Dr Diane A. Rodgers PhD, FHEA, PgCert LTHE

Senior Lecturer

Summary

I'm a Senior Lecturer in Media, teaching across a variety of modules but specialising in Alternative Media and Storytelling in film and television, specialising in cult film, horror, television and music.

My PhD research was on folk horror and hauntology in 'wyrd' 1970s British Film and Television. My research interests relate to the communication of folklore and contemporary legend in the media including: folk horror; folklore on screen; the supernatural; the work of Nigel Kneale and children’s television. I am also a co-founder of the Centre for Contemporary Legend research group and a member of the CCMS steering committee.

About

My research examines the communication of folklore and hauntological aspects of British 1970s television (for adults and children), and the impact of this upon modern media and perceptions about folklore. I am particularly interested in onscreen representations of the supernatural, the use of stone circles on screen, the work of Nigel Kneale and ‘spooky’ television programming aimed at children.

I regularly publish on a variety of topics related to my interests, I frequently collaborate with colleagues on research projects which have recently included co-editing a book on the television phenomena The X-Files and a research paper examining the cultural implications of perceptions of witchcraft as shaped by YouTube algorithms. I also conduct a significant amount of work with my Centre for Contemporary Legend colleagues in order to develop the profile of folklore studies and promote public and academic engagement and diverse representation within the subject.

Taught modules include Alternative Media, heavily grounded in theory, examining underground comics, music, social and political movements, film, television and comedy. I also teach Storytelling in Film and Television which uses textual analysis to consider how meaning is created onscreen across a number of examples from both classic and cult film and television. I am a member of The Folklore Society and the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research. I am also involved in practice related to my teaching outside of my work, including performing live music with my band The Sleazoids and carrying out digital video editing work for feature film, music videos and online projects.

Senior Lecturer

Specialist areas of interest

Folklore and folk horror in film and television
Alternative culture

Teaching

Department of Media Arts and Communication

College of Social Sciences and Arts

Link 1: https://contemporarylegend.co.uk/info/

Link 2: https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/tag/diane-rodgers/

Subject area

Media and Photography

Courses

Media

Modules

Alternative Media, Storytelling in Film & Television, Making Media.

Research

Culture and Creativity Research Institute

Current projects include working with my Centre for Contemporary Legend (CCL) colleagues in order to develop the profile of folklore studies and promote public and academic engagement and diverse representation within the subject. With the CCL I am editing a special Contemporary Legend issue of the academic journal Revenant. I have chapters in a number of forthcoming publications on Folk Horror including from Routledge and Manchester University Press. I am currently in negotiation for a contract for my first monograph and with my colleague James Fenwick I am co-editing The Legacy of The X-Files for Routledge, . I have also recently worked with a small research team examining the cultural implications of perceptions of witchcraft as shaped by YouTube algorithms.

Featured Projects

Link 1: https://contemporarylegend.co.uk/info/

Link 2: https://www.revenantjournal.com/2021/06/call-for-papers-special-issue-contemporary-legend-the-stories-we-tell-and-how-we-tell-them/

Link 3: https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/tag/diane-rodgers/

Publications

Key Publications

Rodgers, D. (2019). Something ‘wyrd’ this way comes: folklore and British television. Folklore. http://doi.org/10.1080/0015587X.2018.1529363

Rodgers, D. (2017). Robin Redbreast and BBC'S Play for today: 1970's folk horror for Christmas. In Corupe, P., & Janisse, K.-.L. (Eds.) Yuletide Terror: Christmas Horror on Film and Television. (pp. 156-169). Spectacular Optical: http://www.spectacularoptical.ca/store/product/yuletide-terror-christmas-horror-on-film-and-television-2/

Rodgers, D. (2017). HEAD: a jubilant rampage through sixties psychedelia! Cinema Retro, 37. http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/categories/48-BACK-ISSUES-37-40

Rodgers, D. (2017). Researcher blog by Diane Rodgers: ‘wyrd' British television of the 1970's. [IMPACT Research Blog]. https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/c3riimpact/diane-rodgers-wyrd-tv-blog/?doing_wp_cron=1513331862.0696480274200439453125

Rodgers, D. (2018). The Outcasts: A forgotten, wyrd classic of British folk horror. Cinema Retro, 14 (41), 30-31.

Rodgers, D. (2018). Something Wyrd: Folk Horror, Folklore and British Television. Presented at: Centre for Contemporary Legend Inaugural Symposium, Sheffield Hallam University, 2018

Rodgers, D. (2019). Wyrd on-screen: urban fears and rural folk. In Urban Wyrd. Wyrd Harvest Press

Rodgers, D., & Paciorek, A. (2019). Urban Folklore: An Interview with Diane A. Rodgers. In Folk Horror Revival: Urban Wyrd 2: Spirits of Place. Wyrd Harvest Press

Journal articles

Rodgers, D. (2020). Folk horror, ostension and Robin Redbreast. Revenant, 57-73. http://www.revenantjournal.com/contents/folk-horror-ostension-and-robin-redbreast/

Rodgers, D. (2019). Swinging sixties spies in comic book guise! Fathom and Modesty Blaise. Cinema Retro.

