Dr Steve Jones
Senior Lecturer

Research interests: Film, Horror, Porn, Ethics, Gender, Selfhood
Website: Drstevejones.co.uk
Twitter: @DrSteve_Jones
Podcast: @The_HorrorLab
Academia.edu: Profile
ResearchGate: Profile
PhilPapers: Profile
About
In my research work, I acknowledge that culturally maligned objects (such as horror and pornography) express serious, complicated philosophical ideas. I have written various articles and chapters on contemporary issues in moral philosophy, selfhood studies and feminism, each of which proposes that (a) popular horror films and pornographic texts articulate the same concepts that concern philosophers (albeit in intuitive ways), and (b) these popular objects complicate and contribute to the on-going conceptual debates that define contemporary philosophical and political thought.
Qualifications
  • PhD in Film, Media and Cultural Studies: ‘Selfhood as Instance of Horror: Ontology, Ideology and Narratives of Body-Terror’, University of Sussex 
  • MA (Hons) Modern Literature, University of Leicester (Distinction) 
  • BA (Hons) English, University of Leicester (First class) 
Professional Affiliations
Employment
Steve joined Northumbria University in 2010. He is currently a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Sciences.
From 2011 - 2016 he was programme leader for the degree programme BA (Hons) Media, Culture and Society. In 2016-17 he was programme leader for the BA (Hons) Mass Communication programmes, and link tutor for the MSc Mass Communication Management (London campus). Since 2018, he has been Head of Subject for the Media and Languages Programmes at Northumbria University, and is acting as external examiner for University of East London. 
Steve previously taught in the School of Film, Media and Music, University of Sussex (2006-2010).
​​Institutional Roles
Steve is currently a member of the departmental REF Internal review panel, and Northumbria’s representative for the Media arm of the Northern Bridge Doctoral training scheme. He has previously been a member of the Faculty subject level TEF pilot study, the Faculty Research and Innovation Committee, the Faculty Programme Approvals and Review Sub-Committee, the Faculty Ethics Committee, the Faculty Enhancement Board, and the Departmental Quality Committee. He has also acted as co-Lead of the Department Ethics Committee, and chair of the Departmental Technology Enhanced Learning committee.
Steve completed Northumbria’s Leadership and Management training programme in 2016. He also co-led the Mass Communication Programme revalidation in 2015.
​PhD Supervision 
Steve is currently supervising a PhD on the attenuation of violence against animals in popular children’s feature films, the socio-technological implications of found footage horror films, and how cultural fears about technology, sex, and violence are reflected via snuff fiction. He has previously supervised PhDs on the concept of violence (broadly conceived), Gamergate and the new backlash against feminism, and postfeminism in female ensemble television drama. Steve has examined PhDs on captivity in contemporary American Horror cinema, intermediality in contemporary American independent film, and spirituality in Thai TV horror-drama​
Steve welcomes PhD applications in the areas of horror film, pornography, gendered and sexual violence, and film-philosophy (particularly morality or the philosophy of mind). ​
Modules Taught
  • Level 3: Media and Society
  • Level 4: Media Studies; Cultural Studies; Approaches to Media and Culture; Concepts, Culture and Society; Issues in Film Studies
  • Level 5: Culture and Society; Understanding Though Media; Media Spaces; Theory Taste and Trash; Researching Media and Film; Placement module
  • Level 6: Media Dissertation; Media and Morality; Hollywood Industry and Imaginary; Animation; Contemporary British Cinema
  • Level 7: Media Postgraduate Dissertation
Public Engagement 
  • Script editor, translator and writer for Necrostorm Films
  • Invited member of Delphi panel for ‘Pornography’s effects on audiences’ project, funded by the Australian Research Council
  • Wild Justice: Revenge in Contemporary American Film, invited public lecture, Kurja Polt Film Festival, Slovenia.
  • Masterclass with Fabrice du Welz, Kurja Polt Film Festival, Slovenia
  • Torture Porn as Political Allegory, invited public lecture, Kurja Polt Film Festival, Slovenia
  • Remembering the Deuce, invited public lecture, Abertoir Film Festival
  • Grindhouse in the Digital Age, invited public lecture, Offscreen Film Festival, Brussels
  • Hard Body, Cold Heart: The Body in 80s Action Cinema, invited public lecture, Offscreen Film Festival
  • Porn Laid Bare symposium, invited consultant, Terence Higgins Trust/University of Sussex
  • La Jetee and Twelve Monkeys: Time Travel Narratives, Memory and Human Drama. Guest Lecture, Tyneside Cinema (ScienceFest)
Conferences & Talks
  • Women in Horror: Moving Beyond Misogyny, invited seminar speaker, Coventry University.
  • Grindigital: The Ghost of Grindhouse Present, Global Exploitation Cinemas: Historical and Critical Approaches, Lincoln University.
  • Torture Born: Representing Pregnancy and Abortion in Contemporary Survival Horror, invited seminar speaker, University of Sunderland.
  • A View to a Kill: Perspectives on Pseudo-Snuff and Self. The Cultural Mythology of the Snuff Film, Bournemouth University.
  • How far can you go?: Ethics and Transgression. Invited keynote, University of Derby/Higher Education Academy.
  • Torture/Porn before “Torture Porn”. Guest Lecture, De Montfort University.​
Recent Publications For a full list of publications and PDFs, click here
Peer Review
Steve has acted as a peer reviewer for journals such as Cultural Politics, Feminist Media Studies, Gender & Society, Participations, Porn Studies, The Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance, Mosaic, Journal of Italian Cinema and Media Studies, Journal of Popular Television, New Review of Film and Television Studies,  European Journal of American Culture, and Sexualities.
Steve has also peer reviewed monographs, proposals, text-books and chapters for numerous publishers, including Bloomsbury, Edinburgh University Press, IB Tauris, McFarland, Palgrave-Macmillan, Routledge, Rowman and Littlefield, SAGE, and Taylor & Francis.