Academy Staff
UWS Creative Media Academy staff nurture and develop connections between the different programmes to help students understand and navigate the interfaces between subject areas. This interdisciplinary, collaborative focus is key to developing an informed and future-ready understanding of how the arts, media and broadcast industries are rapidly changing and developing.
All Creative Media Academy Programmes offer practical experience in the screen, media and music and computer games industries and critical, theoretical understanding of the contexts, issues and debates that shape this work. Therefore our staff reflect this range of interests, with leading industry practitioners working alongside experienced academics to develop an approach to teaching and research that is theoretically informed and practically relevant. Research groups act as a forum for debating and developing these issues and building in research-teaching linkages to the curriculum.
Across a range of programmes students learn through modules taught by industry practitioners which reflect current industry ‘best practice’. The expertise in the University across a range of interconnected disciplines is reflected in our different programmes including Broadcast Media, Film-making and Scriptwriting, Digital Art, Music and Audio Technology, Performance, Broadcast Journalism, Computer Games Technology.
There are well developed partnerships with local and national industry across our programmes and an active pursuit of learning, research, innovation and enterprise.
Staff Profiles:
Ronnie Bergman
Lecturer, Broadcast Journalism
Ronnie has a wide ranging production background in commercial radio and as freelance producer for BBC Radio Entertainment. He has also contributed to single events coverage for television sports departments.
He is a Director of the Broadcast Journalism Training Council, as well as representing the University at plenary meetings of the Council. He is a member of the Radio Academy and attends regular conferences and festivals organised by the Academy. Ronnie keeps contact with the industry and its methods and recently had a placement in the newsrooms of Bauer Group and G.M.G. [Clyde; Real, Smooth & Rock] in Glasgow. He has active links with community stations, in particular acting as liaison between Celtic Music Radio and UWS students, encouraging them to participate in programmes, especially during the many festivals around Glasgow.
Ronnie is currently lecturer in Broadcast Journalism and Digital Audio Production on the Hamilton Campus of UWS. The modules and programme developed by Ronnie are based on real connection with radio newsrooms and their demands and needs. Students are asked to perform in simulated Newsday to real time and to a specific audience profile, which is reflected across all modules.
Samantha Clark
Lecturer, Digital Art
Samantha is a practising artist and has carried out numerous residencies, commissions and exhibitions. These include: commissions for Great Ormond Street Hospital and the New Edinburgh Royal Infirmary; a major architectural collaboration for Auchterarder Community School; the Helen Chadwick research fellowship at Oxford University; the British School at Rome.
She has held residencies at the IAAB International Exchange Studios in Basel, Switzerland and at the University of Tasmania, and has exhibited her work at recent solo exhibitions in the UK, Switzerland and Australia, as well as at numerous group exhibitions in the UK and internationally.
Sam gained a BA (Hons) at Edinburgh College of Art, received a British Council Scholarship to study Postgraduate at Belgrade Academy of Fine Art, and completed Postgraduate studies at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London.
She joined UWS in May 2008, having previously taught at Edinburgh College of Art for ten years, and acted as visiting lecturer are Central St Martin’s, Gray’s School of Art and the University of Tasmania. Sam currently teaches modules on the BA Digital Art programme focusing on developing students’ visual creativity, drawing and making skills, as well as developing critical and reflective writing about students’ own practice, placed within a wider cultural, professional and artistic context. Sam’s current practice-based research is supported by a Scottish Arts Council award.
Alison Clifford
Lecturer, New Media and Digital Art
Alison is a new-media artist and lectures in Digital Art at UWS, having gained a Masters in Digital Art from the University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona and a MA (Hons) in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh.
Her artwork has been exhibited in various new media festivals and exhibitions including: Alt-W: New Directions in Scottish Digital Culture (2008) – CCA, Glasgow, FILE Symposium Rio 2008 – Brazil (2008), VAD International Video and Digital Arts Festival, Girona (2006), Zebra Poetry Film Award, Berlin (2006), FILE, Sao Paulo, Brazil (2004), and ArtFutura, Barcelona (2001).
Awards include: BAFTA nomination for interactive media (2006), Alt-W Production Award (2005), Creative Scholarship – Phonos Foundation, Barcelona (1999).
Her research is fully integrated with her teaching. In particular, her UWS modules in “Digital Media” map directly on to her practice-based research activity, requiring students to create new media artworks in response to a set brief. In 2009, a third year student project was nominated for a New Talent Award in the multimedia category of Scottish Students on Screen.
Alison is currently studying for a PhD (practice-based) at Glasgow School of Art.
