I did my first degree at the University of Alberta in Canada, spending an exchange year at the University of Leeds. My MA and PhD are from the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory at the University of Wales, Cardiff. At Salford I teach on Introduction to Drama, Literary and Cultural Theory, Cinema and Psychoanalysis and Critical Approaches to Film. From February 1 to July 15, 2010 I will be Director of English in the School of English, Sociology and Contemporary History. At the moment I am especially interested in questions of culture and technology, particularly as they relate to what are my two main research areas: modern British drama and the history and theory of photography. In 2007 I received grants from the AHRC and the British Academy to work on a cultural history of Polaroid, a project which is gradually turning into a book. I have also published a number of pieces engaging in one way or another with psychoanalysis. Collaboration with others has led me to write on Walter Benjamin and on the Spanish filmmaker Alex de la Iglesia. With Andy Willis, I ran, from 2004 to 2009, the Salford Film Seminar.