Dr Les Roberts BA (London) PhD (Middlesex)

Personal Statement

My research interests and practice fall within the areas of urban cultural studies, the mediation of cultural memory, and spatial anthropology/spatial humanities. With a background in anthropology and cultural studies my work explores the intersection between space, place, mobility, and memory, with a particular focus on film, popular music, and visual culture. I have worked as a researcher across the School of the Arts on the multi-disciplinary projects 'City in Film: Liverpool's Urban Landscape and the Moving Image' (2006-8), 'Mapping the City in Film: a Geo-Historical Analysis' (2008-10), and 'Popular Music Heritage, Cultural Memory and Cultural Identity' (POPID) (2010-12). I am the author of the monographs 'Film, Mobility and Urban Space: a Cinematic Geography of Liverpool' (2012) and 'Spatial Anthropology: Excursions in Liminal Space' (2018). I have edited/co-edited several books and special issue journal editions, including 'Spatial Bricolage' (2018), 'Deep Mapping' (2016), 'Mapping Cultures' (2015), 'Locating the Moving Image' (2014), 'Sites of Popular Music Heritage' (2014), 'Liminal Landscapes' (2012), 'The City and the Moving Image' (2010). Current research and publications (including a monograph for Routledge due in 2020/21) are focused on issues of space, time and selfhood in the digital age, drawing on phenomenological, non-representational and non-media-centric approaches to media, self and society.