Our People
Dr Neal Kirk
Neal Kirk received his PhD in English Literature from Lancaster University. He received his MSc in Literature and Society 1688-1900 from the University of Edinburgh. He double-majored in English Literature and Mass Communications for his BA at the University of Denver.
Neal’s work is included in the collections, Digital Horror: Haunted Technologies, Network Panic and the Found Footage Phenomenon (Aldana-Reyes and Blake, 2016) and Gothic and Death (Carol Margaret Davison, 2016) and the forthcoming Gothic and the Arts (Punter). Neal has taught Sociology, Media and Cultural studies, and English Literature and continues to explore digital media, digital culture and digital art forms.
Neal works as a Lecturer on our BA (Hons) Film & Screen Arts course where he teaches Materials and Methods, Negotiated Project, Research and Experimentation and advises on Honours Dissertations. With over 20 years of experience working professionally in the radio, television, film and new media industries, including working second unit on the series Breaking Bad, Neal has a well-established practice in Film and Screen Arts.
- Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA)
- Member of the International Gothic Association
- Associate Member of the Manchester Metropolitan University Games Research Network
Neal’s interdisciplinary research interests include Television and Film, Digital Media and Culture, English Literature, Sociology, Gothic, Game Studies, Death and Grief Studies.
‘Gothic and Internet Fiction: Digital Affordances and New Media Fears’. David Punter, (ed.). Gothic and the Arts. Edinburgh University Press. In press.
“‘I’m not in that thing you know… I’m remote. I’m in the cloud’: Networked Spectrality in Charlie Brooker’s ‘Be Right Back’”. Carol Margaret Davison, (ed.). The Gothic and Death. Manchester University Press. 2017.
‘Networked Spectrality: In Memorium [sic], Pulse, and Beyond’. Aldana-Reyes and Blake, (eds.). Digital Horror: Haunted Technologies, Network Panic and the Found Footage Phenomenon I. B. Tauris. 2016.
‘The End of Mr. Y or the End of the Book? Digital Technologies and the Twenty-First Century British Novel’. Bianca Leggett and Tony Venezia, (eds.). Twenty-first Century British Fiction – Critical Essays. Gylphi Limited. 2015.
Neal is especially interested in projects that work in and explore the horror and gothic genre and mode. Additionally, he welcomes projects on art and the environment, ecocriticism, art and social activism/social justice, consumer culture and advertising, art and ethics, digital and algorithmic processes, glitch art, and analogue and digital gaming. Generally, he welcomes projects with interdisciplinary scopes across the fields of film, television, literature, sociology and digital media and culture.
