MeCCSA 2025
Below you will find members of the panel of reviewers of submissions with diverse expertise in media, communication, and cultural studies. These reviewers, comprised of academics and practitioners from various fields, evaluated submissions based on originality, relevance, and scholarly impact. Their insights aim to ensure a rich and stimulating conference experience, fostering discussions and the exchange of ideas among participants. The review process reflects the conference’s commitment to quality contributions that advance the conference’s theme of Identity & Belonging and promote interdisciplinary collaboration.
Prof G D Jayalakshmi (commonly called Jaya) is an award-winning filmmaker, researcher, media consultant and Professor of Creative Practice at Edinburgh Napier University.
Jaya’s industry experience in film, TV and radio includes 12 years at the BBC making mainly documentaries in the Arts, Education and Culture Department and 8 years at her own production company, Jayamac Productions, before joining the University sector. But she has never stopped making films.
Having created international content throughout and won several international awards for her films (Going Home, Arranged Marriage, The Cat and the Juggler to name a few), she looks for meaningful opportunities to collaborate across cultures. Her latest offering, Dance of the Seasons, is a Royal Society of Edinburgh funded documentary dance film.
She has held teaching and senior administrative roles in the UK and China. She is enthusiastic about nurturing younger filmmakers while also firmly committed to her own professional practice.
Sana Bilgrami, born in Pakistan, is an award-winning documentary director and Film lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University. Her research interests span the use of archive, 8mm film and personal voice, the interrogation of identity, and the interstices of historical, geographical and fictive spaces in documentary practice. Her broadcast credits include ‘Across the Waters’ (2004), shortlisted for a Satyajit Ray Award, BAFTA-nominated ‘Tree Fellers’ (2004), and ‘New Ten Commandments’ (2008). ‘Fragments of A Love Story’ (2013) was exhibited at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. She works with visual artists to curate international artist residencies and exhibitions: ‘Landscape of Memory’ (2020), ‘Ecologies of Displacement’ (2022), and ‘Ecologies of Diversity (2024). She is currently developing a feature-length documentary film, The Album.
Avril Gray is Associate Professor in Publishing, Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and Head of Media and Humanities at Edinburgh Napier University. She manages the University’s imprint, Merchiston Publishing, lectures on the postgraduate Publishing course, and is an experienced PhD Director of Studies. Before joining academia, Avril was Director of SCP Publishers Ltd and founded the first Children’s publisher in Scotland. She has over 20 years’ industry experience and her professional work forms part of the National Library of Scotland’s exclusive Publishers’ Collection. Avril sits on several publishing boards and book charities, and works with literacy consortiums in the UK to research publishing pedagogy, reading cultures and communities, and inclusivity and ethics in publishing.
Francesca Barbini is the founder and director of award-winning Luna Press Publishing.
She is an award-winning editor, and a translator, born and raised in Rome, Italy. She completed a MA Honours in Religious Studies at New College, Edinburgh University, focusing on the Ancient Near East and the Dead Sea Scrolls, followed by a PGDE at Moray House, Edinburgh University.
She is currently completing a PhD in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University.
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/francesca-barbini-389b912a2/
https://www.napier.ac.uk/people/francesca-barbini
https://www.lunapresspublishing.com/
Dr Arunima Bhattacharya is a Lecturer in English at Edinburgh Napier University. Her research interests include colonial urban cultures, early twentieth-century travel literature and island ecologies. Arunima has an active interest in museums and the heritage sector, particularly with community participation and co-creation. She is currently a co-lead on an AHRC-funded project titled, “‘White Thinking’ And the Failed Promise of Diversity in Scottish Heritage” jointly run by Edinburgh Napier University and the University of Strathclyde. Her most recent published work includes a journal article titled, ‘Beyond the developmental narrative of postcolonial nation-time: The Materialities of Water and Geological Faultlines in Shubhangi Swarup’s Latitudes of Longing’ in Postcolonial Text (2024), and a co-edited special issue titled “Between the Field and the Gallery: Exploring Anthropological Knowledge in South Asia” in the journal South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies (2024). She has co-edited a book volume titled, Literary Capitals in the Long Nineteenth Century: Spaces beyond the Centres (Palgrave, 2022).
Allan Boughey is a lecturer in journalism, and Programme Leader of the MA Journalism programme at Edinburgh Napier University.
Allan worked as a journalist for over 20 years, starting as a trainee reporter on a weekly newspaper before moving into news, sport and arts writing on a variety of regional dailies. He has also worked as a PR manager at a national level PR agency, and as an editor at a digital agency.
Since 2006, Allan has lectured in journalism, firstly at the University of Teesside and, for the last 14 years, at Edinburgh Napier.
Allan has a particular interest in news writing and newsroom skills, digital content creation, and reviewing.
Nelson Correia is a final-year PhD researcher at Edinburgh Napier’s School of Arts and Creative Industries. His project, developed in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and the National Library of Scotland, investigates work histories and career development strategies in the Scottish screen production sector. He previously worked in broadcast journalism and television production.
Link:
Dr Ivana Ebel is an Associate Professor and researcher at Edinburgh Napier University, with expertise in media convergence, visual rhetoric, and gender representation. Her career spans over two decades, encompassing journalism, digital content, public relations, and academic leadership. Dr Ebel holds a PhD from Leipzig University, an MA in Digital Media from Bremen University, and a Journalism BA from Univali, Brazil. Her notable international achievements include extensive experience managing diverse teams, spearheading collaborative research projects, and supervising PhD research. She is a polyglot dedicated to fostering international educational partnerships and advancing scholarly discourse globally.
