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Dr Vicky Ball is a Senior Lecturer in Cinema and Television Histories at Â鶹ӰԺ. Her research focuses on the relationship between gender and television on both sides of the television screen. She has published articles on femininity and British television drama and is currently writing a book about the British female ensemble drama to be published by Manchester University Press. The latter uses the female ensemble drama as a case study through which to explore British television’s relationship with women and femininity at the level of production and representation from the 1960s to 2010s. She is co-investigator on the AHRC funded project ‘Women’s Work, Working Women: A Longitudinal Study of Women Working in the Film and Television Industries (1933-1989)’ and a member of the Committee of the Women’s Film and Television Histories Network: UK/Ireland. 

Cinema and Television Histories Institute (CATHI)

 

Heroine Television: The Case of the British Female Ensemble Drama. ManchesterUniversity Press. (Forthcoming 2021).

‘Separating the Women from the Girls: Reconfigurations of the Feminine in Contemporary British Drama’, (2013) in Thornham, H. and Weissmann, E. (2013) (eds.) Unfixing Feminism: Stories, Fantasies and Futures.USA and UK: IB Tauris.

(with Prof. Christine Gledhill, New YorkUniversity) ‘Genre and Gender’, In Hall, S., Evans., J and Nixon, S. (2013) (ed.): Representation. London: Sage. 2^nd edition.

‘Forgotten Sisters: The Female Ensemble Drama’ (2013) in Moseley, R., Wheatley., H and Wood, H. (2013) (eds.) ‘Television for Women’, Screen Dossier, Vol. 54, No. 2.

(Co-edited with Dr Melanie Bell) Special edition of Journal of British Film and Television ‘Women at work in the Film and Television industries (2013). Vol. 10, No. 3.

‘The ‘Feminization’ of British Television and the Re-traditionalization of Gender’ (2012), Feminist Media Studies Vol. 12, No. 2.

• Feminist television and film studies
• Women's television and film production histories
• Gender and British television drama
• Television and social class
• Television and globalisation
• Television aesthetics
• Television, quality and cultural value

• Television Studies
• Women's Television Histories
• Feminist Media Studies
• Production Studies

PhD in Television Drama (Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh)

MA in Film and Cultural Studies (University of Sunderland)

BA (Hons) in Communication Studies (University of Sunderland)

Television Studies

Film and Television Fictions

Advisory Board Member of the BBC Connected Histories project (2017-2021)

Honorary Associate of the Centre for Media History, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (Since 2017). To advise on projects related to women’s broadcasting histories

Member of the Executive Committee for the ‘Women’s Film and Television History Network – UK/Ireland’

Member of the Gender and Media Research Group, University of Leicester (2016-)

Member of the Executive Committee for the ‘Women’s Film and Television History Project – UK/Ireland’ (2009-)

Member of the Midlands Television Research Group (2014-)

Member of the Northern Television Studies Research Group (2008-)

Institutional member of MeCCSA, the subject association for Media and Communications (2000-)

 

