Ben HighmoreEmeritus Professor (Media and Film)
Research
My research is broadly concerned with the culture of everyday life. My particular interests at the moment cluster around cultural feelings, domestic life and post-war British art, architecture and design. My latest book is called The Art of Brutalism: Rescuing Hope from Catastrophe in 1950s Britain and was published by Yale University Press in 2017. From Septermber 2014 to September 2017 I was a Leverhulme major research fellow working on 'Habitat and the Making of Taste 1964-2011', and preparing a book (provisionally titled The Making of Taste: Habitat, Lifestyle and Class in Postwar Britain) for Manchester University Press.
Research materials can be found here:
I am interested in supervising PhD research in the fields of cultural theory and cultural studies generally and have a particular interest in postwar cultural history. I am also keen to supervise innovative projects on cultural feelings, design culture, material culture, and visual art.
I have previously supervised PhDs in the areas of pop music, rhythmanalysis, ethnography, film, art history, and design history.