real Lives, Celebrity Stories: Narratives of Ordinary and Extraordinary People Across Media. Bloomsbury.
  • Thomas, B., 2013. 140 Characters in Search of a Story: twitter fiction as an emerging narrative form. In: Ensslin, A. and Bell, A., eds. Analysing Digital Fiction. London: Routledge.
  • Thomas, B., 2012. The Idea of Dialogue. In: Kinzell, T. and Mildorf, J., eds. Imaginary Dialogues in English: Explorations of a Literary Form. Heidelberg, Germany: Universititatsverlag Winter, 203-220.
  • Thomas, B., 2011. Dialogue. In: Logan, P.M., George, O., Hegeman, S. and Kristal, E., eds. Encyclopedia of the Novel. Wiley-Blackwell, 250-254.
  • Thomas, B., 2011. Update Soon! Harry Potter Fanfiction and Narrative as a Participatory Process. In: Page, R. and Thomas, B., eds. New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in a Digital Age. Lincoln, NE, USA: University of Nebraska Press, 205-219.
  • Thomas, B., 2011. Trickster Authors and Tricky Readers on the MZD forums. In: Bray, J. and Gibbons, A., eds. Mark Z. Danielewski. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 86-102.
  • Page, R. and Thomas, B., 2011. Introduction. 1-16.
  • Thomas, B., 2010. Gains and Losses? Writing it All Down: Fanfiction and Multimodality. In: Page, R., ed. New Perspectives on Narrative and Multimodality. London: Routledge, 142-154.
  • Thomas, B., 2010. Frame. In: Logan, P.M., George, O., Hegeman, S. and Kristal, E., eds. Encyclopedia of the Novel. Wiley-Blackwell, 320-324.
  • Thomas, B., 2007. Dialogue. In: Herman, D., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Narrative. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Thomas, B., 2000. Piecing together a mirage:adapting The English Patient for the screen. In: Sheen, E. and Giddings, B., eds. The Classic Novel: From Page to Screen. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 197-232.

Conferences

  • Thomas, B., 2021. “Stand Out from the Crowd!”: Literary Advice in Online Writing Communities. , 153-167.
  • Thomas, B., 2018. The Literature of the Twittersphere: Issues of context and control in reading spaces on social media. In: Ambient Literature 4-5 May 2017 Bristol.
  • Thomas, B., 2018. #amreading: Reading as Display in the Digital Age. In: SHARP: Technology of the Book 9-13 June 2017 Victoria, BC.
  • Thomas, B., 2017. All Together Now: Social Reading in the Digital Age. In: Reading Communities: Past and Present 15 September 2016 London.
  • Thomas, B., 2017. Living in the Now: Real-time narratives of the self on Twitter. In: Narratives of Self in Art and the Everyday 12-13 May 2016 Aarhus, Denmark.
  • Round, J. and Thomas, B., 2016. Moderating readers and readers online. In: Digital Reading Network 19 June 2014 EBC, Bournemouth University. Published in Language and Literature, 25 (3).
  • Thomas, B., 2016. Tales from the Timeline: Narrative and Social Media. In: Experimental Narratives 27 February-27 June 2015 London.
  • Thomas, B., 2014. Disguise Online. In: Marginalised Mainstream 28-29 November 2014 London.
  • Thomas, B., 2014. Highlights and Lowlights: Tracking Reader Response Online. In: IGEL 21 July-25 September 2014 Turin.
  • Round, J. and Thomas, B., 2012. Researching Readers Online. In: Digital Humanities Congress 6-8 September 2012 Sheffield. Research formed part of article for Language and Literature journal in 2016.
  • Thomas, B., 2009. Lost in Austen: costume drama meets fanfiction. In: International Conference on Narrative 2009 4-6 June 2009 University of Birmingham, England.
  • Thomas, B., 2008. Update Soon! Harry Potter Fanfiction and Narrative as Participatory Process. In: International Conference on Narrative 1-4 May 2008 Austin, Texas.
  • Thomas, B., 2007. What the Smeg are you Talking About? Speech and Dialogue in Television Fanfiction. In: PALA 2007: Poetics and Linguistics Association Conference:Style and Communication 31 July-4 August 2007 Kansai Gaidai University, Hirakata City, Japan.
  • Thomas, B.. All Together Now: Talking About Television on Twitter. In: Poetics and Linguistics Association July 2012 Malta.
  • Thomas, B.. Tolkein on the Tweetdeck: following epic narratives in 'real' time. In: International Association of Literary Semantics July 2010 Genoa.
  • Thomas, B.. Transmedial Narrative Theory and Slashfiction. In: Poetics and Linguistics Association July 2006 Joensuu, Finland.
  • Thomas, B.. The Third Degree: Dialogue in Crime Fiction. In: Poetics and Linguistics Association July 2005 Huddersfield.
  • Thomas, B.. A babel of voices. Dialogue in hypertext fiction. In: Poetics and Linguistics Association July 2004 New York.
  • Thomas, B.. Talk TV: Fictional Dialogue and Television. In: Poetics and Linguistics Association July 2006 Joensuu, Finland.

