Lee Barron

I am a Principal Lecturer in the Department of Media and Communication Design. I teach and am interested in media, culture, advertising, and branding. I have taught teach a number of undergraduate modules including Celebrity Media and Branding and Brand Organisation.

I have a research interest in a range of subjects related to media, culture and communication. I have researched and written about the rise of boy/girl bands, film soundtrack albums, heavy metal bands and postmodernism, Elizabeth Hurley, Kylie Minogue, Angelina Jolie, fashion, celebrity, Pink Floyd and urban myths, Big Brother and celebrity, heavy metal music in horror films, sub-generic expressions of Extreme Metal and sexuality, sexuality and gender in contemporary British Science Fiction television, the ways in which the classic social theory of thinkers such as Marx, Durkheim and Weber can be illustrated through popular culture, and British hip hop/Grime music as ethnography.

I am currently producing research on the semiotic meanings of tattoo designs and regional re-branding and heritage. Courses I teach include Celebrity Media and a module that understands how brands work within advertising and how they can be designed and managed.