Prof Thomas Connolly
Director, Scottish Centre for Enabling Technologies (SCET)
Professor Connolly is responsible for 13 current research projects, 8 PhD students, designed 13 degrees, £6m in research funding since 1995, 50 conference papers, 22 journal papers, 9 book chapters, 2 edited books and 2 authored books.
He is a member of: CPHC (Council for Professors and Heads of Computing), Director of SCET (Scottish Centre for Enabling Technologies), Director of Centre of Excellence for Games-based Learning, Chair ICT in Education Research Group
For full CV see http://cis.paisley.ac.uk/conn-ci0/
Ewan Crawford
Lecturer, Journalism
Programme leader, MA in Broadcast Journalism
Before working at UWS, Ewan was a print and broadcast journalist – starting on a regional newspaper in England before joining the BBC and becoming a senior broadcast journalist (duty editor) on the Good Morning Scotland programme.
Ewan has also produced a range of national current affairs programmes for Radio Scotland, such as Eye-to-Eye with Magnus Linklater and Newsweek Scotland.
As well as journalism he spent four years (2000-2004) as chief of staff to the leader of the SNP.
Ewan continues to work in journalism as a contributor to the comment pages of Scotland on Sunday, The Scotsman and The Guardian. He has also appeared as a guest pundit – usually discussing media issues and politics – on a variety of news programmes on Radio Scotland, Radio Ulster and Radio 5 Live.
He is currently engaged in academic research – particularly in the area of deliberative democracy and newspaper opinion columns and will be addressing an academic conference looking at Scotland – Ten Years On from Devolution, in summer 2009.
Ewan is the programme leader for the MA in Broadcast Journalism.
Allan Dumbreck
Senior Lecturer and Head of Commercial Music
A session musician for eight years working internationally with mainstream acts and major labels, Allan has now been involved in music education at FE and HE level for over 22 years. He has been a senior lecturer in Commercial Music at UWS since March 200101
He is author and editor of the Music Education Directory, the primary source of information on music courses at University, College and training level in the UK, now in its 9th edition.
Writing, setting up and running two degrees, two HNDs and three HNCs has given Allan considerable insight into programme design and delivery. As Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Commercial Music he has assisted graduates into positions with Warner Music, the Kaiser Chiefs, DF Concerts and the BBC amongst others. International co-ordinator for exchange mechanisms with France, Germany and Canada, he is also a member of the cross party group for music within the Scottish Parliament.
Anne Gifford
Head of the School of Creative and Cultural Industries
Anne has worked for many years in Education in a variety of roles. She has designed and taught a variety of courses in Language, Literature and Cultural Theory and has published work on Scottish Literature, Language and Culture.
She has extensive experience in curriculum design and has led on the development of new programmes for creative and cultural industry. She has worked for QAA Scotland, in particular, developing and publishing work on Graduate Employability and has contributed a case study on Curriculum Design for Creative Industries to the HE Academy.
Over the last 5 years, Anne has had responsibility for Learning & teaching, Quality Assurance and portfolio development within the School. She has played a key role in developing Equality and Diversity with the institution and is involved with the UWS Learning & Teaching Strategy.
Chris Gilgallon
Lecturer, Photography,Digital Photography,Broadcasting
Before joining the University, Chris worked in local government in the field of community arts, running initiatives funded through Urban Aid. He has been a Lecturer in Photography and Broadcasting with UWS since 2002.
Chris’s particular interests in photography are landscape and photojournalism. His academic focus is how the viewer both interprets and creates meaning from images. His work has been used in local and national press and he undertakes commercial commissions covering a range of subjects.
His broadcasting focus is primarily on radio, with particular interest in news, current affairs and comedy. Chris has strong links with the Comedy Unit and is a regular contributor to Watson’s Wind Up, a weekly satirical show produced by the company and broadcast on Radio Scotland.
Chris is a Year Leader on the Broadcast Production degree programme. He holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, and has developed modules which reflect the requirements and working practices of industry, including working to a brief and meeting timescales.
Tony Grace
Lecturer, Film and Television
Tony has been a Lecturer in Film and Television with UWS since 1998 and is Programme Leader for the MA/PG Dip programme in Creative Media Practice.
His practice-based research formed part of the School of Creative Industries highly successful submission to RAE 2008. This included the BAFTA nominated feature documentary Orwell: Against the Tide for George Orwell’s centenary in 2003, featuring interviews with Noam Chomsky and Richard Rorty. Tony developed, wrote and co-produced this documentary which was broadcast throughout Europe and screened at many international film festivals.
In 2008, the documentary DVD, The World of Sociology, directed and co-produced by Tony, was distributed to 1600 schools with 6th forms in the UK by The British Sociological Association. The production features contributions from sociologists across Europe and was recently cited as an example of good practice in Knowledge Transfer in an ESRC report.
