Dr Ben Halligan

Director of Postgraduate Research Studies, College of Arts and Social Sciences

• Maxwell 616e
• T: 0161 295 6062
• E: b.halligan@salford.ac.uk
• SEEK: Research profile

I’m generally available 9am – 7pm, Mon-Saturday. Please email for an appointment time.

Benjamin Halligan, OS BA MPhil PhD (Aberystwyth), is the Director of Postgraduate Research Studies for the College of Arts and Social Sciences.  He is a member of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre. Ben joined the University of Salford in 2007 from York St John University, where he had lectured since 2001.

Ben works as an occasional journalist (for The Independent newspaper, and a number of online sites), a visiting lecturer (including with Antonio Negri for the “Alternative Cultures Beyond Borders” international summer school in Split, Croatia, in 2008), a DVD commentator, interview subject and booklet writer, a photographer (DJ shoots include Boy George, Hed Kandi and Judge Jules), and has presented and interviewed for high profile events at the BFI Southbank (London), the National Media Museum (Bradford), I Mille Occhi (Trieste) and, as a jury member, at the Leeds International Film Festival. Ben is currently an External Examiner at the University of Derby.

Blog : http://www.mmppgrhub.blogspot.co.uk/

Ben lectures in the areas of performance, media and film at foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and specialises in post-war British theatre, surrealist and absurdist theatre, media aesthetics, art and theology, and proto-Modernist playwrights.

He currently supervises postgraduate research students on topics such as masculinities and television, music and the city, semiotics and advertising, documentary-making (including “practice as research” submissions of documentaries), and Northern comedy, and welcomes postgraduate applications in the following areas: twentieth century British theatre, including post-dramatic theatre; post-war popular musics; European and Soviet cinema, particularly the horror film; North American cinema, particularly of the counterculture and New Hollywood; comedy and theatre, film and television; critical theory, particularly Post-Autonomist and globalisation theory; television drama; theology and art; broadcast news and reportage, psychoanalysis and artistic discourse.

Ben’s research covers: British horror cinema (the monograph Michael Reeves was published by Manchester University Press in 2003), contemporary popular British music (his co-edited book Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Art, Music and Politics was published by Ashgate in 2010) and ex-Yugoslav cinema (articles and chapters include “Guest Worker: Dušan Makavejev’s Capitalist Phase” and “Idylls of Socialism: The Sarajevo Documentary School and the Problem of the Bosnian Subproletariat”).

Ben has co-convened a number of international conferences at the University of Salford, including: Sights and Sounds: Interrogating the Music Documentary (with the late David Sanjek, Summer 2010; keynote address from Jeff Feuerzeig), and Bigger than Words, Wider than Pictures: Noise, Affect, Politics (with Michael Goddard, Summer 2010: speakers included Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite and Stephen Lawrie of The Telescopes). The former has led to his forthcoming co-edited book The Music Documentary (Routledge, 2013), the latter to two further books Ben has co-edited: Reverberations: The Philosophy, Aesthetics and Politics of Noise (Continuum, 2012; contributors include Brian Massumi) and Resonances: Noise and Music (Continuum, 2013; contributors include Sheila Whiteley).

He is currently researching and writing on the historical and ideological connections between the countercultures and neoliberalism, along poststructural and hauntological lines. Published work in this area covers television (“Disco Galactica: Futures Past and Present” and, at press, “The Nostalgic Mode of Imperial Legitimation: Silencing the Subjects for the Television Coverage of Royal Events”), film (“The Autumn in Germany: A Dialogue on Fassbinder and Terrorism”, “Filming the Post-Fordist Worker: From Industrial Hollywood to Digital Biopolitics”), music (“From Countercultures to Suburban Cultures: Frank Zappa after 1968”) and, forthcoming, nightclubbing and social media, and early information technology.

October 1990 - June 1993; University of Wales, Aberystwyth:

BA (Hons) Drama II (i)

October 1993 – February 1998; University of Wales, Aberystwyth:

MPhil: Re-politicising the cinema: a study of the films of Bernardo Bertolucci in relation to those of Jean-Luc Godard

October 1997 – January 2008; Aberystwyth University:

PhD: Strategies of Dissent in Radical Western European Film, 1966 -1969

RESEARCH / PUBLICATIONS:

Books:

Michael Reeves, Manchester University Press / British Film Makers series 2003

Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Art, Music and Politics, Ashgate, 2010. Co-editor with Michael Goddard.

Reverberations: The Philosophy, Aesthetics and Politics of Noise, Continuum, 2012. Co-editor with Michael Goddard and Paul Hegarty

Books at press:

Resonances: Noise and Contemporary Music, Continuum, May 2013. Co-editor with Michael Goddard and Nicola Spelman

The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop, Routledge, August 2013. Co-editor with Kirsty Fairclough-Isaacs and Robert Egdar.

