Newcastle University

Background

My research interests intersect sociology and media and cultural studies with a focus on changing intimacies and interpersonal relationships in the context of media technologies and the home. I have conducted research on changing contemporary social ties associated with new communication and media technologies; the introduction of media technologies in the home; representations of the family; women's roles and status in the journalism profession; and also ethnographic research on teenage sexual moralities in relation to teenage magazines and sex education. Before coming to Newcastle University, I led the Social Theory subject area in the School of Media, Communication and Culture at Nottingham Trent University between 1996 and 2005. I initiated the development of Cultural Studies at Staffordshire University in 1995. I taught and researched for four years in Australia at the University of Western Sydney (Nepean) before that, and was inaugural head of the Media and Cultural Studies Department. I also headed the Women's Research Centre there which fostered research on a range of gender and women's issues across the university. Between 1984 – 1989 I taught Communication Studies at University of Glamorgan, Wales (when it was the Polytechnic of Wales). In 1988, I was a visiting scholar in Media Studies at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. Between 1983 and  1984 I was a fulltime Research Officer at Loughborough University working on an ESRC/Sports Council funded Sociology of Work and Leisure Project. Between 1980 and 1982 I was a fulltime Research Assistant in the Department of Sociology at University of Liverpool, again working on an ESRC/Sports Council funded project on Leisure Patterns in the Home. I am currently writing a book about online intimacies and networked friendship (Palgrave/Macmillan).

Roles and Responsibilities

Professor of Media and Cultural Studies

Qualifications

BA (Hons) Sociology, University of Essex
MA Sociology, University of Kent
PhD Sociology of Culture, University of Kent

Memberships

Member of Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College

British Sociological Association

Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (UK)

Popular Culture Association (USA)

Research Interests

My research interests lie at the intersections of sociology and media and culture, with a focus on changing intimacies; new social ties, the introduction of media technolgies in the home; representations of 'family'; youth and changing sexual morality; the changing status and roles of women in journalism. I have researched and taught in both Britain and Australia.

Publications include the following books:

A Sociology of Family Life: Change and Diversity in Intimate Relations (Polity Press 2012)New Social Ties: Contemporary Connections in a Fragmented Society (Palgrave/Macmillan 2006)
Representing the Family (Sage 2001)
Women and Journalism (Routledge 2004) with Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming)
The Practice of Cultural Studies (Sage 2004) with Richard Johnson, Parvati Raghuram and Estella Tincknell

Expertise 

Member of Peer Review College, Arts and Humanites Research Council.

ESRC Seminar Series (2010-2012) Widening Ethnic Diversity in Journalism: Towards Solutions (with David Baines and Liviu Popoviciu).

• Chambers D. 'Wii Play as a Family': The rise in Family-centred Video Gaming. Leisure Studies 2012, 31(1), 69-82.
• Chambers D. A Sociology of Family Life: Change and Diversity in Intimate Relations. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012.
• Baines D, Chambers D. Introduction: Widening Ethnic Diversity in Journalism. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics 2012, 9(2-3), 11-22.
• Chambers D. Sexist Ageing Consumerism and Emergent Modes of Resistance. In: Swinnen, A., Stotesbury, J, ed. Aging, Performance and Stardom: Doing Age on the Stage of Consumerist Culture. Zurich and Berlin: Lit Verlag GmH & Co. KG Wien, 2012, pp.161-176.
• Chambers D. The Material Form of the Television Set: A Cultural History. Media History 2011, 17(4), 359-375.
• Chambers D, Steiner L. The changing status of women journalists. In: Allan, S, ed. Routledge Companion to News and Journalism. London: Routledge, 2009, pp.49-59.
• Chambers D. New Social Ties: Contemporary Connections in a Fragmented Society. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.
• Chambers D. Comedies of Sexual Morality and Female Singlehood. In: Pickering, M. and Lockyer, S, ed. Beyond a Joke: The Limits of Humour. London: Palgrave/Macmillan, 2005, pp.162-179.
• Chambers D, Tincknell E, Van Loon J. Peer regulation of teenage sexual identities. Gender and Education 2004, 16(3), 397-415.
• Chambers D, Van Loon J, Tincknell E. Teachers' views of teenage sexual morality. British Journal of Sociology of Education 2004, 25(5), 563-576.
• Johnson R, Chambers D, Raghuram P, Tincknell E. The Practice of Cultural Studies: A Guide to the Practice and Politics of Cultural Studies. London, UK: Sage Publications Ltd, 2004.
• Chambers D, Steiner L, Fleming C. Women and Journalism. London: Routledge, 2004.
• Tincknell E, Chambers D, Van Loon J, Hudson N. Begging for it: 'New Femininities', Social Agency and Moral Discourse in Contemporary Teenage and Men's Magazines. Feminist Media Studies 2003, 3(1), 47-63.
• Chambers D. Family as Place: Family Photograph Albums and the Domestication of Public and Private Space. In: Schwartz, J. and Ryan, J, ed. Picturing Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination. London: I.B.Tauris, 2002, pp.96-113.
• Tincknell E, Chambers D. Performing the Crisis: Fathering, Gender and Representation in two 1990s Films. Journal of Popular Film and Television 2001, 29(4), 146-155.
• Chambers D. Representing the Family. London: Sage Publications Ltd, 2001.
• Chambers D. The Privileging of Paternity in British Political Rhetoric and Popular Media. Litteraria Pragensia: studies in literature and culture 2001, 11(21), 29-49.
• Chambers D. Critical Approaches to the Media: The Changing Context for Investigative Journalism. In: De Burgh, H, ed. Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice. London: Routledge, 2000, pp.89-107.
• Chambers D. Globalising Media Agendas: The Production of Journalism. In: De Burgh, H, ed. Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice. London: Routledge, 2000, pp.108-125.
• Chambers D. Representations of Familialism in the British Popular Media. European Journal of Cultural Studies 2000, 3(2), 195-214.
• Valentine J, Skelton T, Chambers D. Cool Places: An Introduction to Youth and Youth Culture. In: Skelton, T. and Valentine, G, ed. Cool Places: Geographies of Youth Cultures. London: Routledge, 1998, pp.1-34.
• Chambers D. A Stake in the Country: Women's Experiences of Suburban Development. In: Silverstone, R, ed. Visions of Suburbia. London: Routledge, 1997, pp.86-107.
• Chambers D, Wieneke C. The Women's Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney, Nepean: Political and Ethical Considerations. Australian Universities' Review 1991, 34(2), 15-19.
• Chambers D. L'encadrement de l'image. Culture Technique 1981, 5, 176-193.