Current funded research projects include Finding the Seam a documentary on the history of mining in South-West Scotland as seen through the poetry of Rab Wilson, and Sculpture and Context for which he has filmed locations in Europe and Japan.
Stuart Hepburn
Lecturer, Script Writing and Performance
Stuart Hepburn lectures in Scriptwriting and Performance at UWS. He has been acting and writing screenplays professionally for over 20 years.
He is currently lead writer and Story Consultant for BBC Drama River City.
He has written two feature films: The James Gang (Revolution Films) starred John Hannah and Toni Collette, and A Love Divided (Paralell Films) achieved five Irish Film and TV Award Nominations. He was the winner of the Writer’s Guild Award for Drama in 1996 for his work on Taggart, and is currently writing his third feature, a World War Two Drama called Arthur and Helene.
Stuart was Chair of the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh from 2001-2005. He has written three stage plays, and over 80 hours of Television, including most recently Quite Ugly One Morning, starring James Nesbitt, and The Planman, starring Robbie Coltraine. He created McCallum, adapted Ian Rankin’s Rebus for Clerkenwell Films and has written for Hamish Macbeth, Taggart, Foyle’s War and most recently Wild At Heart for Company Pictures.
He is developing a Film for Television, Chic Murray for Ewan Angus at the BBC, and is writing The Pirate for Dave McLennan at Oran Mor. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Universities of St.Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow.
Gill Jamieson
Senior Lecturer, Film and Television
Gill has been a lecturer in Film and Television Studies at UWS since 1998. She completed her PhD on screen locations in 2001, and in 2008 gained a PG cert in Screenwriting from Napier University. Gill has teaching expertise in: Film Genre, British Cinema, Hollywood Cinema, Film Theory, Asian Cinema, Crime Drama, British Television Drama and American Television Drama.
In her teaching, Gill continues to explore the links between theory and practice particularly in the Honours option Crime Drama –which provides students with an opportunity to write a proposal for a new crime drama as well as develop a deeper understanding of the genre.
Gill believes that exposure to non-Western film cultures stimulates creative and critical thinking, and continues to develop new material for the Honours option Asian Cinema to support and promote engagement with this innovative area of film culture.
Her current research interests include: screen representations of the Tudors and the cultural activity and impact of film festivals and the festival circuit.
Andrew Jarvis
Lecturer, Film Studies
Before establishing a career in education, Andrew trained at the University of Bristol’s film school and worked as a film and videotape editor in the broadcast, corporate and educational sectors. He went on to write and direct documentary productions broadcast by C4 and BBC, and was commissioned by BBC Scotland to make the half hour arts documentary Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, which was chosen for entry to the Celtic Film Festival in 1997.
Andrew has been a lecturer in film studies at UWS since 2001, and is Programme Leader for BA Filmmaking and Screen Writing. Previously, Andrew was a senior lecturer in media production and analysis at Bell College, Hamilton, and a lecturer in film and cultural studies at the University of Coventry. Most recently, he has been a visiting lecturer in film studies at the University of Stirling. Andrew holds qualifications in teaching and in educational management and has over ten years experience of course development and leadership.
His current teaching focuses on developing appropriate forms of analysis for students engaged in creative film and television production. Consequently he draws upon both his creative experience and his research interests in filmmaking in order to enhance students’ comprehension of screen-based storytelling.
Graham Jeffery
Reader, Music and Performance
Before joining UWS as Reader in Music and Performance in 2008, Graham was a Senor Research Fellow at the University of East London (UEL) and a consultant specialising in arts education, creative pedagogies, and culture-led urban regeneration. For the decade before moving to Scotland with his family in 2005, Graham worked in East London, where he led the NESTA-funded Pathways into Creativity action research project at Newham Sixth Form College and was Programme Leader for Performing Arts at UEL.
Graham has worked as a Specialist Advisor for the Scottish Arts Council and England’s Department for Children, Schools and Families as a specialist advisor on creativity in education. He was a member of the national committee that undertook the Roberts Review: Nurturing Creativity in Young People in 2005. Graham has published work on creativity, community media, participatory pedagogies and cultural policy, as well as working as a performer, composer and facilitator in a wide range of settings.
Graham’s work as a composer includes many film and performance projects with communities supported by the British Council, LIFT, East London Dance and the UK Film Council. He also acted as a curriculum advisor and tutor for the Teacher-Artist Partnership professional development programme for London-based teachers and artists. Recent research and practice includes leading professional development work for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, a study, commissioned by the Department for Culture Media and Sport and Arts Council England exploring the role of the arts in community radio, and a three year AHRC-funded project exploring the discourses of learning and inclusion in informal performing arts projects with young people.