Rodgers, D. (2017). DVD review: The Electric Horseman. Cinema Retro, 38. http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/categories/48-BACK-ISSUES-37-40

Rodgers, D. (2016). DVD REVIEW: Looking for Richard. .

Rodgers, D. (2016). BOOK REVIEW: Cult Cinema: An Arrow Video Companion. .

Rodgers, D. (2016). BOOK REVIEW: Satanic Panic: Pop Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s. .

Rodgers, D. (2015). DVD REVIEW: Mississippi Burning. .

Rodgers, D. (2015). Book Review: the French screen goddess: film stardom and the modern woman in 1930s France by Jonathan Driskell. Cinema Retro, 11 (33), 44.

Rodgers, D. (2015). Book Review: From France with love: gender and indentity in French romantic comedy by Mary Harrod FROM FRANCE WITH LOVE: GENDER AND IDENTITY IN FRENCH ROMANTIC COMEDY by Mary Harrod. . http://www.cinemaretro.com/index.php?/archives/8757-BOOK-REVIEW-FROM-FRANCE-WITH-LOVE-GENDER-AND-IDENTITY-IN-FRENCH-ROMANTIC-COMEDY-By-Mary-Harrod-I.-B.-Tauris.html

Rodgers, D. (n.d.). The eerie folklore of Robin Redbreast. Revenant.

Presentations

Rodgers, D. (2022). Generation HeXed. Presented at: Horrifying Children: Hauntology and the Legacy of Children’s Fictions, York, UK, 2022

Rodgers, D. (2022). Fact, Fiction and Folklore in Film. Presented at: Fact, Fiction and Folklore in Film, Glasgow, Scotland, 2022

Rodgers, D. (2021). Folk Horror on Screen. Presented at: The Unholy Trinity of Folk Horror, Sheffield, UK

Rodgers, D. (2021). Creative COVID Customs and Folklore in Contemporary Film and Television. Presented at: Creativity during the Covid lockdown: Life and Renewal During the Pandemic, Royal Anthropological Institute [online]

Rodgers, D. (2021). "Isn't Folk Horror All Horror?". Presented at: Fear 2000: Horror Unbound, Sheffield Hallam University [online], 2021

Clarke, D. (2021). Nigel Kneale, Quatermass, and Ancient Astronauts. Presented at: The Sky in Legend and Tradition, Salisbury

Rodgers, D. (2021). Contemporary Folklore, Contemporary Media & Covid Customs. Presented at: Perspectives on Contemporary Legend, Tarragona, Spain [online]

Zhang, H., Rodgers, D., Rodriguez-Amat, J.R., & Belinskaya, Y. (2021). Algorithmic Alchemy: The Power of the Witch on YouTube. Presented at: ICA 2021 - 71st Annual Conference, Denver, Colorado [online]

Zhang, H., Rodgers, D.A., Rodriguez-Amat, J.R., & Belinskaya, Y. (2021). The Shape of Witchcraft. Analytics of Recommendation Algorithms and the Platformization of Culture. Presented at: Algorithms in Film, Television and Sound Cultures: New Ways of Knowing and Storytelling, Bilgi University, Istanbul [online]

Rodgers, D. (2020). Ghosts in the Machine: Haunted Screens. Presented at: Haunts - haunted places and haunting practices, Sheffield Hallam University [online], 2020

Robinson, A., Clarke, D., & Rodgers, D. (2020). Folklore, Custom and Contemporary Legend - The CCL Research Group at SHU. Presented at: Creating Knowledge Conference 2020, Online, 2020

Rodgers, D. (2020). My part in the Centre for Contemporary Legend. Presented at: SHU Creating Knowledge Conference, Sheffield Hallam University [online], 2020

Rodgers, D. (2019). Beasts, Monoliths & Witchcraft – the Unsung Nigel Kneale. Presented at: Folklore on Screen, Sheffield Hallam University

Rodgers, D. (2019). Et in Arcadia Ego: The Very British Landscape of Folk Horror. Presented at: Folklore and the Nation, Derby, UK, 2019

Rodgers, D. (2018). Why Wyrd? Why folklore? Why now? Presented at: Screening the Unreal, University of Brighton, 2018

Rodgers, D. (2017). Folklore: the eerie underbelly of British 1970s folk-horror television? Presented at: At Home With Horror? Terror on the Small Screen, University of Kent, Canterbury, 2017

Rodgers, D. (2017). Millennial ghosts and folk-horror legends: haunted by British 1970s television. Presented at: Fear 2000: Horror Media Now, Sheffield,UK, 2017

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome PhD proposals in the area of folk horror, hauntology or the broad area of folklore and contemporary legend on screen and in the media.

Diane Rodgers