Dr Debra Ferreday
Senior LecturerProfile
As an intersectional feminist cultural theorist, my work is concerned with complex entanglements between the personal and the political, and with the way power structures are internalised and resisted in relation to media and popular culture. My current work uses concepts of social haunting, queering and critical mental health studies to examine how 'the margins' are reproduced and inhabited through culture, and how the marginal historically operates as a space of creativity and resistance that is eroded by capitalism. My latest book New Queer Television: From Marginalization to Mainstreamification (Intellect, 2025), co-edited with Tom Brassington and Dany Girard, explores these dynamics in relation to contemporary queer representation.
Current Research
Questions of embodiment, power and intimacy have always been central to my work. My current research project, Cannibal Cultures, explores these themes by exploring images of cannibalism in contemporary culture, ranging from queer romance to post-MeToo dating satire to narratives of ecocidem, waste and care.
My second project, The Maligned Nineties Woman, builds on my long-term interests in celebrity, trauma, memory and social haunting. Through contentious figures like Courtney Love, Sinead O'Connor and Britney Spears, I examine how music, fan culture and celebrity culture represent powerful spaces for understanding the impact of mediated trauma.
Current Teaching
I am MA Convenor for Gender Studies, and teach across programmes in Media and Cultural Studies and Gender Studies specialising in visual and digital media, embodiment, feminist cultural theory and queer theories and cultures.
PhD Supervision Interests
Supporting PhD supervisees is a central part of my academic practice. I am a former Doctoral Director for the Gender Studies, Media and Cultural Studies and Gender Studies doctoral programmes and have co-supervised projects in diverse interdisciplinary fields including English, Theatre Studies, Health and Medicine, Music Studies. I welcome applications from students interested in feminist and queer theory working across the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
Cannibal Cultures
27/06/2024 → …
Research
Gender, Media and anti-Nostalgia: figuring the 'Maligned Nineties Woman'
01/12/2023 → …
Research
NWSSDTP: Re-Imagining Social Change: Disability Human Rights Activism in Neoliberal Democracies. Poland and the UK as Case Studies (Magdalena Szarota)
01/10/2023 → 15/10/2025
Research
Researching Affect and Affective Communications
15/05/2009 → 26/03/2010
Research
Networked Learning
01/02/2003 → …
Research
Cannibal Cultures
01/01/1900 → …
Research
'Raw, Vulnerable and Fearless?' Sinead O'Connor and Postdigital Bipolar Celebrity
Invited talk
Keynote: 'Raw, Vulnerable and Fearless?' Sinead O'Connor and Digital Narratives of Bipolar Celebrity
Invited talk
Trans-Forming Medicine Conference 2017: Perspectives on Transgender Healthcare
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Screening Rape: the politics of popular culture
Invited talk
Is the Internet Good for Feminism? w/ Caroline Criado-Perez, Shoshana Devora, Polly Davis & Debra Ferreday
Invited talk
Researching DIY Cultures: Towards a situated ethical practice
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Damaging the Body
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Bodies: Flesh, performance, media, disgust and desire
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Visualising the Damaged Body: Anorexia, Haunting, and Futurity.
Invited talk
Manchester Digital Media Network Workshop 2: Methods and Challenges of Researching Social Networking Sites
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Everyday Belongings: Theorising the self, society and change A one-day symposium
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Sage Publications (Publisher)
Editorial activity
Affective fabrics of digital cultures: feelings,technologies, politics
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
AFFECTive and AFFECTing Research: Researching Affect in the Social Sciences
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Onscenity Network
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Ninth Biennial Conference of the International Gothic Association: Monstrous Media/Spectral Subjects
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Haunted futurities
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Hope: A Workshop on Feminist Theory
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Body and Society (Journal)
Editorial activity
Researching Affect and Affective Communication
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Home Cultures (Journal)
Editorial activity
6th International Networked Learning Conference
Participation in conference -Mixed Audience
Theory, Culture and Society (Journal)
Editorial activity
Feminist Theory (Journal)
Editorial activity
Feminist Media Studies (Journal)
Editorial activity
Centre for Gender Studies
Centre for Gender Studies
- Centre for Gender Studies