Unfunded Research Project - Histories of Mediated Emotion: An Integral Approach to Digital Media, Politics and Ecology

Emotions help hold societies together. They are experienced personally but they are always

products of a broader way of living. More than physiological, emotions are bodily sensations

interpreted through stories about ourselves and our world. Emotions are always, in part,

products of culture. As such they are products of history that, to be better understood,

demand historical examination.

The proposed research would investigate how politically consequential emotional

constellations like loneliness, anger, fear and sentimentality have been socially constructed

through media within the broader context of European modernisation. Loneliness, for

example, has been shaped not only by the privatisation of the bourgeois home in the

eighteenth century but also by the unobtainable romance of the sentimental novels that

accompanied it. Instagram can similarly distort social expectations today.

Relationships between media and emotion need to be understood in the context of a total

way of living. Understanding how emotions have been shaped by culture and values in the

historical long term can facilitate the transformations in culture and values that we need

today.

Student requirements for this project

A prospective student for this project should have a 2.1 degree, or higher, in a Humanties

or Social Sciences discipline.

A successful applicant will be self-motivated, organised and have good written

communication skills. Applicants will be requested to supply a curriculum vitae and a brief

research proposal.

Please submit applications to:

Dr Edward Brennan

School of Media

TU Dublin

Tel: 00 353 (0)1 220 55 02

Email: edward.brennan@tudublin.ie