Faculty Member, Media School
Senior Lecturer
About
I am a lecturer at Bournemouth Media School, specialising in communication, culture and consumption - with a particular focus on Latin America. Prior to my appointment at Bournemouth University, I carried out research and worked in Mexico City.
My areas of interest are:
- Latin American communication and cultural theory;
- The application of ethnography within media and communication research;
- Communication and social change;
- Public Relations as a cultural intermediary.
I specialise in ethnographic methods. I am also interested in participatory communication and participatory research methods using the Arts as a way to provide a `voice' for seldom heard groups. The work of Luis Ramiro Beltran, Orlando Fals Borda and Augusto Boal has been particularly influential in shaping my thinking.
My work in Mexico assumed an ethnographically-inspired approach to explore public relations practitioners as cultural intermediaries in Mexico City. Empirical research involved studying the life-worlds of a group of practitioners to consider how they interrelated with cultural and social spaces within the city and how the culture of the city shaped their occupational culture and the meanings they associated with the professional role(s) they played.
Drawing on Nestor Garcia Canclini's concept of Cultural Hybridisation, I am interested in exploring the processes of cultural transformation taking place within Latin American urban society. I am seeking to further my work in Mexico City and Lima, Peru by exploring the relationship between urban popular culture, the changes that occur in 'the city' in response to migration and the growth in informal markets and how these factors shape the design and consumption of promotional messages.
I am a member of the Advisory Board of the Journal of Latin American Communication Research.
