
Dr Rebecca Beirne
Senior Lecturer
School of Humanities and Social Science (Film, Media and Cultural Studies)
- Email:rebecca.beirne@newcastle.edu.au
- Phone:(02) 4921 5081
Career Summary
Biography
Keywords
- Comics
- Cultural studies
- Film studies
- Gender and sexuality studies
- LGBTIQ Studies
- Mental health in the media
- Television studies
Professional Experience
UON Appointment
Title | Organisation / Department |
---|---|
Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Humanities and Social Science Australia |
Senior Lecturer | University of Newcastle School of Humanities and Social Science Australia |
Teaching
Code | Course | Role | Duration |
---|---|---|---|
FMCS1000 |
Film, Media, Culture | School of Humanities and Social Science - Faculty of Education and Arts - The University of Newcastle So many of the defining moments in our lives are accompanied by an experience with the media or have grown out of our relationship with the media. The media are a central part of how we live, work and play. This course provides a interdisciplinary framework for the analysis of our complex relationship with diverse forms of media. It will introduce students to a range of analytical approaches to the study of film, media and culture, and their application to specific texts, situations and events. |
Coordinator | 3/3/2016 - 20/6/2018 |
Publications
For publications that are currently unpublished or in-press, details are shown in italics.
Book (4 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | Beirne RC, Televising Queer Women: A Reader, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire, 228 (2012) [A4] | ||||
2011 |
Beirne RC, Bennett JE, Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand, I. B. Tauris, London, 296 (2011) [A3]
|
||||
2008 | Beirne R, Televising Queer Women: A Reader, Palgrave Macmillan, New York & London, USA & UK, 272 (2008) [A3] | ||||
2008 |
Beirne RC, Lesbians in Television and Text After the Millennium, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 233 (2008) [A1]
|
||||
Show 1 more book |
Chapter (10 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Beirne RC, 'Representing Lesbians', The Routledge Companion to Media, Sex and Sexuality, Routledge, New York (2018) | ||||
2012 |
Beirne RC, Habib S, 'Trauma and triumph: Documenting Middle Eastern gender and sexual minorities in film and television', LGBT Transnational Identity and the Media, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire 41-58 (2012) [B1]
|
||||
2012 | Beirne RC, 'Queer women on television today', Televising Queer Women: A Reader, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 1-10 (2012) [B1] | ||||
2012 | Beirne RC, 'Mapping lesbian sexuality on Queer as Folk', Televising Queer Women: A Reader, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 63-71 (2012) [B2] | ||||
2012 | Beirne RC, 'Interrogating lesbian pornography: Gender, sexual iconography and spectatorship', Hard to Swallow: Hard-Core Pornography on Screen, Wallflower Press, London 229-243 (2012) [B1] | ||||
2011 |
Bennett JE, Beirne RC, 'Introduction', Making Film and Television Histories: Australia and New Zealand, I. B. Tauris, London xvii-xxiii (2011) [B2]
|
||||
Show 7 more chapters |
Journal article (10 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2019 |
Beirne RC, 'Extraordinary minds, impossible choices: Mental health, special skills and television', Medical Humanities, 45 235-239 (2019) [C1] Over the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of televisual protagonist and major secondary characters specifically identified within the text as having a diagnos... [more] Over the last decade, there has been an increase in the number of televisual protagonist and major secondary characters specifically identified within the text as having a diagnosed mental illness. This is a significant development in the context of characters with a mental illness on television, who were previously usually minor and heavily stigmatised. A key trend with these new protagonists and major characters is the attribution of special talents or powers associated with mental health conditions. This paper analyses the discursive construction of this trope in five recent television series: Sherlock (UK, BBC, 2010-), Homeland (USA, Showtime, 2011-), Perception (USA, TNT, 2012-2015), Hannibal (USA, NBC, 2013-2015) and Black Box (USA, ABC, 2014). Theoretically, this paper draws on Sami Schalk's formulation of the superpowered supercrip narrative', which refers to the representation of a character who has abilities or "powers" that operate in direct relationship with or contrast to their disability'. This paper is also indebted to Davi A Johnson's Managing Mr. Monk' (2008) for its discussion of mental illness as attaining social value' through becoming a resource with economic and ethical value, as do the conditions of the fictional characters explored in this article. Schalk's work on disability is here expanded to a more specific discussion of mental illness on television, while Johnson's work is updated to discuss whether the newer characterisations reflect the same rhetorical positioning as Monk (USA, USA Network, 2002-2009), one of the earliest texts celebrated for featuring a lead, sympathetic character clearly and explicitly identified with a mental health condition. Of the five lead characters examined here, three are figured as responsible for their symptoms because they have chosen not to take medication or withdraw from their medication. It is concurrently presented that if they do take medication, it dampens their abilities to perform valuable work in the community, thus removing their use value within the world of the series.
