Role
Dr Hanna Klien-Thomas is a research fellow in Creative Industries and her research is situated in transnational screen studies, visual and popular cultures. Based on a digital ethnographic approach, her current research project explores media practices and notions of public culture in the context of Caribbean Carnival in the UK. Her PhD project focused on Bollywood audiences in the Anglophone Caribbean and was funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences.
In 2012, she spent a year as an affiliate scholar at the Institute of Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, working on intersectional perspectives on gender, ethnicity and youth. Hanna obtained an MA in Anglophone Literatures and Cultures, an integrated BA/MA in Spanish as well as Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Vienna. Previous work includes an ethnography of the 'second generation' in the Cuban Hip Hop movement, various publications on Hindi cinema and stardom, and exploratory research on Caribbean feminist hashtag campaigns.
Teaching and supervision
Modules taught
Teaching on select modules across undergraduate programmes at Oxford Brookes as well as regular guest lectures at the University of Vienna in media and visual anthropology.
Research
My current research focuses on digital practices in the context of Caribbean Carnival in the UK. I am interested in counter- and non-hegemonic uses of digital technology, as well as how users negotiate notions of public time, place and community. Similar to my previous research projects, I use ethnographic methods to understand media practices in everyday life as well as the wider socio-cultural context. Working with research partners in Caribbean Carnival has also led to a research interest in urban justice and inequities, in particular how the lack of creative spaces impacts the relationship to the city.
Research group membership:
- Creative Industries Research and Innovation Network (Oxford Brookes)
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Network (Oxford Brookes)
- Migration and Refugees Research Network (Oxford Brookes)
- Visual Studies in the Social Sciences (University of Vienna)
- Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association
Recent research grants:
- Diversifying creative spaces in Oxford (Diversity and Inclusion Research, Innovation and Knowledge Exchange Network Small Grant)
- Carnival and its Digitalscapes (Independent Social Research Foundation small group grant, with Dr Maica Gugolati)
Groups
Projects as Principal Investigator, or Lead Academic if project is led by another Institution
- Finding Our Way: Space, Reclamation, And The Afro-Caribbean Experience In Oxford (led By Oxford University) (01/09/2022 - 31/07/2023), funded by: Oxford University