Mr Gordon Langford
Part-time Lecturer and Research Assistant
Co-founder of Kodetank Games Studio www.kodetank.co.uk; graduate of UWS’ first graduating class in Computer Games Technology
Dr Daniel Livingston
Lecturer Computer Games Techology
Interests in games artificial intelligence, social learning; published 1 book, 1 book chapter, 2 conference proceedings, 4 journal papers, 22 conference papers, 9 technical reports.
Chris Mackenzie
Lecturer, Digital Art
Chris’s background is in Graphics and Illustration. The many clients he has worked with include Random Century Publishing, The NME, Parlophone Records, Oxford University Press, Vogue, Elle, Tatler, The Financial Times, The Sunday Times, The Glasgow Herald, The Labour Party, Westminster Arts Council, The Burton Group, the filmmaker Derek Jarman and the actress Kathy Burke. Most of this work was London-based.
Chris exhibits his printmaking and painting works in various venues around the country and online. He has strong links with most of the major design companies in the West of Scotland as well as the other artistic communities and organisations within the creative industries.
Chris has been a lecturer on the BA (Hons) Digital Art programme since 2005, having previously taught Illustration and Graphic Design at Glasgow Metropolitan College and Glasgow Caledonian University for over ten years. He is committed to keeping apace with new developments in digital media, as well as encouraging the perpetuity of traditional creative practice, such as painting and printmaking.
Alan McCusker-Thompson
Lecturer, Commercial Music
After graduating from Stirling University with a BA (Hons) in English, Alan worked for the BBC in television post-production sound, covering the full range of BBC output from schools programmes to news and drama and receiving extensive training by the BBC.
A longstanding interest and participation in music led to the release of an EP on U2’s Mother label by his band The Painted Word, and he left the BBC soon after to work as a recording artist for RCA records, and as a songwriter for EMI Publishing. During this period he composed music for the STV drama series Shadow of The Stone and the BBC network series Strathblair.
He then moved into PR, handling Scotland for London- based company Beer Davies. Clients included Scottish Television and Comic Relief amongst many others. He also worked in journalism as editor of monthly lifestyle magazine M8 before entering education at FE level, teaching Television Production and then Communication.
He moved from FE to set up his own artist-management company in 2004 and currently manages both Scottish and London-based artists, working with venture capital, independent and major labels. Alan currently lectures on the structural and business aspects of the music industry as well as music within the context of cultural studies, as part of the Commercial Music degree at UWS. He is Programme Leader for the MA Music: Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Paul McGeechan
Lecturer, Commercial Music
Paul brings over 27 years of music industry experience and expertise to his role as Lecturer on the BA Commercial Music. As keyboard player with Friends Again, Paul signed to Phonogram Records in 1982 before moving on, with songwriter James Grant, to form acclaimed Scottish group Love and Money who released four albums and 14 singles. As a key member of the band Paul worked at every level and aspect of music making, production and promotion.
In the 1990s he went on to establish a reputation in studio production and post-production. In January 2006 he re-launched Park Lane Recording Studio in Glasgow. Under Paul’s direction the studio has been extremely successful, attracting as clients Paolo Nutini, The Proclaimers, Eddi Reader, Julie Fowlis and many others.
Paul regularly works as a consultant for media companies throughout the UK, delivering specialist support to key clients including the BBC, STV, Murricane & Murricane and Thames Valley University.
He has also worked as a producer / writer with Karen Matheson, recording engineer for Beyonce Knowles and consultant for Luciano Pavarotti.
Elizabeth McLaughlin
Lecturer, Journalism
Programme leader, Graduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism
Elizabeth has been a journalist for the past 25 years. She spent the majority of this time as a local newspaper reporter and editor, working on various newspaper titles throughout the west of Scotland including the Glasgow Guardian and Irvine Times, and on national newspapers. She has covered numerous high-profile news stories and campaigns as well as running successful newsrooms during a period of major technological change within the industry.
For the past 15 years she has successfully combined this career with lecturing in Journalism. She has also played an active role in the National Union of Journalists, and is a former chairwoman of the NUJ’s Scottish Council.
Four years ago she returned to education, obtaining a BA in Journalism and then an MSc in Political Communication at the University of Glasgow with a dissertation on the role of the Internet within the Scottish local newspaper sector and the rise of citizen journalism, two key areas in journalism research. She presented a paper on citizen journalism, convergence and the press at the Association of Journalism Education in Sheffield in September 2008.
Elizabeth is currently working on her PhD at UWS, researching how the media report tragedy, and public displays of grief during tragedy.
Dr David Manderson
Lecturer, Creative Writing & Screenwriting
Programe Leader, BA Creative Industries Practice
David holds qualifications from the Universities of St Andrews (MA English Language & Literature) and Glasgow (MLitt in Creative Writing), and in 2006 was awarded a PhD by the University of Strathclyde – the first doctorate gained in Scotland for a completed full-length novel.