|
|||||||
2015 |
Beirne RC, 'Piracy, geoblocking and Australian access to niche independent cinema', Popular Communication, 13 18-31 (2015) [C1]
|
|||||||
2014 |
Beirne R, 'New Queer Cinema 2.0? Lesbian-focused films and the internet', Screen, 55 129-138 (2014) [C1]
|
|||||||
2012 |
Beirne RC, 'Teen lesbian desires and identities in international cinema: 1931-2007', Journal of Lesbian Studies, 16 258-272 (2012) [C1]
|
|||||||
2009 |
Beirne RC, 'Screening the dykes of Oz: Lesbian representation on Australian television', Journal of Lesbian Studies, 13 25-34 (2009) [C1]
|
|||||||
Show 7 more journal articles |
Review (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2012 | Beirne RC, 'Queer German cinema', Directory of World Cinema: Germany (2012) [D2] |
Other (1 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link |
---|---|---|---|
2009 | Beirne RC, 'Sex Wars of the 1980s', LGBTQ America Today ( pp.1122-1125). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (2009) |
Report (2 outputs)
Year | Citation | Altmetrics | Link | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 |
Grushka K, Bennett J, Parkes RJ, Beirne R, Donnelly D, Falzon C, et al., 'Visual media texts: Teaching and assessing the humanities & social sciences in a post-literate age', Centre for Learning and Teaching, 18 (2013) [R1]
|
||||
2013 |
Grushka KM, Bennett J, Parkes R, Beirne R, Donnelly D, Falzon C, et al., 'Visual Media Texts: Teaching and Assessing the Humanities and Social Sciences in a Post-literate Age', Faculty of Education and Arts, 17 (2013)
|
Grants and Funding
Summary
Number of grants | 7 |
---|---|
Total funding | $79,306 |
Click on a grant title below to expand the full details for that specific grant.
20191 grants / $14,725
Multidisciplinary humanities applications of metadata and computational text analysis$14,725
Funding body: Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle
Funding body | Faculty of Education and Arts, University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Dr Marie-Laure Vuaille-Barcan (Lead), Dr Rebecca Beirne, Dr Erin McCarthy, Prof Christof Schoch (University of Trier) Prof Fotis Jannidis (University of Wurzburg) |
Scheme | Strategic Network and Pilot Project Grants Scheme |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2019 |
Funding Finish | 2019 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20181 grants / $18,081
Australia-Germany Joint Research $18,081
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor Rebecca Beirne, Dr Katrin Betz, Dr José Calvo Tello, Dr Chrisof Schoch |
Scheme | Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2018 |
Funding Finish | 2019 |
GNo | G1800271 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20172 grants / $30,000
Society, Health and Disability Research Group: New Horizons$15,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Scheme | FEDUA Strategic Networks and Pilot Projects (SNaPP) |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2017 |
Funding Finish | 2017 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
Representing Mental Health Conditions on Television, 2006-2016$15,000
Television has historically failed to offer a diverse representation of individuals and characters with mental conditions in a context where. The number and prominence of characters with mental health conditions, has, however, improved in recent years. And as Philo et.al. observe in their 2014 study conducted for UK mental health charities Mind and Rethink Mental Illness: “There are encouraging signs that we are moving away from outdated ‘mad and bad’ stereotypes in TV drama and moving towards more authentic, sympathetic and complex characters.”
