Professor George McKay

I joined the University of Salford in 2005, as Professor of Cultural Studies; before that I held the same position at UCLan. I am Director of the Communication, Cultural & Media Studies Research Centre. My work has been awarded funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC; four awards to date–five if we include HERA), British Council, European Commission (Framework 6), Leverhulme Trust, British Academy, HEFCE, among others. I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College, for Media, and for Music. I am currently a member of the Media, Communication & Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) executive–MeCCSA being the national UK association for scholars and postgraduate students in the field.  I have undertaken external examining responsibilities at around 15 institutions, at PhD, MA and BA levels. I have been a Visiting Fellow at University of Southern Maine, USA (1994), University of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria (1996), and at University of Sydney, Australia (2008).

In terms of public engagement, I am a fairly frequent contributor to British and some international media, including BBC and independent radio, having appeared on programmes as varied as Thinking Allowed (several times) and The Johnnie Walker Show. I have also appeared on numerous television programmes–news and documentaries–and written for publications such as the Guardian, Independent, Times Higher Education, New Statesman. A two-part  ABC radio documentary in 2009, on the leading Australian music programme Into the Music,  focused heavily on my research on street music and popular protest.