Peri Bradley

Dr Peri Bradley

  • Senior Lecturer
  • Weymouth House W208, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole, BH12 5BB
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Biography

Peri has come to the area of Media Theory through the process of studying Art and English as an undergraduate, Film at Masters Level and TV for her PhD, all at Southampton University. Her research interests have consistently centred around the body and its representation; in literature, in art, in film and on television. This line of research has led to the in-depth investigation of issues of gender, sexuality and feminism as related to body transformation portrayed in the media. This analysis concerns the transforming body as a sociological and anthropological phenomenon that occurs throughout history, which adapts and is adapted to reflect and respond to its own specific cultural environment, particularly on TV. This has included looking at representations of the body in the horror genre, reality TV and specific celebrity case studies who embody a camp sensibility.

Peri joined Bournemouth University as a Lecturer in Media Studies in 2011 and has brought a wide experience of a range of media and theoretical approaches to bear upon media theory and its relationship to media production...

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Research

The research I have been involved in investigates reality TV texts and the documentary form as ethical and political-aesthetic models for reading popular cultural texts with film methodologies (theories of spectatorship and genre), as well as recent television production history. The analysis concerns the transforming body as a sociological and anthropological phenomenon that occurs throughout history, which adapts and is adapted to reflect and respond to its own specific cultural environment, particularly on TV.

Currently I am in the process of researching and writing a monograph that considers gender performance and specifically Camp in order to provide a more coherent focus on the significance of Anglo-centric Camp performativity and aspects such as linguistics and covert languages shared by minority groups. This investigation builds upon previous research to produce a dedicated consideration of a concept that is prevalent but often misunderstood and misinterpreted in contemporary media texts. This research will focus on specific Camp celebrity performers who exemplify the issues involved, such as Dick Emery, Gok Wan, Liberace and Carlson Kressley. Previous studies of Camp and Camp performativity have relied on issues of sensibility and minority positioning. This new study will expand on this original basis and provide a more inclusive definition of Camp that will investigate the notion of straight and female Camp as part of a historical and archetypal tradition present in both US and UK media...

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Journal Articles

Books

Chapters

  • Bradley, P., 2016. Introduction. 1-5.
  • Bradley, P., 2016. More Cake Please - We're British! Locating British Identity in Contemporary TV Food Texts, The Great British Bake Off and Come Dine With Me. Food, Media and Contemporary Culture: The Edible Image. 9-26.
  • Bradley, P., 2014. Scripting the real: Mike Leigh's practice as antecedent to contemporary reality television texts The Only Way Is Essex and Made in Chelsea. Screenwriters and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context. 170-186.
  • Pullen, C., 2014. Self-reflexive screenwriting and LGBT identity: Framing and indirectly reading the self. Screenwriters and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context. 271-287.
  • Jacey, H., 2014. And the screenwriter created man: Male characterisation in bromance and bromedy. Screenwriters and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context. 238-255.
  • Bradley, P., 2014. The Good, the Bad and the Healthy: The Transforming Body and Narratives of Health and Beauty in Reality TV. In: Thomas, B. and Round, J., eds. Real Lives, Celebrity Stories: Narratives of Ordinary and Extraordinary People Across Media. Bloomsbury.
  • Bradley, P., 2013. Romancing the Soap: Representations of Gay Love and Relationships in 'EastEnders'. Queer Love in Film and Television: Critical Essays. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bradley, P., 2012. The Exotic Erotic: Queer Representations in the context of post-colonial ethnicity on British TV. In: Pullen, C., ed. LGBT Identity in Non Western Worlds. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Bradley, P., 2010. Hideous Sexy – The Eroticised Body and Deformity in 1970s British Horror Films. Don’t Look Now: British Cinema in the 1970s. Bristol: Intellect.
  • Bradley, P., 2010. “You Are Awful...But I Like You!” The Politics of Camp in 1970s Television. In: Harper, S. and Forster, L., eds. British Culture and Society in the 1970s: The Lost Decade. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Bradley, P., 2009. Monstrous Makeovers: Transforming ‘Monsters’ into Beauty Queens. In: Ni Fhlainn, S., ed. Dark Reflections,Monstrous Reflections: Essays on the Monster in Culture. Inter-disciplinary.net/publishing/:-press/ebooks.

Internet Publications

Journal Reviewing/Refereeing

  • Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture,, Anonymous peer review, 20 Oct 2016

Conference Presentations

  • SCMS 2016, Snap, Crackle and Pop: The Language of Food and Affective Aural Appetites in TV Advertising, 30 Mar 2016, Atlanta
  • Exhibition-Conference on The Stardom and Celebrity of David Bowie 1965—2015, David Bowie: The End of Gender? An Investigation of Bowie's impact on the shift of Masculinity and Gender Performance from 1970 to present day., 17 Jul 2015, Melbourne Australia (Virtual presentation via Skype)
  • PCA Conference 2015, Camping out with Lady Gaga: An Investigation of the Political Potential of Female Camp Performance, 31 Mar 2015, New Orleans
  • PCA 2014, From Dick to Gok: An Investigation of the Politics of Camp and its impact on the representation of sexuality, the feminine and masculinity in the contemporary media,, 02 Apr 2014, Chicago
  • MeCCSA 2014, Camping out at the Margins: An Investigation of Camp Practice and its Appropriation by the Mainstream Media, 08 Jan 2014, Bournemouth UK
  • PCA 2013, Flesh and Blood: The Damaged And Deformed Body in Contemporary British Horror Films, 27 Mar 2013, Washington US
  • MeCCSA 2013, More Cake Please – We’re British!: Locating British Identity in Contemporary TV Food Texts, The Great British Bake Off and Come Dine With Me., 09 Jan 2013, Londonderry
  • Words & Images - 5th Screenwriting Research Conference,, Scripting the Real: Mike Leigh’s Practice as Antecedent to Contemporary Reality TV Texts TOWIE and Made in Chelsea, 12 Sep 2012, Sydney Australia
  • SCMS 2012, Food for Thought: the Cultural Significance of Food in the Media, 21 Mar 2012, Boston US
  • Film and History Conference, Romancing the Soap: Representations of Gay Love and Relationships in 'EastEnders', 24 Nov 2010, Milwaukee US

Qualifications

  • PhD in Television and Film (Southampton University, 2012)
  • MA in Film (Southampton University, 2003)
  • BA (Hons) in English/Art (Southampton University, 1999)

Memberships

  • SCMS, Member (2012-),
  • PCA, Member (2010-),