Brunsdon, Charlotte

Charlotte Brunsdon (UK, 1952), professor at University of Warwick (UK), is a key reference in audiovisual research, reception studies, as well as gender and cultural studies.

Her contributions to the field of communication research deal with research on cinema and television from a cultural and gender perspective. She focused on reception and audience analysis, and she has published referential books such as The Feminist, the Housewife and the Soap Opera (2000). Her most recognized project is Nationwide Project, which she developed with David Morley during the 70s and 80s at the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham. On this project, they studied the British TV program Nationwide from the perspective of the encoding/decoding model of communication, previously developed by Stuart Hall. Recently, she has focused on studying the link between cities and cinema.

Brunsdon is a recognized member of the Birmingham School, where she began her academic career as a member of the Women’s Studies Group. From this group, she contributed to the pioneering feminist research carried out from the School. Later in her career, she has critically reflected on the Center for Contemporary Cultural Studies and its dynamics, especially from a gender perspective. She is a Fellow of the British Academy since 2019, as a recognition of her outstanding research and academic career.

Interview with Charlotte Brunsdon

Selected publications:

• Brunsdon, C. (1978). Everyday Television: Nationwide. BFI.
• Brunsdon, C. (1996). A thief in the night: Stories of feminism in the 1970s at CCCS. In D. Morley & K.H. Cheng (Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies (pp. 275-285). Routledge.
• Brunsdon, C. (2001). The feminist, the housewife and the soap opera. Oxford Television Studies.
• Brunsdon, C. (2019). London in cinema: The cinematic city since 1945. British Film Institute.