| Description | The archive of lecturer, writer and researcher Martin Barker. This archive contains records collated by Barker during his research for several of his works; A Haunt of Fears, The Lasting of the Mohicans, Judge Dredd, The Lord of the Rings, research for the British Board of Film classification, and Barker and Anne Breezer's anaylsis of the Lord Scarman's report.
In particular, the archive comprises a large amount of Barker's research into the 1950s British anti horror comics campaign, various copies of versions of The Last of the Mohicans and the the release of 1995 Judge Dredd film. It does not comprise research material relating to all of Barker's research and work. This archive includes comic books, books, reports, notes, pamphlets, leaflets, correspondence, press cuttings, CDs, DVDs, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, film strip, slides and microfilm. |
| Individual or organisational biography | Martin Barker (20 Apr 1946-8 Sep 2022), was a lecturer, researcher, campaigner and writer. Barker was born to Edith nee Veitch and Fred Barker in Essex, UK.
In 1967 Barker achieved a Bachelors in Philosophy from the University of Liverpool. Shortly after graduating he married Judith.
From 1969-1998, Barker lectured in Cultural Studies at Bristol Polytechnic, which in 1992 was renamed the University of West England. While at University of West England Barker became the Head of the School of Cultural Studies.
In 1995, Barker got a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of West England.
From 1998 to 2001, Barker was a reader in Media Studies at the University of Sussex.
In 2001, Barker was appointed a Professor in Film and Television, in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, which in 2007 became Aberystwyth University.
In 2003, Barker co-founded Participations, an online open access journal.
In 2011 Barker retired from Aberystwyth University as an emeritus professor.
Martin Barker held executive roles in the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) and its predecessor the Standing Conference on Cultural, Communication and Media Studies. During his career Barker also lectured at other Universities such as the University of East Anglia.
Barker’s bibliography includes:
1981 The New Racism: Conservative and the Ideology of the Tribe. In which Barker coined the phrase new racism about public discourse about immigration during the government of Margaret Thatcher
1984 A Haunt of Fears The strange history of the British horror comic campaign
1984 The Video Nasties: Freedom and Censorship in the Arts
1989 Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics
1990 Action: The Story of a Violent Comic
1991 Iwo Jima: the photograph as symbol. Magazine of Cultural Studies, 4, 13-16.
1992 Reading into Cultural Studies
1996 The Lasting of the Mohicans: History of an American Myth
1997 Ill Effects: the Media-Violence Debate. Revised second edition published 2001
1998 Knowing Audiences: Judge Dredd, its Friends, Fans and Foes
2000 From Antz to Titanic: Reinventing Film Analysis
2001 The Crash Controversy: Censorship Campaigns and Film Reception
2002 Kicked into the Gutters: or, 'My Dad doesn't read comics, he studies them', International Journal of Comic Art, 64-77
2003 Contemporary Hollywood Stardom
2003 Assessing the ""quality"" in qualitative research: the case of text-audience relations, European Journal of Communication
2003-2004 Barker served as Director on a Economic and Social Research Council funded international audience research project on The Lord of the Rings
2004 'News, Reviews, Clues, Interviews and Other Ancillary Materials – a Critique and Research Proposal', Scope: on-line Film Studies Journal
2005 Understanding Vernacular Experiences of Film in an Academic Environment, Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, 4 (1), 49-71
2005 Loving and hating Straw Dogs: The meanings of audience responses to a controversial film (part 1), Participations Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, vol 2, issue 2
2006 Loving and hating Straw Dogs: The meanings of audience responses to a controversial film (part 2), Participations Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, vol 3, issue 1
2007 Watching the Lord of the Rings: Tolkien’s World Audiences
2007 Audiences and Receptions of Sexual Violence in Contemporary Cinema
2011 A ‘Toxic Genre’: the Iraq War Films
2012 Crossing Out the Audience, Audiences
2013 Live to Your Cinema
2015 Alien Audiences: Remembering and Evaluating a Classic Movie
2016 Introduction: The World Hobbit Project, Participations
2021 Watching Game of Thrones: How audiences engage with dark television.
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| Custodial History | Martin Barker to Judith Barker. Judith Barker donated it to the Archive and Special Collections Centre in 2022. |