Dr Ben Cocking

 

Office Hours:

Tuesdays 2-3
Wednesdays 11.30-12.30 and 1-2


Please email for to make an appointment at an alternative time.

Teaching:

Ben Cocking teaches on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate modules across the Media & Culture and Journalism programmes.

Research Supervision:

Current PhD Supervision:
Hugh Ortega Breton, 'In The Eye of the Storm: Paranoid Hegemony and the Culture of Fear in Anglo-American Political Culture'.

Chris Roberts, 'The Appropriation of ‘the dramatic’ in contemporary British current Affairs broadcasting: Narrative and Characterisation tropes, Critical Discourse Analysis [CDA] of Panorama.'

PhD supervision is available for projects in a variety of areas of cultural studies, news media, travel media and postcolonial theory.

Publications and Current Research:

'Writing the end: Wilfred Thesiger, Freya Stark and the "Arabist tradition"', Journeys: International Journal of Travel Writing,Vol. 8. No.1-2, pp.57-76, 2007

'Travel Journalism: Imagining the Middle East' Questioning European Journalism: A Themed Issue of Journalism Studies, Routledge, pp. 54-68, February, 2009.

'Newby and Thesiger: humour and lament in the Hindu Kush' Studies in Travel Writing, Routledge (in preparation)

'Imagining Arabia: the emergence and decline of the "Arabist" tradition', British Journal of Middle East Studies, Taylor Francis (in preparation)

'Redmond O’Hanlon’s Into the Heart of Borneo: naturalist modes of representation beyond "belatedness"?'
(Awaiting placement)

Publishing contract with Pearson Higher Education to produce a series of companion website to accompany their Sociology textbooks.

Conference Papers and Chairing:

(2007)The Arabist Tradition:
Locating Freya Stark’s Southern Gates of Arabia and Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian Sands, Travellers and Texts, Seventh Biennial ASTENE Conference

(2007)'Redmond O'Hanlon's Into the Heart of Borneo: naturalist modes of representation beyond "belatedness"? Green Travel: Texts, Traditions, Tensions; an Interdisciplinary Colloquium. St John's College, Oxford University.

(2006)'Writing the end: Wilfred Thesiger, Freya Stark and the "Arabist tradition"' Centre for Research in Film and Audio-Visual Culture, Roehampton University, London.

(2005) Panel Chair, CRFAC 'Tabloid Culture and Media Spectacle' Symposium, Roehampton University, London.

Membership of professional bodies

Member of the British Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA)

Fellow - Royal Geographical Society (RGS)

Fellow - The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA)

Member of the Association for the Study of Travel in Egypt and the Near East (ASTENE)

Member of the International Society for Travel Writing (ISTW)

Qualification Details

1993 BA (Hons) Communications and Image Studies, University of Kent.
1995 MA Communications and Image Studies, University of Kent.
2001 PGCFHE, University of Gloucestershire.
2005 PhD Communications and Image Studies, University of Kent.

Research Expertise

Media representations of the Middle East, particularly post 9/11; travel journalism, tourism and popular culture, postcolonial and identity theory, travel writing

Teaching Expertise

Media & Cultural Studies, Journalism Studies; Identity and Culture; Travel & Tourism; Postcolonial theory; travel writing.

Consultancies Undertaken

Publishing contract with Pearson Higher Education to produce a series of online learning sites to accompany textbooks in Sociology and Media. May 2005 – publication September 2006.

Undergraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Media and Culture
Journalism and News Media

Postgraduate courses taught at Roehampton:

Media & Cultural Studies
Cultural Studies