Dr Kirsty Fairclough
Professor
Dr Kirsty Fairclough is Reader in Screen Studies at SODA. An academic with over 20 years research, teaching and leadership experience, Kirsty researches in the areas of celebrity studies, the audio visual mediation of popular music, (with an emphasis on the life and legacy of Prince) and gender representation in popular culture.
Kirsty has significant experience in leading international and UK partnership development in the creative industries and in the HE sector, with a particular emphasis on the USA. She has lectured at international institutions including New York University, The Royal College of Music Stockholm, Columbia College Chicago, Bucknell University Pennsylvania, Middle Tennessee State University and The University of Copenhagen.
Kirsty has written widely on popular culture and is the co-editor of Prince and Popular Music (Bloomsbury), The Music Documentary: Acid Rock to Electropop (Routledge), The Arena Concert: Music, Media and Mass Entertainment (Bloomsbury) The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television. (Palgrave) and Music/Video: Forms, Aesthetics, Media. (Bloomsbury) and author of the forthcoming Beyoncé: Celebrity Feminism and Popular Culture (Bloomsbury).
Kirsty’s work has been published in Senses of Cinema, Feminist Media Studies, SERIES and Celebrity Studies journals and has been featured on BBC 4, BBC Manchester, and in The Guardian and Creative Review amongst others.
She is the co-curator of Sound and Vision: Pop Stars on Film and curator of In Her View: Women Documentary Filmmakers film seasons at HOME, Manchester and Chair of Manchester Jazz Festival.
Kirsty has supervised numerous doctoral candidates in a variety of screen studies areas and is keen to discuss potential PhD research projects.
Research
Kirsty Fairclough is a member of the School of Digital Arts Research Hub.
Books
Fairclough, K., Halligan, B., Hodges Persley, N., Rambarran, S., 2023. 'Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop', Bloomsbury, London.
Fairclough, K., Wood, J., 2023. 'Pop Stars on Film: popular culture in a global market', Bloomsbury.
Alleyne, M., Fairclough, K., 2020. 'Prince and Popular Music: Critical Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Life'.
McNally, K., Marcellus, J., Forde, T., Fairclough, K., 2019. 'The Legacy of Mad Men Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television', Springer Nature.
Morris, N., 2017. 'A Companion to Steven Spielberg', John Wiley & Sons.
Arnold, G., Cookney, D., Fairclough, K., Goddard, M., 2017. 'Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media'.
Halligan, B., Fairclough-Isaacs, K., Edgar, R., Spelman, N., 2016. 'The Arena Concert Music, Media and Mass Entertainment', Bloomsbury Academic.
Halligan, B., Edgar, R., Fairclough-Isaacs, K., 2013. 'The Music Documentary Acid Rock to Electropop', Routledge.
Book Chapters
Fairclough, K., 2025. 'Celebrity culture and ageing'. In Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology: time and space, Routledge.
Fairclough, K., 2023. 'Hold Up: Mapping the Boundaries between Music Video and Video Art'. In Dreckmann, K., Vomberg, E. (eds.) More Than Illustrated Music: Aesthetics of Hybrid Media Between Pop, Art and Video, pp. 187-197, Bloomsbury.
Fairclough, K., Halligan, B., Hodges Persley, N., Rambarran, S., 2023. 'Introduction: Y'all! the diva and us'. In Diva: Feminism and Fierceness from Pop to Hip-Hop, pp. 1-21, Bloomsbury, London.
Alleyne, M., Fairclough, K., 2020. 'Glam slammed: Visual identity in Prince's Lovesexy'. In Prince and Popular Music: Critical Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Life, pp. 67-75.
Alleyne, M., Fairclough, K., 2020. 'Introduction'. In Prince and Popular Music: Critical Perspectives on an Interdisciplinary Life, pp. 1-8.
Fairclough, K., 2020. 'Rare Bird: Susan Rogers, Prince and Gendered Music Production.'. In Gender in Music Production, CRC Press.
Fairclough, K., 2017. 'Soundtrack Self: FKA twigs, Music Video, and Celebrity Feminism'. In Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media, pp. 121-131.
Scholarly Editions
Fairclough, K., Alleyne, M., 2022. 'OLD SIGNS, NEW TIMES--THE VIEW FROM 2022: A SPECIAL ISSUE ON PRINCE. American Music Perspectives, Volume 2 Issue 1', Penn State University Press.
Journal Articles
Alleyne, M., Fairclough, K., 2022. 'Editorial: Special Issue: 'Dream Factories: Prince, Sign o' the Times, Box Sets and Cultural Artefacts'', Interactions: studies in communication and culture, 12 (2), pp. 139-144.
Arnold, G., Cookney, D., Fairclough, K., Goddard, M., 2017. 'Introduction: The Persistence of the Music Video Form from MTV to Twenty-First-Century Social Media', Music/Video: Histories, Aesthetics, Media, pp. 1-13.
Presentations
Sibley, J., Fairclough, K., 2022. 'Digital Events Academy - A music venues' pivot to digital: A story of music, collaboration and learning during the global pandemic', Manchester.