Dr Johnny Walker
Senior Lecturer

Research interests: 
​Film History, Horror and Exploitation Cinema, Popular Media Industries
Website: johnny-walker.org
Twitter: @johnnycwalker
Podcast: @The_HorrorLab
Academia.edu: Profile
 About
Johnny Walker is Senior Lecturer in Media. He has published numerous journal articles, book chapters and short journalistic pieces, in addition to having written or edited a number of books in the fields of film history and popular culture.

Johnny's books include, as author, Contemporary British Horror Cinema: Industry, Genre and Society (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), and as co-editor, Snuff: Real Death and Screen Media (Bloomsbury, 2016) and Grindhouse: Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond (Bloomsbury, 2016). His most recent work appears in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television and Post Script. He is currently working on a book provisionally entitled Britain and the Video Boom: Tracking Popular Culture for the University of Exeter Press. Johnny is frequently asked to deliver research seminars and guest lectures at institutions throughout the country including: King's College, Warwick, Kent, Anglia Ruskin, Birmingham City, Sunderland and Falmouth. He has delivered keynote presentations at Spectacular Now: The Politics of the Contemporary Spectacle (TU Dortmund, 2016) and Exploitation Cinema in the 21st Century (Canterbury Christ Church, 2017), and will deliver one of the keynotes at New Perspectives on Horror, Science Fiction and the Monstrous Onscreen (De Montfort University, 2018).

Johnny welcomes applications for PhD projects related to any of his research interests.
Qualifications
  • ​PhD in Film Studies: "The Contemporary British Horror Film: 2000-2010", De Montfort University, 2013.
  • MA, International Film (Distinction), Newcastle University, 2009.
  • BA (Hons), English and Film Studies, Northumbria University, 2008.
Professional Affiliations
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
  • ​Society for Cinema and Media Studies
  • British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies
  • Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association
  • International Association of Media and History
Employment
Johnny joined Northumbria in September 2013, prior to which he was Lecturer in Film Studies at De Montfort University and, before that, Associate Tutor in Media and Culturla Studies at the University of Sunderland. At Northumbria, he has served as Programme Leader (Acting) for BA (Hons) Media, Culture and Society and Programme Leader for MRes Social Sciences. As of 2018 he will be Programme Leader for BA (Hons) Mass Communication (and associated pathways) and will continue his role as Department Lead for the Erasmus and Study Abroad programmes.

He has has re/validated degree programmes at the University of West London and the University of Chichester and is currently external examiner for the undergraduate film and media programmes at Southampton Solent University. 
​​Institutional Roles
Current:
  • Internal Reviewer, Higher Education Academy Associate/Fellow/Senior Fellow applications
Previous:
  • Ethics Committee 
​PhD Supervision 
Current students:
  • Rui Manuel Oliveira, "Beyond Euro Horror: The Horror Cinemas of Southern Europe"
  • Erin Wiegand, "Mondo Movies: Exoticism and Cultural Tourism in the Exploitation Documentary"
Modules Taught
Present:
  • ​Level 4: Approaches to Media and Culture
  • Level 5: Everyday Media (with Tom Watson)
  • Level 6: Extreme Media; Convergence Culture
  • Level 7: Managing Mass Communications in the Digital Age

Past:
  • Level 4: Global Media; Introduction to Media Studies; Film History; Writing, Reviewing and Film Criticism
  • Level 5: Hollywood
  • Level 6: British and American Horror Cinema
  • Level 7: Media Research Methods
Public Engagement 
  • Horror Lab podcast, co-host
  • Snuff Love: Real Death and Horror Film Culture from the Grind House to Your House, invited public lecture, Offscreen Film Festival, Brussels
  • Contemporary British Horror Cinema, invited public lecture, Abertoir Horror Film Festival
  • From Video Collecting to Contemporary Cinema, invited public lecture (w/ Dr Mark McKenna), Abertoir Horror Film Festival
  • The Video Nasties, public exhibition, Abertoir Horror Film Festival​
  • The Court of Cult: Sheila Keith, invited panelist, Abertoir Horror Film Festival
  • A Field in England, introduction followed by Q&A,  Waves of Horror Film Festival, Gulbenkian Cinema, Canterbury. 
  • Colouring the Movies Blood Red: The Trash Aesthetics and Cult Impact of Herschell Gordon Lewis, invited public lecture, Offscreen Film Festival, Brussels
  • Hammer Has Risen From the Grave Film Festival, co-organiser, Phoenix Leicester
Conferences & Talks
  • 'Transnational Splatter Cinema and the Birth of the "Shot On Video" Horror Movie', Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Toronto, Match 2017.
  • ‘The Way to Blockbuster: the Birth of the British Video Superstore’, King’s College London, Seminar Series, December 2017.
  • Keynote speaker: ‘Making and Marketing Exploitation Cinema in the Early 2000s’, Exploitation Cinema in the Twenty First Century, Canterbury Christ Church University, June 2017
  • ‘Award-winning Sex Sells: British Adult Video's Quest for Quality, 1978-85’, Screen, University of Glasgow, June 2017.
  • Plenary panel member: Transnational Monstrosity in Popular Culture, York St John University, June 2017.
  • Keynote speaker: ‘Historicising the Subcultural Value of Real Death Imagery’, Spectacular Now, TU Dortmund, November 2016.
Recent Publications​
  • 'Reliability, Quality and a Reputation for Great Entertainment: the Promotional Strategies of Britain’s Early Video Distributors, Beyond the "Video Nasties"', Post Script, 35.3, pp. 33-7.
  • 'Video Nicies: Re-thinking the Relationship Between Video Entertainment and Children in Britain During the Early 1980s', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 2017.
  • Grindhouse: Cultural Exchange on 42nd Street, and Beyond, edited with Austin Fisher (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016)
  • Contemporary British Horror Cinema: Industry, Genre and Society (Edinburgh University Press, 2015)
Peer Review
Johnny is founding series co-editor of the Global Exploitation Cinemas book series (Bloomsbury) and the reviews editor of the Journal of Popular Television (Intellect). He sits on the editorial board of the Horror Studies book series (University of Wales Press).

He has also acted as peer-reviewer for numerous journals and academic presses, including:
​
Journals
  • Media History (Routledge); Journal of British Cinema and Television (Edinburgh University Press; Film Studies (Manchester University Press; Porn Studies (Routledge); Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance (Intellect); Frames (St Andrews)
Presses
  • University of California Press; Edinburgh University Press; University of Wales Press; Routledge; Bloomsbury Academic; Palgrave Macmillan; I. B. Tauris; Intellect Books