Clarissa Smith

Clarissa's research has focused on the texts and contexts of sexually explicit media and sexual practices. It involves the examination of theories of identities and pleasures; citizenship; communities; understandings of media practice and policy; censorship; histories of representations; practices and politics of media research; intersections of class, race, gender and sexual orientation; development of porn studies; experiences of media uses and phenomenological accounts of the everyday.

She is a founder member of the Onscenity Network - an AHRC funded initiative - and with colleagues Feona Attwood, Clare Bale, Sarah Harman, Claire Harris and Julian Petley organized the Sexual Cultures conference at Brunel in April 2012.

Clarissa has been involved in a number of high profile court cases under Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 and the Obscene Publications Act 1959 advising the defense and acting as expert witness to the Court.