Internet Publications

PhD Students

  • Ming Zhang, 2022. Negotiating Gender and Sexuality Slash Fan Fiction in China, (Completed)
  • James Pope, 2007. Reader Responses to Interactive Fiction (graduated 2007)
  • Tara Douglas, 2016. Tales of the Tribe: Animation as a tool to preserve indigenous culture in North East India (graduated 2016)
  • Alec McAulay. Welcome to Prime-Time: The Western Screenwriter in Japan: Screenwriting Considerations in Transnational Cinema
  • Phil Mathews. Towards defining the character arc model in screenwriting theory and practice
  • Stephen Allard. When does Page become Stage? Exploring Evolving Poetic Practices in Digital Spaces

Invited Lectures

  • Reading in the Digital Age, Online, 07 Oct 2021 more
  • Social media and creative engagement, University of Nottingham, 22 Jun 2019 more
  • Reading on Screen, Middlesex University, 08 Feb 2019 more
  • Digital Reading, Belgium, 01 Dec 2017 more
  • The Literature of the Twittersphere, University of West of England, 04 May 2017 more
  • Teaching New Media, Queen Mary's London, 07 Apr 2017 more
  • A Game of Shadows: Rediscovering Literary Classics, Trier, 15 Jul 2014 more

Grants

  • DRIVE (Digital Reading for Inclusivity, Versatility and Engagement (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, 01 May 2020). In Progress
  • Reading on Screen (Arts and Humanities Research Council, 17 Apr 2017). In Progress
  • Digital Reading Network (AHRC, 01 Jul 2013). Awarded
  • Researching Readers Online (Arts and Humanities Research Council, 01 Feb 2012). Completed

External Responsibilities

  • Books and Borrowing 1750-1830, University of Stirling, Advisory Board Member (2020-2023)
  • UKRI, Future Leaders Fellowship Peer Review College (2018-)
  • Memories of Fiction, AHRC funded project University of Roehampton, Advisory Group Member (2016-2018)
  • Opening Up Digital Fiction, Judge (2016-)
  • University of Bangor, The Stephen Colclough Centre for the History and Culture of the Book, Advisory Board Member (2015-), http://colclough.bangor.ac.uk/about.php.en

Public Engagement & Outreach Activities

  • Panel Member, Digital Writers Festival, Australia
  • 'Reading on Screen'
  • Interview for That's a Cult Podcast
  • Reading Roadshow
  • Poole Literary Festival
  • Southbourne Literary Society
  • Guest on Hope FM's drivetime show talking about the Reading on Screen project
  • Guest on CBC's Spark radio show talking about Twitterfiction
  • Judge for the Opening UP Digital Fiction Prize 2017
  • Article on digital reading for The Conversation

Conference Presentations

  • Internet Rules! Association of Internet Researchers Conference, Moderating Readers and Reading Online, 05 Oct 2016, Berlin

Qualifications

  • PhD in Dialogue in the Comic Novel (Manchester University, 2005)
  • PGCE in Further and Higher Education (Bolton Institute of Higher Education, 1994)
  • MA in The Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Novel (University of East Anglia, 1988)
  • BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature (University of Birmingham, 1987)

Honours

  • World Literacy Award - Significant Contribution to Literacy by an Academic (World Literacy Foundation, 2021)

Memberships

  • British and Irish Association of Narrative Studies, Member (2020-), http://bianarrativestudies.com/
  • SHARP, Member (2017-),
  • European Network of Narratology, Member,
  • International Society for the Study of Narrative, Member, http://narrative.georgetown.edu/
  • Meccsa, Member,
  • Project Narrative, Ohio State University, Associate,