Tessa Houghton
Assistant Professor in Media and Communication,
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Biography
Dr. Tessa J. Houghton has recently been awarded a PhD in Media and Communication from the School of Social and Political Science, the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Her doctoral thesis, 'Hacktivism and Habermas: Online Protest as Neo-Habermasian Counterpublicity', was funded by a University of Canterbury Doctoral Scholarship. Previous to this, she was awarded a BA (Hons) (First Class, First Division) in Media and Communication (also from UC) and a BA in Media Studies and English Literature from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, before moving directly on to doctoral research.
She has tutored and lectured extensively for a wide range of papers at all undergraduate levels, in both Media and Communication and Political Science. These have included Media and Social Change, Media and Politics, Media and Conflict, Journalists at Work (300 level); Advertising and Cultural Consumption (200 level); and Introduction to Mass Communication (100 level). She enjoys teaching in the areas of political economy, new/digital media, political theory (particularly the public sphere), and both online and offline social movements and activism/protest. She has experience with both face-to-face and online course delivery, and is particularly knowledgeable in using Moodle as an online course delivery platform, and sees it as a valuable complement to traditional offline teaching methods.
Her research interests are located in the nexus between political economy and new/digital media or internet research, and she has a particular theoretical interest in postmodern and agonistic reinterpretations of traditional Habermasian public sphere theory. Her doctoral thesis synthesises multiple strands of what has variously been termed postmodern, feminist, radical or agonistic public sphere theory in order to articulate a new normative public sphere theoretical lens, and applies this to the analysis of various 'digital rights' oriented hacktivist counterpublics. She utilises a critical discourse analytical approach to explore their counterhegemonic capabilities, and remains keenly interested in the possibilities of this school of methodology and its possibilities for analysing emergent multimodal online discourse genres such as hacktivism. She is interested in a more general sense in both on and offline activism in aid of digital rights and freedoms, and particularly in the global alliances emerging between diverse and geographically distant activist groups, with a current research project focusing on the recent anti-ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) alliances. She is also particularly interested in the hacktivist/prankster 'group' known as Anonymous, and is currently working on a theorisation of the group as a nomadological counterpublic, and exploring the political power inherent in their uniquely fluid and networked modes of organisation.
More generally, Dr Houghton enjoys electronic music, film and literature, dress-making, and swimming and snorkeling, and is a member of the New Zealand digital rights organisations Tech Liberty NZ and Internet NZ. She is very much looking forward to spending time in Malaysia with the University of Nottingham, and contributing to such a dynamic and international institution.
Teaching Summary
Dr Houghton has tutored and lectured extensively for a wide range of papers at all undergraduate levels, in both Media and Communication and Political Science. These have included Media and Social… read more
Recent Publications
Dr Houghton has tutored and lectured extensively for a wide range of papers at all undergraduate levels, in both Media and Communication and Political Science. These have included Media and Social Change, Media and Politics, Media and Conflict, Journalists at Work (300 level); Advertising and Cultural Consumption (200 level); and Introduction to Mass Communication (100 level). She enjoys teaching in the areas of political economy, representation new/digital media, political/democratic theory (particularly the public sphere), and both online and offline social movements and activism/protest. She has experience with both face-to-face and online course delivery, and is particularly knowledgeable in using Moodle as an online course delivery platform. She sees it and other online platforms and tools as valuable complements to traditional offline teaching methods.
She is looking forward to applying her experience, knowledge and skills in the delivery of a range modules for the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, including:
- Introduction to Cultural Studies (Level 1)
- Introduction to Communication Theory (Level 1)
- Cultures of Everyday Life (Level 1)
- Political Communication, Public Relations, and Propaganda (Level 2)
- Global Media and Communication (Level 2)
- Mass Media (Level 2)
- Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice (Level 3)
- Dissertation (Level 3)
- MA Dissertation