PhD Student Profiles

Evie Lucas

I have a BA in Mass Communication from the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, USA, and an MA in Broadcast Journalism from New York University. My work experience is diverse. I have worked as a researcher and assistant TV producer for Bloomberg Television in New York, a lecturer in the communication department of the University of Nicosia in Cyprus, a freelance film continuity editor on two short films produced in Manchester, a journalist and editor for the Manchester-based Excel Publishing Company, and, more recently, a magazine publisher and editor for All About Manchester—a free monthly guide to everything Mancunian.  

Ufuk Önen

Ufuk is a composer, audio recording engineer, filmmaker. He produced and recorded over 50 albums, EPs and singles in Turkey, his native country, worked as a composer, engineer and sound designer in more than 200 Turkish, European and North American projects, including films screened in international films festivals, and recorded and toured with Hazy Hill (1988-2000). Önen has written Audio Recording and Music Technologies (English title), the first reference book on the subject in the Turkish language. Currently, Önen teaches sound design, visual communication and video production at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey.

Deborah Gabriel

I obtained a BA in journalism studies from London Metropolitan University in 2007 and a PG Cert in Teaching in HE from University of the Arts in 2008. I came to Salford in 2010 as a GTA, lecturing on the BA in journalism and running media seminars. I started blogging in 2008 and reviewing research on blogs, bloggers and blogging practice, observing a gap in scholarship on the use of blogs by ethnic minority groups, which led to the PhD project. Based on my experience in community media, I was appointed as a public engagement ambassador for the National Coordinating Centre for Public Engagement and I am organising a public exhibition in 2013.

Abdullah Abalkhail

I hold an MA in International Journalism from the University of Leeds, and a BA in Journalism and Public Relations from Imam Mohammad bin Saud Islamic University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where I start working as a junior lecturer in the media department in 2007. Since 2000 I have also worked as a freelance journalist for a number of Arabic television stations, newspapers, websites. I blog about media and related technology in Arabic at iabdullah.net.

Daniel Cookney

In my work on anonymity in electronic dance music culture,  I explore the use of pseudonyms, technology as representation, the literal use of masks, misinformation and white labels. My interdisciplinary investigation (theory, music, art) is especially interested in the visual aesthetics circulated in place of the supposedly ‘conventional’ portrait of the artist. I additionally blog about music artwork here and have a chapter in the collection Reverberations: The Aesthetics, Affect and Politics of Noise (Continuum, 2012).

Everette Ndlovu

I have a BA in Communication from the University of South Africa, an MA in Documentary and Feature Production from Salford University and a PGCE from Bolton University. I have worked as a television and radio producer/director in Zimbabwe. I have also worked as a freelance journalist for African and international newspapers and radio stations such as Radio Netherlands, in addition to freelance film production where I specialize in script writing, filming and editing. I have taught media studies in FE and HE institutions in the UK since 2005.

Tom Sykes

Tom is researching the effect of digital technology on the dissemination and consumption of ‘niche’ genres of popular music.  He has recently had a chapter of his work accepted for publication in a forthcoming Ashgate book about European popular music. The book chapter, provisionally titled ‘Transgressing borders in cyberspace’, discusses the way in which recorded music is now so easily distributed over the internet, transgressing not only geographical borders but often stylistic differences, language barriers and censorship laws, not to mention copyright legislation and royalty agreements. Tom is focusing on ‘niche’ or ‘specialist’ popular music, with a particular focus on jazz, looking particularly at how digital media, especially the internet, have affected the dissemination and consumption of jazz.  He is currently undertaking audience questionnaire surveys and interviews at selected jazz festivals, and carrying out online surveys. Tom has also presented research at several conferences including; the Sound Property conference (Salford, 2009); Mediating Jazz conference (Manchester, 2009), Leeds International Jazz Conference 2010, and the Rhythm Changes Conference (Amsterdam, 2011).