Articles:

Makavejev and Zhdanovism in Nevinost Bez Zastite in Slovo: an inter-disciplinary journal of Russian, Eurasian and East European affairs (University of London) 10, 1998

An Aesthetic of Chaos: Cinema from the former Yugoslavia, 1995 in Slovo: an inter-disciplinary journal of Russian, Eurasian and East European affairs (University of London) 11, 1999

Modernism and Eroticism: Derailment in POV 15. Copenhagen 2004

Idylls of Socialism: The Sarajevo Documentary School and the Problem of the Bosnian Subproletariat in Studies in East European Cinema (Intellect Journals), Autumn 2010

Filming the Post-Fordist Worker: From Industrial Hollywood to Digital Biopolitics in Framework (Special edition, 2012) with Michael Goddard

Chapters:

The New Mesmerica in Shocking Cinema of the Seventies; ed. X. Mendik, Noir Publications, 2000

What is the Neo-Underground and What Isn't: A First Consideration of Harmony Korine in Underground USA: Filmmaking beyond the Hollywood Canon. ed. X. Mendik, S. Schneider, Wallflower Press 2002

The Tasks of the European Underground: Letter to Luis Bunuel in Alternative Europe: Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945. Ed. X. Mendik and E. Mathijs, Wallflower Press 2004

What Was the Neo-Underground and What Wasn’t: A First Reconsideration of Harmony Korine in New Punk Cinema. Ed. N. Rombes, Edinburgh University Press 2005

On Tarkovsky’s Aesthetic Strategies in Through the Mirror: Reflections on the Films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Ed. G. A. Jónsson and T. Óttarsson, Cambridge Scholars Press 2007

Disco Galactica: Futures Past and Present in Investigating Battlestar Galactica: Flesh, Spirit, and Steel. Eds Roz Kaveney and Jennifer Stoy, I B Tauris 2010

The Autumn in Germany: A Dialogue on Fassbinder and Terrorism, with Michael Goddard, in Pasolini and Fassbinder: the European Legacy between Utopia and Nihilism (Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010), eds. Alexis Nuselovici and Fabio Vighi

Entries:

On Kieslowski (First Love) in Encyclopedia of Documentary Film. Ed. Ian Aitken, Routledge 2006

Horror tendencies in British cinema in The British Cinema Book (third edition), Ed. Robert Murphy, British Film Institute, London 2009

On metrosexuality, nostagia, Post-Fordism, the sacred and profane, counterfeited goods in

Encyclopedia of Consumer Culture (Sage, 2012)

At Press:

Book chapter: ‘Guest Worker: Dušan Makavejev’s Capitalist Phase’ in Mysteries of Makavejev: Eros, Ideology, Montage (Litteraria Pragensia, Rome, Italy) ed. Vladimir Erent and Bonita Rhoads, May 2013

Book chapter: ‘From Countercultures to Suburban Cultures: Frank Zappa after 1968’ for Music and the Counterculture, ed. Sheila Whiteley and J?*, Ashgate, 2013.

Book chapter: The Nostalgic Mode of Imperial Legitimation: Silencing the Subjects for the Television Coverage of Royal Events in Alternatives in Culture: Critical Theory and Divergent Practices in Contemporary Society , ed. Jessie Labov, Hajrudin Hromadzic, Helena Popovic 2013

In preparation:

Authored book: Cine ’69: Radical European Film Before the Revolution

Co-edited collection: The Music Video, co-editor with Michael Goddard and Kirsty Fairclough-Isaacs. (currently under consideration with Minnesota University Press)

Edited collection: Requiescence: On Silence

Chapter: ‘Unforgiven: Stanley Long, Arnold Miller and Derek Ford’ for From Smut to Softcore: Sex and 1970s World Cinema (Manchester University Press, 2014), ed. Andy Willis and Eylem Atakav.

Chapter: World Party: Leftfield, Leftism and Afrofuturism for Virtual Music*

Article: Slut Talk: Vejazzling ‘The Vagina Monologues’

Conference papers:

I Was a Teenage Surrealist: Alienated Youth in the Films of David Lynch, Wild at Heart and Weird on Top: The Films of David

Lynch (University of Sheffield, 1999)

How To Win Without Actually Cheating: Lesson #1 – Assume Disinterest, Ealing Revisited (University of Hull, 2006)

Spielberg and the New Hollywood Pre-History of the Military-Industrial-Entertainment Complex, Spielberg at Sixty (University of Lincoln, 2007)

Anti-Bush documentaries and anti-war movements, Alternative Images: Documentary as Counter-Culture  (OSA Archivum, Budapest 2007)

Red Carpet on the Stairway to Heaven: the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Challenging Cultures of Death: A multi-disciplinary event (Trinity College, Institute for Feminism and Religion, 2007)