Dr Aleksandar Kocic has worked as a journalism lecturer since 2010, delivering a range of modules in both undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes. These include Radio News, TV News, Radio Bulletins, Social Media, Introduction to Broadcast Journalism (ML), Business Journalism and more. He also supervises postgraduate research students.Aleksandar has been a journalist for more than 30 years, working mostly in radio. He worked for BBC World Service and domestic radio for more than twenty years.
Aleksandar’s research interest focus on public service media, public interest news, local radio and media literacy.
Beth Karp is a prolific songwriter (BBC 2021), musician, composer and producer based in Scotland. Originally from Shropshire, Beth has been living in Scotland for the best part of the last 11 years. Known as a genre chameleon, her music doesn’t fit into one lane, this is one of Beth’s great strengths as a musician, with her willingness and bold approach to exploring creativity she has been able to seamlessly bring us rock, pop, upbeat, folk, downtempo and trip hop music but all with her distinct songwriting and vocal prowess.
Professor Diane Maclean is the Dean of the School of Arts and Creative Industries at Edinburgh Napier University. Prior to joining academia she worked at the BBC as a director and producer. Over the last decade she has produced and directed documentaries for BBC Alba and written for various publications.
Kirsten MacLeod is Professor of Creative Media Practice in Napier’s School of Arts & Creative Industries. She teaches on the BA (Hons) Television programme and is School lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Her practice and research span documentary, participatory and community based media production across subject areas such as gender based violence in the Pacific (Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium), menstrual health provision and education (Bleeding Free) and housing for those seeking asylum (I’m Still Here). She has also produced a body of work in Govan with community media organisation Portal Arts. She co-convenes On the Margins – Collaborative Research Network. Kirsten has previously worked in factual television and has a background in visual anthropology.
Dr Stevie Marsden is a lecturer in Publishing at Edinburgh Napier University. Their research focuses on publishing’s role as a Creative Industry, class and opportunity within publishing, and hierarchies of value. Their most recent book, Publishing as a Creative Industry, was published in April 2025 by Routledge.
Aideen is a lecturer in Communications and Media, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). She has a background in journalism and strategic communications, particularly for the NGO sector in the UK and Hong Kong. She has worked for The Sunday Herald, Big Issue Magazine, Oxfam, Scottish Refugee Council, and Justice Centre Hong Kong. Her expertise lies in leveraging media and communications to influence policy and public attitudes on pressing issues such as climate change, disasters and emergencies, refugees and human trafficking. Prior to joining ENU, she was Head of Strategic Communications for the British Council, based in Hong Kong. Her current particular areas of interest are crisis communications and communications for social and cultural change.
Haftor Medbøe is Professor of Jazz & Improvised Music at Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland where he leads Post Graduate Research in the School of Arts & Creative Industries. He is Co-editor in Chief at Jazz Research Journal, Equinox Publishing, founding Chair of the Scottish Jazz Archive and holds a position on the Board of Directors, Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival. As practitioner, he has to date released 16 albums of original music and presented his work extensively on the international stage. His academic research focusses on aspects of his own artistic practice and on understandings of the creative communities of artistic practice and production.
With 20+ years’ experience as a leader in education and creative industries, Pauline has led significant strategic developments, restructures and capital projects, and has worked with a range of teams in arts and education to develop new initiatives and challenge existing thinking. Pauline’s career began in the arts, working with theatre and dance companies across the UK. Her first academic post was at Queen Margaret University, after which she joined Edinburgh Napier University, where she was Dean of SACI until 2019. She is a qualified Team Coach having studied the Team Academy (Tiimiakatemia®) model with Akatemia, and completed her DBA in 2019. Pauline is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), and an associate of the NCEE Entrepreneurial Leaders.
Lecturer across the postgraduate Publishing programme at Edinburgh Napier University. I earned my PhD in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling, where I collaborated with Publishing Scotland and HarperCollins on a project examining the recent history of the Scottish book trade. Prior to my full-time role in academia, I worked with several publishing companies and organisations, including as the Training and Digital Marketing Manager at Publishing Scotland.
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/alice-piotrowska/
University Staff Page: www.napier.ac.uk/people/alice-piotrowska
Associate Professor of Film and Television. From the mid-1980s, I was a freelance Director with credits for the BBC, Channel 4 and Scottish Television – from Two Painters Amazed (BBC, 1986), Leithers (Channel 4, 1988) Songs for the Falling Angel (ITV, 1991), to the Raploch Stories longitudinal documentary programmes for the BBC (2002-2017). In 2005 I moved to teach full-time in higher education. I have two main strands of research: Scotland’s screen industry history and archives; and documentary practice with a focus on the re-discovery of the archive of feminist photographer, Franki Raffles (1955-94). Recent research publications include: Scott, A. (2024) Franki Raffles: Photography, Activism and Campaign Work, and Scott, A. & Davidson, N. (2021) ‘The challenges facing Scottish freelancers in the film and television industry: analysis of data from 45 years of the Film Bang directory’, NESTA Discussion Paper, Policy Evidence Centre, AHRC Creative Clusters programme.
Kerstin Stutterheim, DPhil, serves as Professor in Creative Practice and Director of Research at the School of Arts and Creative Industries Edinburgh since 2021. Before, she was the Rektor (principal) of the Academy of Media Arts (KHM), Cologne/Germany. She is als a globally recognised Dramaturg and Filmmaker since 1992, and elected member of the German Film Academy. Most relevant publications: Film Dramaturgy: A Practice and a Tool for Researchers. (Chapter 36, open access) in: The Palgrave Handbook of Screenwriting Studies (978-3-031-20768-6 / 2023); Modern Film Dramaturgy – An Introduction. (2019); Teaching Documentary for the 21st Century, 2023;. For more detailed information please see my Orcid profil 0000-0002-5243-616X
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