This study offers a close analysis of lead and major secondary characters and storylines in 32 television series appearing from 2006-2016 to offer a qualitative perspective on whether they have indeed moved away from established stigmatized stereotypes or not. Of particular interest is the potential of having multiple series where protagonists experience a mental health condition, instead of a secondary or one-off character. This study used mixed methods to: identify major characters in Anglophone scripted television series who are narratively diagnosed with a mental health condition; group the results in a variety of permutations including diagnoses, behavioural characteristics, age, gender, and treatment (therapy, medication and hospitalization); and conduct a close analysis of individual representations.
Funding body: University of Newcastle Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Rebecca Beirne |
Scheme | Faculty Fellowship (Mid-Career Researcher) |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2017 |
Funding Finish | 2017 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
20112 grants / $11,500
Visual Media Texts$10,000
Funding body: Centre for Teaching and Learning, The University of Newcastle
Funding body | Centre for Teaching and Learning, The University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Dr Kathryn Grushka, Dr James Bennett, Dr Robert Parkes, Dr Rebecca Beirne, Ms Debra Donnelly, Dr Chris Falzon, Ms Bronwyn Gallagher (RA), Dr Robert Imre, Dr Claire Lowrie, Dr Josephine May, Dr Heather Sharp. |
Scheme | Teaching and Learning Grant |
Role | Investigator |
Funding Start | 2011 |
Funding Finish | 2011 |
GNo | |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | N |
The Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealands Annual Conference, Auckland, 290611 - 1/7/2011$1,500
Funding body: University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts
Funding body | University of Newcastle - Faculty of Education and Arts |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor Rebecca Beirne |
Scheme | Travel Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2011 |
Funding Finish | 2012 |
GNo | G1100644 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
20081 grants / $5,000
Lesbian in World Cinema$5,000
Funding body: University of Newcastle
Funding body | University of Newcastle |
---|---|
Project Team | Doctor Rebecca Beirne |
Scheme | New Staff Grant |
Role | Lead |
Funding Start | 2008 |
Funding Finish | 2008 |
GNo | G0189587 |
Type Of Funding | Internal |
Category | INTE |
UON | Y |
Research Supervision
Number of supervisions
Current Supervision
Commenced | Level of Study | Research Title | Program | Supervisor Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
2021 | PhD | From Gay Liberation to "Post-Gay": A Critical Autoethnographic Study of Middle-Aged and Older Gay Men's Experiences with Mediated Identity | PhD (Cultural Studies), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | The Game of Survival: The Adaptation of Classical Greco-Roman Mythology in Videogames | PhD (Cultural Studies), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2018 | PhD | (Re)constructing Subjectivity in Contemporary Coming-of-Age Narratives | PhD (English), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2016 | PhD | Hella Queer: Lesbian Representation in Contemporary Comics | PhD (Cultural Studies), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Co-Supervisor |
2012 | PhD | Invective Against Culturally Dissonant Women: Ancient Rome and Cyberspace | PhD (Classics), College of Human and Social Futures, The University of Newcastle | Principal Supervisor |
News
Call for papers: digital research across the humanities
July 15, 2019
Dr Rebecca Beirne
Position
Senior Lecturer
School of Humanities and Social Science
College of Human and Social Futures
Focus area
Film, Media and Cultural Studies
Contact Details
rebecca.beirne@newcastle.edu.au | |
Phone | (02) 4921 5081 |
Fax | (02) 49216933 |
Office
Room | GP223 |
---|---|
Building | General purpose |
Location | Callaghan University Drive Callaghan, NSW 2308 Australia |