• Principal organiser of ‘Doing Women’s Film and Television History III: Structures of Feeling’. Three-day international conference, 18-20 May 2016, Phoenix Cinema and Arts Centre. Leicester.Conference funded by the AHRC ‘Women’s Work and Working Women: A Longitudinal Study of Women Working in the British Film and Television Industries (1933-1989)’ project.
• ‘Women’s Work in the British Film and TV Industries’, Australian Media Traditions international conference, Australian Film and Sound Archive, Canberra, Australia. 3-4^th December 2015.
• (Invited paper) ‘Women’s Work in the British Film and TV Industries’, BFI Education Conference, BFI Southbank, 3^rd July 2015.
• (Invited keynote) ‘Writing Women into Histories of Television’, School of Arts and Humanities 5^th Annual Research Conference, Nottingham Trent University, 19^th June 2015.
• (Invited paper with Melanie Bell) ‘Creating Archives, Creating Histories: Questions of Evidence, Knowledge and Power’, Archiving Women in Film & TV workshop, University of Leeds, 14^th May 2015.
• “Women’s Work in the British Film and TV Industries Project: An Update’, Associate Research Fellows Day, Â鶹ӰԺ, 29^th April 2015.
• ‘Writing women into histories of British television drama: Adele Rose’, Television Drama: the Forgotten, the Lost and the Neglected conference, Royal Holloway University, 22nd –24thApril 2015.
• (Invite paper) ‘Agents of Change: Creative Women, Television and New Spatial Praxis’ symposium, Edge Hill University in association with the University of Liverpool, 11 September 2014.
• ‘Television and Women: History and Practice in Dialogue’ Frontline Club, London, 19 June 2014. This is a shared event between two AHRC funded projects: ‘Women’s Work, Working Women’ project and ‘A History of TV for Women in Britain’ project based at the University of Warwick and Â鶹ӰԺ.
• ‘Researching Visual Cultures and Collective Memory: Methodologies and Approaches’, ‘Mediated Pasts: Visual Cultures and Collective Memory’ Postgraduate conference organised in association with BAFTSS, The Cinema and Television History Research Centre, Â鶹ӰԺ, 4 June 2014.
• (Keynote) ‘Representing the Women’s Movement on TV, 1968-1974’, ‘Shoulder-to-Shoulder: Female Suffrage, Second-Wave Feminism and Feminist TV Drama in the 1970s’ symposium, Birkbeck, University of London, 15-16 May 2014. Funded by Birkbeck and CATH Research Centre, Â鶹ӰԺ.
• ‘Researching Women’s Work in the Film and TV Industries’, Associate Research Fellow Day, CATH Research Centre, Â鶹ӰԺ, 7 May 2014.
• ‘The Women’s Work Project’, ‘Doing WFTHN II’ international conference, University of East Anglia, 10-12 April 2014.   Supported by the AHRC-funded ‘Women’s Work and Working Women: A Longitudinal Study of Women Working in the British Film and Television Industries (1933-1989)’ project.
• Organised and Chaired ‘In conversation with Charlotte Brunsdon and Christine Geraghty’ plenary (invited), ‘Television for Women’ international conference, University of Warwick, 15-17 May 2013.
• ‘Sex, Class and Consumerism: British Sitcom’s Negotiation of the Independent Woman 1968-1972’, ‘Television for Women’ international conference, University of Warwick, 15-17 May 2013.
• ‘Women’s Work and Working Women: A Longitudinal Study of Women Working in the British Film and Television Industries’ (with Melanie Bell), BECTU Women’s Conference, TUC Congress Centre London, 24 November 2012.
• ‘Making Women’s History on Television in the Seventies: Shoulder to Shoulder’, conference paper delivered at the ‘From Page to Screen: Making and Remembering Women’s History’, a half-day event to be held at The Women’s Library 26 October 2012.
• ‘Sex, Class and Consumerism: Women and British Sitcom in the ‘60s ’, conference paper delivered at the Women and Television Postgraduate Research Event, University of Sunderland, 20 January 2012.
• ‘The Rag Trade’, Introduction delivered at the ‘Career Girls on the Small Screen Event’, organised by the AHRC funded ‘A History of Television for Women in Britain 1947-1989 project, Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester, 8 October 2011.
• Organised and chaired the roundtable discussion entitled ‘Women at Work in the British Film and Television Industries’ at the ‘Doing Women’s Film History’ international conference, University of Sunderland, 13-15 April 2011. This included invited speakers from industry including the Chief Executive of Women and Film, Kate Kinninmont, playwright Debbie Horsfield and film and television producer Nadine Marsh-Edwards.
• ‘Women at Work in the British Film and Television Industries’.  Conference paper delivered at the ‘Doing Women’s Film History’ international conference, University of Sunderland, 13-15 April 2011.
• ‘High-class Hookers and Working-class Whores: Representations of Prostitution in British Television Drama.’ Conference paper delivered at ‘Representing Female Prostitutes between the 19th and 21st Centuries’ International conference, University of Exeter, 10 September 2010.
• Organised ‘What Happened Next? Feminist TV Studies in Postfeminist Times’. One day Symposium, University of Sunderland, 16 September 2010.
• ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl and the Crisis of Femininity in British Television Drama.’ Conference paper delivered at ‘What Happened Next? Feminist TV Studies in Postfeminist Times’. One day Symposium, University of Sunderland, 16 September 2010.
• ‘Postfeminist British Television Drama and the Re-traditionalization of Gender.’ Research paper delivered at the Centre for Research in Media and Cultural Studies, University of Sunderland, 18 May 2009.
• Invited respondent to the ‘Terrible Girls’ Postfeminist Media Studies panel organised by the MeCCSA Women’s Association at the MeCCSA annual conference, National Media Museum, Bradford, 14-16 January 2009.
• ‘Prostitution and the Heterosocial Economy: Kay Mellor’s Band of Gold.’ Conference paper delivered at the MeCCSA annual conference, National Media Museum, Bradford, 14-16 January 2009.

‘Feminine-gendered Fiction and the Feminization of British Television in the 1990s’. Conference paper delivered at the ‘Point of Feminism’ conference, University of Reading, 12 September 2008.

Frances Galt, F/T, 1^st Supervisor

Jilly Kay, P/T, 2^nd Supervisor

‘Women’s Work, Working Women: A Longitudinal Study of Women Working in the Film and Television Industries (1933-1989)’ AHRC Jan 2014-June 2017. Co-Investigator. In Collaboration with Dr Melanie Bell, PI, Newcastle University.