He has published widely in literary magazines, American and Scottish anthologies, newspapers, journals and peer-referenced websites, and has won prizes at literary festivals and competitions. He gained a Scottish Arts Council New Writers’ Bursary in 2001. He has also performed his work in New York, London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Glasgow, appearing on stage with leading writers such as Louise Welsh, Tom Leonard and Roddy Doyle.
David joined the lecturing staff of the University of the West of Scotland in November 2007. His new Modules in Creative Writing are integrated within the Film Making and Screenwriting programme and are designed to create a bank of ideas for each student, which can then be taken to any other writing form or another creative medium. He also co-ordinates Modules in Scriptwriting and Writing Short Films, which integrate across several programmes. He is Programme Leader for the part-time BA in Creative Industries Practice.
Professor Andy Miah
Chair of Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Andy Miah is Chair in Ethics and Emerging Technologies in the School of Creative Industries at UWS, Fellow of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (USA), and Fellow at FACT, the Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (UK).
He is author of Genetically Modified Athletes (2004 Routledge), co-author with Dr Emma Rich of The Medicalization of Cyberspace (2008, Routledge) and Editor of Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty (2008, Liverpool University Press and FACT).
Professor Miah’s research discusses the intersections of art, ethics, technology and culture and he has published broadly in areas of emerging technologies, particularly related to human enhancement. He has published over 100 academic articles in refereed journals, books, magazines, and national media press on the subjects of cyberculture, medicine, technology, and sport. He has also given over 100 major conference presentations and he is often invited to speak about philosophical and ethical issues concerning technology in society.
Professor Miah regularly interviews for a range of major media companies, which have included BBC’s Newsnight and Start the Week with Andrew Marr, ABC’s’ The 7:30 Review and CBC’s The Hour.
Dr Ken Pratt
Lecturer, Journalism
Ken’s background is in news journalism. He writes for a range of publications including The Big Issue, The Guardian and creative magazines. He has covered a number of major news events both nationally and internationally including first-hand accounts from The Lockerbie Disaster, The Piper Alpha Disaster, Israel during The Gulf War and the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. In November 2008 he was a finalist in the prestigious Guardian International Development Journalism award for his reportage from Uganda.
He has begged on the streets of Edinburgh, been imprisoned in Russia, and once infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan in Scotland. His newly developed ‘Scotland Up-Close’ project aims to document the experiences of the forgotten people of Scotland’s communities often ignored by the mainstream media.
Ken has been a lecturer in Journalism at UWS since September 2007. His new module ‘International Perspectives’, delivered in the honours year of the BA Journalism programme, embraces the teachings of Noam Chomsky while his ‘Investigative Reporting’ module encourages students to develop their own portfolios based around their own personal day-to-day experiences.
In February 2009 he was awarded a PhD for his novel Hunting Captain Henley.
Jim Prime
Lecturer, Commercial Music
Jim Prime brings 30 years of industry experience to UWS.
A keyboard player and songwriter; Jim began his career in 1980 on an American tour with Altered Images, followed by a number of years, and albums, with John Martyn. During this time he was also Musical Director for Cumbernauld Theatre.
In 1985 became a founder member of Deacon Blue, with whom he continues to perform. To date Deacon Blue have 17 top forty hits and 3 number one albums. He was signed to Columbia records (now Sony) for over 15 years and was 10 years with E.M.I publishing.
After 1996 Jim worked for theatre company Promenade Productions and director Bill Bryden on the production of The Big Picnic, then toured and recorded for Johnny Hallyday in France for two years. He has also worked with Bryan Adams, Jean Jacques Goldman, Little Richard and numerous Scottish bands. He wrote and recorded music for the film of William McIlvanney’s Dreaming and Channel 4’s Against the Tide, a documentary on George Orwell.
He began teaching at James Watt College and was employed by South Ayrshire Council and Scottish Enterprise as consultant on the S.M.A.R.T project which eventually led to the setting up of the B.A (Hons) Commercial Music at UWS. Jim co- wrote the degree and has lectured on it since its inception in 2001.
Jane Robertson
Lecturer, Performance
Jane was an actor and scriptwriter with Frontline Theatre for 12 years, touring Scotland and performing at the Edinburgh Festival. She has been involved in many diverse aspects of theatre including acting as compere for a concert of new music by James McMillan at the Glasgow City Halls, and providing voice-over for a CDRom on fire safety, and training videos for teachers. She has directed various productions in community venues and on the professional stage. She was Drama Adviser, during Glasgow’s year as the European City of Culture, for Strathclyde Region Education Department.
