Communications and Subjectivity Research Group
Convenor: Paul Cobley

The Communications and Subjectivity Research Group carries out and promotes enquiry into the nature of humans' existence as subjects of the State, of occupation, of the education system, of medical practices, and so forth. It focuses enquiry specifically on the communications and communicational environments that dictate that humans are the subjects of a given formation. It seeks to explore current thinking about subjectivity, to cross disciplinary boundaries, and to challenge critical orthodoxy in the process. It is dedicated to debate on the nature of the subject and its various characterisations, especially in modernity. This debate is fostered by a series of projects.

Discussion of such processes for research already undertaken by the group include investigations into health care communication (e.g. informal and formal pregnancy advice, anxiety); discourses of internal and external 'migrancy' (e.g. homelessness, immigration), national cinemas (e.g. identity in contemporary Turkish film, British cinema under Thatcherism); television and genre (e.g. generic attribution and identity in British TV viewing); and the notion of therapy culture. The Group seeks to collaborate with national and international bodies in the furthering of these research projects, and it invites consultancy.

The group publishes a bi-annual refereed international journal, Subject Matters (which began in Spring 2004).

A research seminar series and an international conference series began in 2003.

A sub-group of the Communications and Subjectivity Research Group also organises the 'Nonverbal arts; verbal discourses' conference, held annually at London Metropolitan University since 2003. This year it was entitled...

Digital Domestic Photography
The 5th ANNUAL ‘NONVERBAL ARTS; VERBAL DISCOURSES’ ONE-DAY CONFERENCE

16 May 2007 at London Metropolitan University
Room 514, First floor, 41 Commercial Road, London E1 1LA

9-30 - 9-45 Arrival and registration

9-45 - 10-00 Welcome -Nick Haeffner, SJCDAMD

10-00 -11-15 'Digital domestic photography and the transient image' - Stephen Bull (University of Portsmouth)

11-45 - 13-00 ‘"Unorthodox Practices": Multimedia advocacy with digital cameras and people with learning disabilities’ - Andy Minnion (Rix Centre)

13-00 -14-15 Lunch at Café Naz, Brick Lane

14-15 - 15-30 `Communicative ecologies': Digital photographic futures in various places - Don Slater (London School of Economics)

15-45 - 17-00 Panel: ‘Digital literacy or digital democracy

Previous 'Nonverbal arts; verbal discourses' conferences