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Dr Andrew Butler

My specialisms are within Cultural Studies and I teach modules on audiences, science fiction, comedy, sexuality and horror, not necessarily in that order.

I came to Canterbury in 2003, having previously taught at the University of Hull, Loughborough University, Nottingham Trent University, University College Northampton, Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College and the Open University. Having taught literature from 1500 to the present day, thus completing the set, and creative writing, I now teach film, television, popular culture, cultural theory. I see education as transformational for all and a partnership between tutor and student.

Alongside work in science fiction and on film, I am the chair of judges for the Arthur C. Clarke Award and won the Pioneer Award in 2004. I am also interested in comedy - regularly attending stand up gigs (and I appear in the extras on one of Ross Noble's DVDs). I take photographs - see my photography blog, Flickr site and Blipfoto account - and have exhibited at the Beaney Institute (as part of the 365: A Year in the Life of Canterbury project), the Old Lookout Gallery, Broadstairs and the Sidney Cooper Gallery. I have an interest in Kentish Beers and Beers of Kent, as well as brewing history and drinking habits.

  • Cultural Studies
  • Media Studies
  • Film Studies
  • Television Studies
  • Subcultures
  • Cultural Theory
  • Critical Theory
  • Comedy
  • Sexuality
  • Queer Theory
  • Alcohol

Supervision

I supervised Dr Gemma Commane's work on burlesque and female identity and am currently supervising Rob McPherson on his PhD on binge drinking and the night-time economy, Daniela Simon on cookery shows and television, Jane Coomber Sewell on Joyce Grenfell, Shaun Madden on Photography, Jennifer Deakin on first world war women photographers and others.

I am interested in supervising PhDs on science fiction, horror, fantasy, comedy, film, sexuality and leisure cultures, including drinking.

I have examined theses on Jules Verne, HG Wells, Philip K. Dick, early twentieth-century British disaster fiction, LGBTQI+ Fantasy, Iain M. Banks and creative writing.

I have taken part in three years of exhibitions at the Old Lookout Gallery, Broadstairs.

Publications and research outputs

  • Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. London: Palgrave/BFI, 2014.
  • Solar Flares: Science Fiction in the 1970s. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012.
  • ‘Strange Boys, Queer Boys: Gay Representations in Young Adult Fantastic Fiction’,Gender and Sexuality in Contemporary Popular Fantasy: Beyond Boy Wizards and ‘Kick-Ass’ Chicks. Edited by Jude Roberts and Esther MacCallum-Stewart, London: Routledge, 2016.
  • ‘The British Science Fiction Short Story’, The Cambridge Companion to the English Short Story. Edited by Ann-Marie Einhaus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016.
  • ‘Sleeping/Waking: Politicizing the Sublime in Science Fiction Film Special Effects’.Endangering Science Fiction Film. Edited by Sean Redmond and Leon Marvell, New York and London: Routledge, 2016: 117-31.
  • ‘Human Subjects/Alien Objects? Abjection and the Constructions of Race and Racism in District 9’, Alien Imaginations: Science Fiction and Tales of Transnationalism. Edited by Ulrike Küchler, Silja Maehl and, Graeme Stout, New York: Bloomsbury, 2015: 95-112.
  • ‘Disfigured Myth: The Destruction of London in Postmillennial SF Film’, Foundation, 122 (2015): 122-32.
  • ‘Bearly Conscious? Deconstructing Pullman’s Postmodern Marionettes’, Philip Pullman. Edited by Catherine Butler and Tommy Halsdorf, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014: 96-112.
  • ‘Futurology.’ The Oxford Handbook of Science Fiction. Edited by Rob Latham. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.
  • ‘Science Fiction Criticism.’ The Science Fiction Handbook. Edited by Nick Hubble and Aris Mousoutzanis. London: Bloomsbury, 2014.
  • ‘The Tain and the Tain: China Miéville’s Gift of Uncanny London’, CR: The New Centennial Review, 13.2 (Fall 2013): 133-153.
  • "Psychoanalysis and Fantasy" The Cambridge Companion to Modern Fantasy Literature, Edward James and Farah Mendlesohn, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
  • With Mark Bould, Adam Roberts and Sherryl Vint (eds.), Fifty Key Figures in Science Fiction London: Routledge, 2010.
  • With Mark Bould, Adam Roberts and Sherryl Vint (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction London: Routledge, 2009.