From 1978 – 1990 Jane worked in schools, teaching and developing drama. She was a National Development Officer involved in writing and promoting National Curriculum Guidelines in Expressive Arts 5-14, speaking at various conferences and writing additional teaching materials. She has written material for a number of regional education authorities and has also written educational support material for the Glasgow Citizens Theatre’s TAG company.
Her experience in education and her own theatrical background has allowed her to develop Theatre for the Community modules at UWS that enable students to devise their own theatre and take it to a wide variety of community venues including prisons, libraries, Yorkhill Sick Children’s Hospital, schools, nursing homes and the Territorial Army. This gives students a professional experience, working with client groups and understanding how community arts companies organise and implement tours.
Jane trained at the RSAMD, has a PGCE form Jordanhill College and has taught at HE level for 18 years. She developed the BA (Hons) Performance degree in 2006 and is currently developing a BA Musical Theatre degree for UWS, in partnership with Stow College. She is studying for an MA in Actor Training and Coaching at the Central School of Speech and Drama, London.
Jason Robertson
Lecturer, Broadcast Production
Jason Robertson qualified with 1st class Honours in Media Production and an MSc in Media Management. He is a fully qualified member of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. His key research interests are innovation in media technology and new media business models, multi-platform production, gender representations, and heritage and identity.
These interests are reflected in his practical work, such as the 3D animated film Furry Story starring James Nesbitt and Alan Ford (Robert McKee: “Very dark and very, very funny”) and The Tanner’s Tale starring Alex McSherry, (selected as Best of British Shorts at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Foyle Film Festival, Celtic Film and Television Festival, 3rd Madrid Festival of the Arts, Manchester Film Festival, and the Cork Film Festival).
He has also written for industry journals including CGI, PACT Magazine, Digit, Animation Magazine and 3D World.
Jason coordinates technical, legal and production modules on the BA (Hons) in Broadcast Production. He is coordinating a Broadcast and Creative Industries Research Group, managing articulation with FE partners, and developing projects with European partners.
He has been union representative for colleagues, both at local level as university branch secretary and as national vice-president of the EIS-ULA. Jason is a member of University Court and a sits on a range of University committees.
John Robertson
Reader, Media Education
John is Reader in Media Education and has worked in Higher Education for 25 years. His background is as a sociologist and educational technologist and his teaching experience covers, in particular, learning theories, technology-based education and the critical analysis of socio-economic change.
Currently he leads and teaches a module entitled Global Cultural Industries which aims to introduce students to the complexity, uncertainty and contingency of the social, cultural and economic change which is commonly labelled ‘globalised’. This module is delivered by both traditional face-to-face methods and online methods, using the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) BlackboardTM. John also supervises PhD and Honours dissertation students on topics ranging from disability in the media to the effects of televised wrestling.
John’s research experience concentrates on news media with particular emphasis on conflict, democracy, citizenship and disability. His research writing has been published in a wide range of high-status journals, paper-based and online, including the European Journal of Communications and Learning, Media and Technology. His research findings have been used to inform University-wide developments and have been the focus of news reporting.
Jo Ronan
Lecturer, Performance
Jo graduated from the National University of Singapore majoring in English Literature and Sociology.
She co-founded The Necessary Stage Theatre Company in Singapore and was its associate director until 1992. She directed many new plays for The Necessary Stage including The Gargler by Stephen Tan, This Chord and Others, and Still Building by Haresh Sharma. Still Building was performed in Singapore, London, Glasgow and Cairo.
In 1992 Jo won a British Council Scholarship to pursue a practical theatre degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow, since when she has worked in Scotland.
She was programme leader for the performing arts at Coatbridge College before she joined 7:84 Theatre Company as its Artistic Associate, directing The Algebra of Freedom by Raman Mundair and Re:Union by Selma Dimetrijevic, Nicola McCartney, Haresh Sharma and Linda McLean. At 7:84, she also developed An Evening of Political Song, devised a new work Over the Wall for Refugee Week and directed Eclipse by Haresh Sharma, which toured Scotland and was also performed in Singapore. She has led on numerous community and education projects with Ankur Productions, East Renfrewshire Council, schools and colleges.
Jo is currently studying for a Masters degree in Actor Training and Coaching at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama and continues to work professionally in the theatre and with community groups in Scotland.
Blane Savage
Lecturer in New Media & Digital Design
Blane joined UWS eight years ago, after twenty years of design consultancy experience with wide ranging expertise including multimedia training production. He has particular experience of the oil and aerospace industries. Clients have included Guinness, General Electric and British Aerospace, and he was employed as a web consultant to Scottish Enterprise.