The Quality of Reason: Anti-Bush Documentary and Anti-War Movements, “Cultures of Resistance”: DPR 7 (Discourse, Power and Resistance), Manchester Metropolitan University 2008; also delivered introduction to Terry Eagleton's Keynote Lecture

Co-convenor: New Nightmares (University of Salford, Manchester Metropolitian University, 2008)

“Builders or blacks, for example”: Chris Morris’s Ironic Racism at the limits of Liberal Multiculturalism, “Funny People Those Foreigners”: an International Conference on International Comedy (University of Salford, 2008)

Animals, Drugs, Science, Sex, Crime, Decline, Paedophilia: Chris Morris Re-reads the News

and Red Carpet on the Stairway to Heaven: the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Alternative Cultures Beyond Borders, International Conference / Summer School, Split 2008

Television coverage of Royal funerals (Research Encounters, University of Manchester, United Kingdom, November 2010)

On Moloch, The Cinema of Aleksandr Sokurov symposium (BFI Southbank, 2011)

The Elephant Man in the Living Room, “In Dreams” - David Lynch symposium (BFI Southbank, 2012)

Conferences organised:

New Nightmares, co-conveor with Andy Willis and others, University of Salford, Manchester Metropolitan University, April 2008

Sights and Sounds: Interrogating the Music Documentary, with David Sanjek, Salford, Summer 2010

Bigger than Words, Wider than Pictures: Noise, Affect, Politics, with Michael Goddard, Salford, Summer 2010

MECCSA 2011 Conference, with MECCSA committee, University of Salford, January 2011.

Esteem / engagement:

External Examiner role:

University of Derby (October 2009 – present)

RAE return in 2008; REF return anticipated for 2013 (4 outputs draft rated as internationally excellent)

Advisory Review Panel member for Cine-Excess e-journal (launched September 2012)

Reader’s Reports
For Intellect (twice), on post-socialist art, society and culture, in 2008.

For Routledge, on politics and popular music, in 2012.

Journalism / Non-refereed writing:

Entries on Barilli, Morrissey, Ferreri in Eaten Alive: Italian Cannibal and Zombie Movies. Ed. Jay Slater, Plexus Publishing 2002

Alexei Jankowski a Benjamin Halligan in Aleksandr Sokurov. Eclissi di cinema; ed. Stefano Francia di Celle, Enrico Ghezzi, Alexei Jankowski. Associazioine Cinema Giovani, Torino 2003

I Demoni Dentro: I Film di Michael Reeves. Festival Programme, I Mille Occhi; October 2006             

Profile: Michael Reeves in Cinema Retro, Vol 2, Issue 5, 2006

Panthers vs. Vixens: Report on the 54^th International Short Film Festival, Oberhausen 1-6 May, 2008 in New Cinemas (Intellect Journals), Autumn 2008

Switch on Your Mobile Phone!: The Independent, 18/8/09

‘“Please Ensure That Your Mobile Phone Is Switched Off”: Theatre Etiquette in an Age of Outsourcing’, Studies in Theatre and Performance, 29 (2), 2009.

Madchester: The Resurrection: The Independent, 13/2/10

Sloths of Office: the Mid-Life Crisis of Hollywood’s Democrats in Screen International (part one: Autumn 2010; part two, December 2010)

Daises (review) in Studies in East European Cinema (Intellect Journals), Spring 2011

Film festivals:

Films from the End of Yugoslavia, Welsh International Film Festival, Aberystwyth, 1998

The Cinema of Ken Russell, Welsh International Film Festival, Cardiff, 1999

Documentary appearance: Eurotika (Channel 4, 1999)

Jury member, Leeds International Film Festival; 2004

Invited guest for introductions / press conference (“Il Diavolo, Probabilmente. Reeves e l’horror del ’68” strand), I Mille Occhi: Festival Internazionale del Cinema e delle Arti (Trieste); October 2006

Invited guest for introductions / press conference (British Crime Cinema and Execution), I Mille Occhi: Festival Internazionale del Cinema e delle Arti (Trieste); October 2007

“In Conversation with Stanley Long”, Fantastic Film Festival (Bradford), June 2010; podcasted: http://www.nationalmediamuseum.org.uk/podcasts/

Film introductions, Michael Reeves retrospective (Flipside, BFI Southbank, April 2012)

Photography:

Freelance, published by Liverpool Post and Echo, various shoots (Judge Jules, Boy George, Hed Kandi etc) and promo work.

Other:

DVD / Blu-Ray commentaries: Witchfinder General and The Sorcerers, with Michael Armstrong (Odeon, June 2011).

DVD booklet essay: Castle of the Living Dead (Odeon, 2012)

Article The Remaining Second World: Sokurov and Russian Ark, published at www.sensesofcinema.com (March 2003), translated and broadcast Radio Croatia.