Read more of my research.

Research Projects

  • Bringing the online anime community together through design: analysing and developing methods to bring online spaces together within anime fandom.. Researcher(s): Miss Zoe Deeley. Supervisor(s): Dr Kate McLean, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Depictions of Sexuality in Film and their merit as Artistic, looking at whether sexual and sensual images can be artistic. Researcher(s): Mr Robert Wiffen. Supervisor(s): Dr Andrew Butler, Dr Kenneth Fox. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Digital transformations in the local newspaper sectors in Belgium, Italy and the United Kingdom: a European comparative analysis.. Researcher(s): Miss Aurora Patera. Supervisor(s): Professor Agnes Gulyas, Dr Andrew Butler, Dr Andy Birtwistle. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Doctoral Research Project. Researcher(s): Dr Jane CoomberSewell. Supervisor(s): Dr Andrew Butler, Dr Stefania Ciocia. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Graphic language and methodology in painting. Researcher(s): Mr Ju Li. Supervisor(s): Dr Katie McGown, Dr Andy Birtwistle, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Hauntology, or the cultural logic of neoliberalism. Researcher(s): Mr JAMES READER. Supervisor(s): Dr Andy Birtwistle, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • How Does the Marvel Cinematic Universe Function as Reactive Storytelling?. Researcher(s): Mr Daniel Johnson. Supervisor(s): Dr Nicholas Furze, Dr Mitch Goodrum, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Intersectional Feminism in 21st Century Horror Cinema. Researcher(s): Miss Eleanor Piper. Supervisor(s): Dr Andrew Butler, Dr Magz Hall. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Smallfilms’ animation and its legacy: nostalgic whimsy, or a subversive expression of hope and possibility rooted in the folk/fairytale tradition?. Researcher(s): Ms Sue Goddard. Supervisor(s): Professor Chris Pallant, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • The Representation of Homosexual Males in American Film and Its Reflection of Society from 1980 to the Present Day. Researcher(s): Miss MELISSA COUCHMAN. Supervisor(s): Dr Andrew Butler, Professor Chris Pallant. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • The weaponized camera. The fetishism of an image and how the camera provides power; looking at the female body and how it is presented in fashion photography, specifically the depiction of death through the female form.. Researcher(s): Miss Jodie Sherrell. Supervisor(s): Ms Miranda Hutton, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • Theological underpinnings to horror genre: Evil as the private of the good (Augustine) Theodicy an inherent thesis in horror film. Researcher(s): Mr Lewis Hughan. Supervisor(s): Dr Ivan Khovacs, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • This is to be delivered by the candidate and put to the examiners.. Researcher(s): Mr Michael Walsh. Supervisor(s): Dr Nicholas Furze, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • To interpret past/present experiences and research into what I ‘see’, how I interpret inner tension within and around portraiture and figurative works.. Researcher(s): Mrs June Nolan. Supervisor(s): Ms Euphemia MacTavish, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project (past)]
  • Trans-Monstrous - How do horror films of the 2010s represent the feelings of dysphoria and other aspects of transgender culture, through the metaphors of possession and transformation and lead in creating the New Monstrous Trans Reading?. Researcher(s): Mr Tyler Williamson. Supervisor(s): Dr Liz Samson, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]
  • UK News Coverage of Extended Reality Technologies: Analysing extended reality news discourse and its relation to product marketing. Researcher(s): Miss Emma Graves. Supervisor(s): Dr Ruth Sanz Sabido, Dr Andrew Butler. [Postgraduate Research Project]

I am one of the editors of Extrapolation and I am on the editorial board of Science Fiction Studies.

I have given plenary papers at conferences on Commonwealth Science Fiction, Iain M. Banks, adaptation of SF novels onto film, Adam Roberts and the 2015 conference for Current Research in Speculative Fiction.

As chair of judges for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, it is my responsibility to supervise the judging process from submission of books to the giving of the award. The 2013 award was given at the Royal Society at an event called 2001 Days Later, available at http://royalsociety.tv/rsPlayer.aspx?presentationid=1114   (my speech is at about an hour in).

The 2016 award is currently reading submissions - see http://www.clarkeaward.com/

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Contact me

andrew.butler@canterbury.ac.uk
01227923127

Based in

Faculty of Arts Humanities and Education
School of Creative Arts and Industries