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Dr Dan Ward


Home / About / Academic staff profiles / Media / Dr Dan Ward

Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies

I am the Subject Leader for Media Studies Combined, as well as Personal Tutor for BA (Hons) Media, Culture and Communication. My main teaching and research interests are in television, sports and their impact on popular culture.

Teaching and supervision

I am the module leader for a number of core and optional modules which include:

  • MAC101 Introduction to Media and Cultural Studies
  • MED124 Television Cultures
  • MED121 Contemporary Cinema
  • MAC202 Cultural Theory and Popular Culture

Research interests for potential research students

  • Television Studies
  • Cultural Constructions of Masculinity
  • Combat Sports and Society
  • The Cold War in Popular Culture

I have supervised dissertations on topics including gender representations in Game of Thrones, representations of the anti-hero in contemporary high-end TV, representations of masculinity in hip-hop music, and masculinity in men's fashion.

Research

My PhD, awarded in 2013, focuses on the relationship between violence and masculinity in the contemporary US crime series. Using the TV series Oz, The Wire and The Shield as case studies, I examine the ways in which evolving models of production and distribution in the TV industry (such as the rise of subscription channels including HBO) have contributed to new cultural understandings of crime and male identity in 21st century American popular culture. 

I have published on evolving representations of the body in the James Bond films, and what this means for the franchise's treatment of gender, and also on how notions of 'authenticity' are articulated in documentaries on professional wrestling, with a close focus on the films Beyond the Mat and Wrestling with Shadows.

My most recent research continues this analysis of notions of the authentic within combat sports, most notably mixed martial arts.

Publications

Jump to: Article | Book Section
Number of items: 6.

Article

Ward, Daniel (2019) ‘Know Your Role’: Dwayne Johnson & the Performance of Contemporary Stardom. Celebrity Studies, 10. pp. 479-488. ISSN 1939-2397

Book Section

Ward, Daniel (2021) Making a Killing: Science Fiction Through the Lens of Nordic Noir in 'Crocodile' and 'Hated in the Nation'. In: Reading Black Mirror: Insights Into Technology & The Post-Media Condition. Transcript, Bielefeld, Germany, pp. 201-218. ISBN 9783837652321

Ward, Daniel (2020) “Your Body Belongs to the State”: The Mobilization of the Action Heroine in Service of the State in Red Sparrow and Atomic Blonde. In: Cold War II: Hollywood's Renewed Obsession With Russia. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, Mississippi, pp. 112-128. ISBN 9781496831149

Ward, Daniel (2018) Kill the boy and let the man be born: Youth, Death & Manhood. In: Vying for the Iron Throne: Essays on Power, Death and Performance in HBO's Game of Thrones. McFarland, Jefferson, NC, pp. 109-121. ISBN 9781476674261

Ward, Daniel (2013) "The Greatest Storyteller of them all’: Constructions of Masculinity and Authenticity in Wrestling with Shadows and Beyond the Mat”. In: Gender and Genre in Sports Documentaries. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, MD. ISBN 9780810887886

Ward, Daniel (2011) “’I sized you up the moment I saw you’: Masculinity and Male Body Objectification in Casino Royale”. In: The Cultures of James Bond. WVT, Trier. ISBN 9783868213263

This list was generated on Sat Apr 1 10:17:51 2023 BST.
  • Contemporary 'quality' television (HBO, Netflix, Nordic Noir)
  • Popular crime fiction
  • James Bond films
  • Professional wrestling and combat sports
As part of my ongoing research into the production process of contemporary TV and film, I have appeared on episodes of The Jeremy Kyle Show (2006), Inspector George Gently (2012), The Chase (2016) and Question Time (2017). I have also had small roles in the films Interview with a Hitman (2012) and Harrigan (2013).

Last updated 10 May 2021