Dr Rosie White

Assistant Professor

Department: Humanities

Rosie White Following a first degree in English Literature I developed my interest in literary theory with the MA in Contemporary Literary Studies at Lancaster, for which I received British Academy funding. My subsequent PhD thesis focussed on the novels of contemporary feminist writer Michèle Roberts. I taught part time in the departments of English and Independent Studies at Lancaster while finishing my PhD, and was fortunate enough to get a full time job at La Sainte Union College in Southampton (subsequently University of Southampton New College) immediately on completion of the PhD.

I came to Northumbria in 1998 and took on the role of Programme Leader for the English and Film Studies degree shortly after my arrival. More recently I have been Programme Leader for the English and Creative Writing programme, and then helped to establish the MRes programmes in English and History. In 2009 I worked with colleagues across the faculty to develop a new MRes programme in Gender Studies, which was first offered in 2010/11.

Since the PhD, my research and teaching interests have veered towards popular culture, particularly film and television studies. I also have a continuing interest in British cultural studies, together with a fascination for feminist theory. My first book, Violent Femmes: Women As Spies in Popular Culture was published in 2007 and I continue to teach and write about popular culture, cultural theory and issues of representation. I am currently working on a new book about women and television comedy, and also publishing shorter pieces in journals and edited collections that focus on particular performers’ work, such as Beryl Reid, Kathy Burke and Roseanne Barr.

Campus Address

Office: Lipman 412

Email Rosie

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Making fun of feminism: British television comedy and the second wave, White, R. 23 Jun 2021, In: Feminist Media Studies
Evidence of Cruel Optimism: Nick Broomfield's Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer (2003), White, R. 2020, Women Who Kill, London, Bloomsbury
From Terry and June to Terry and Julian: June Whitfield and the British Suburban Sitcom, White, R. Sep 2018, Comedy and the Politics of Representation, Palgrave Macmillan
Television Comedy and Femininity: Queering Gender, White, R. 30 Aug 2018
Remembering Roseanne, White, R. 1 Dec 2017, Hysterical! Women in American Comedy, Austin, Texas, University of Texas Press
Timely Meditation on Democracy, White, R. 19 May 2017, In: English
'What Did it Mean?' A Generational Conversation, Edmonds, L., White, R. 8 Sep 2017, Re-Reading Spare Rib, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan
Funny peculiar: Lucille Ball and the vaudeville heritage of early American television comedy, White, R. 26 May 2016, In: Social Semiotics
Working Girl and Second-Wave Feminism: Re-Viewing the 1980s, White, R. 1 Dec 2016, In: Film International
'Acting Up: Gender and Television Comedy' [Editorial], Leggott, J., Lockyer, S., White, R. 1 Jun 2015, In: Critical Studies in Television

PGR Supervision

Anamarija Horvat Screening Queer Pasts: Contemporary Representations of LGBTQ Memory in British and American Film and Television Start Date: 07/06/2017 End Date: 10/04/2019
Hazel Impey Why must I truncate myself in order to please you?’: Othering and Queering in Depictions of Non-Binary Gender in Pseudo-Medieval Fantasy Literature, 1990-2017 Start Date: 31/05/2017 End Date: 29/09/2022
Alison Bainbridge 'Project your monsters on the world': Contemporary American monstrosity in Welcome to Night Vale Start Date: 07/06/2017