Building on his expertise as managing director of Awakening Technologies, a new media company, he has developed a digital art programme at UWS attracting one hundred students per annum, who enhance their skills in the fields of animation, digital media and video production. He has developed a range of modules around digital technologies including multi-narrative structures and cyberculture. He has presented several research papers in that area.
Blane is passionate about personal development and is a qualified NLP training specialist and Ericsonian Hypnotherapist with his own clinical practice. He is currently researching into the crossover strategies developed within personal theraputic transformational techniques and those utilised in other areas of creativity – music, dance, cinema, performance, creative writing and art. Each medium has a capacity to change and transform lives but each is subtly different in its influencing strategies. The research will explore these differences and extract potential opportunities to optimise the transformational effectiveness within each of these creative mediums.
David Scott
Lecturer, Commercial Music
David is a songwriter and producer of The Pearlfishers, whose seven acclaimed albums are represented in a double CD compilation due for release in late 2009. He has also worked as a community music practitioner with over ten years experience project managing small and large scale projects. In broadcasting, he writes and presents music documentaries for BBC Radio Scotland and he has also written on artists such as Astrud Gilberto, Burt Bacharach and Dusty Springfield for record companies from Universal to Revola.
As a Board Director of The Scottish Music Industry Association and Burnsong, David has close links with every aspect of the music industry but is most keenly interested in the fostering of new songwriting and performing talent in the UK.
David has been a lecturer in Commercial Music at UWS since September 2006 and is currently working on new academic qualifications. His new module, Advanced Songwriting and Performance, delivered in one intensive week, mirrors the creative hot-housing of the ‘songhouse’ while Community Music Practice brings students into real-life working music projects.
Lynn Sinclair
Lecturer, Broadcast Production
Lynn gained industry experience working with the BBC as a researcher, then as a producer with the television unit at Edinburgh University. She retains strong links with Scottish broadcasters and regularly organises guest speakers and field trips to studios.
Lynn has been a lecturer in the School of Creative Industries at UWS since April 2007. Prior to that, she spent eight years teaching in further education, and six years in higher education at the former Bell College, now Hamilton campus of UWS. Since joining the School, Lynn’s main focus has been the validation, launch and delivery of the new BA Broadcast Production degree and on developing academic research within the area of multiplatform broadcasting.
Professor Yvonne Spielmann
Chair of New Media
Yvonne is Chair of New Media at UWS, and was previously Professor of Visual Media at Braunschweig School of Art. She is author of the German language monographs “Eine Pfütze in bezug aufs Mehr. Avantgarde” (1991), “Intermedialität. Das System Peter Greenaway” (1998), and “Video. Das reflexive Medium” (2005). The Engish edition “Video. The Reflexive Medium” is published by MIT Press (2008). She is currently writing a new book on hybridity in digital media.
Her research grants and fellowships include the Getty Center (1989/90), The Society for the Humanities at Cornell University (2000/2001), The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Study & Conference Center (2002), The Daniel Langlois Foundation (2003 and 2004), the Japan Foundation (2005), and the National University of Singapore (2007).
Rachael Stark
Lecturer, Filmmaking and Screenwriting and Broadcast Production
Rachel has been a lecturer in the School of Creative Industries at UWS for eight years, contributing to cinema and broadcasting theory modules on both the Filmmaking & Screenwriting and Broadcast Production degree programmes. Her teaching covers a range from introductory modules for students at SCQF Level 7 up to dissertation supervision at SCQF Level 10.
Rachael has close links with Ayr College and acted as part of a validation panel for their new HND in 2008. She has recently been assigned to the Work Based Learning team, organizing placements for cross-programme students at SCQF Level 9.
Along with a colleague she has presented papers at two recent conferences: the Independent Scholars conference in Istanbul and the SMCA conference at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. The focus of these presentations has been developed into a book chapter and is currently under consideration for publication by Cambridge Scholars Press.
In autumn 2009 she will be enrolling on the M Litt in Film and Television at the University of Glasgow, reiterating the School’s focus on the relationship between learning and research.
Derek Stobbs
Part-time Lecturer, Computer Games
Working as a part-time lecturer based at the Paisley campus, while
running his own small games development business, ‘BitShift Studios’. A
graduate from the CGT degree at University of Paisley, Derek has worked
on commercial projects for a variety of platforms and has a good grasp
of the games design and development process.
Robert Sutter
Senior Lecturer, Digital Art
Robert has been a senior lecturer in Digital Art at UWS since December 2005. He has worked in Art & Design Education since 1981, including the Primary, Secondary, Special, Community, Further and Higher sectors. He has been closely involved in Art & Design curriculum development during this time, contributing to Standard Grade, Higher Still, N.Q, HNC/ D, Undergraduate and Postgraduate course Validations.
