Dr Rupert Ashmore

Rupert is an art and design historian whose research spans fine art, photography, film and digital media. His research projects have focused on the use of visual media to construct and disseminate narratives of cultural memory in northern British and European communities, and how the communal use of photography, film and internet media enrich spaces with meaning and value.

He is currently investigating how photography can recuperate notions of social justice and citizenship for marginalised groups in the face of austerity, social abjection and populist media narratives.

Rupert’s teaching experience encompasses practice, history and theory in art and design, media, and cultural studies. He completed his doctoral thesis in 2011, examining the filmic and photographic portrayal of the 2001 Foot and Mouth Disease epidemic and the collapse of the County Durham mining industry from the late 1970s.