Between 2004 and 2005 Robert was employed by the Scottish Qualifications Authority as Senior Development Officer with responsibility for the development of six National frameworks: Art & Design; Contemporary Arts Practice; Visual Communication; Computer Art & Design; 3D Design and Photography.
He has presented papers at many conferences, including The World of 3D: The Leading Edge, Computers in Architecture, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, and C.A.D. in Art Education Creative Computers Conference, Jordanhill, Glasgow.
He is currently the School Representative for H.E.I. (Higher Education Academy for Art & Digital Media). He is External Examiner for the University of Abertay’s Computer Arts programme.
Robert’s print, textile and digital imaging works have been exhibited in both Scotland and Europe in one-man and group exhibitions.
Dr John Sutherland
Senior Lecturer, Computer Games Technology
John is Course leader for the BSc (Hons.) Computer Games Development, the world’s first indie/casual games development degree.
He is a degree course developer, and has developed the UK’s leading games programming degrees, digital arts degrees and others: Abertay’s MSc & BSc Computer Games Technology and BA Computer Arts; UWS BSc Computer Games Development.
John researched the structure of commercial computer languages at St Andrews and the nature of knowledge in Computer Science at Edinburgh.
He has a Lifetime achievement award from The International Society on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (vsmm.org).
John is at the centre of the development of games teaching at UWS and has been part of its success.
Maggie Sweeney
Lecturer, Broadcast Production
Maggie Sweeney has been a Lecturer within the School of Creative Industries at UWS since 2001, involved in delivering and co-ordinating a variety of modules relating to UK and American Broadcasting institutions.
Her research interests include: the media and crime, broadcast drama, and cultural and policy issues pertaining to factual broadcasting. Recent publications include a chapter for Edinburgh University Press, The Media in Scotland (2008) and a forthcoming co-authored chapter for Cambridge Scholars Press on American ‘Quality’ Television.
Within UWS, she sits on a variety of committees, including the University’s Disciplinary Panel, Degree Validation, Assessment and Equality and Diversity Committees. Elsewhere, she has been appointed as the PG Student Representative on the Higher Degrees Committee at the Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow.
In addition to establishing research links with related academic institutions, including Glasgow and Stirling Universities, she has developed industry links with a variety of external bodies such as the BBC in Scotland, the National Museum of Media in Bradford, and the Strathclyde Police Museum.
She is also working with colleague Dr. Gill Jamieson and the University’s Department of Employability to develop links with one of the American Broadcasting institutions, with a view to establishing a student Internship.
She is currently registered for a PhD at the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow.
Paul Tucker
Lecturer, Broadcast Production
Paul has worked in broadcast television production for over twenty years, in London, San Francisco and Glasgow. As a freelance producer/director he has made over one hundred hours of television. This has included documentary, obdocs, reality tv, factual entertainment, drama-documentary, talk shows, quiz shows, features and children’s television.
Recent highlights include producing and directing a drama documentary about murderer Peter Manuel, shown on BBC Alba’s opening night. Also his own production company made the Edwyn Collins documentary Home Again that was shown on BBC Scotland, BBC4 and BBC2. It has also been shown at film festivals in Spain, Chile and Argentina.
He has a list of primetime network credits as producer, director and series producer.
Paul joined the lecturing staff of the School of Creative Industries at UWS in 2008.
Derek Turner
Lecturer, Music Technology
Dr Derek Turner is the programme leader for Music Technology. He has lectured in Physics, Electronics, Computing and Music Technology. His interests include microcontrollers, web software development and sound design. These inform subjects such as interactive music and networked multimedia. Currently he is developing audio for computer games as a new topic in the BSc Music Technology.
Ning site link for music technology: http://uwsmusictech.ning.com/
Ian White
Lecturer, Digital Film Production
Ian White has been a part time lecturer in digital film production at UWS for six years.
His time outside of this role is spent on a variety of small scale independent productions.
Under the guise of OPE he has co-written, directed and edited several youth oriented dramas (drugs awareness, antisocial behaviour) for Ayrshire Council and co-produced a series of documentaries for less able communities across Scotland.
Over the past three years Ian has written, directed and edited around 12 music videos for upcoming bands including Ayrshire-based Sucioperro and Glasgow rapper Hydro. The diverse musical styles and experimental medium has allowed Ian to further develop his production skills in areas such as green screen, compositing, stop-animation and colour grading.
Ian also managed the edit of a six-cameral live shoot (crewed by 3rd Year Filmmaking Students) and the production of a series of documentaries to be included on an upcoming DVD.
Ian is currently planning the production of two short films he has written to be shot this summer. Current students and alumni from the Filmmaking, Performance and Commercial Music programmes will crew this project.
