Overview
Background
Originally from the States, I've been lecturing at UQ since 2017. I teach Multimedia and Digital Project in the Bachelor of Communications, both of which center on embedding critical perspectives on media into creative and collaborative design and production processes. My research focuses on the relationship among gender, technological change and space. My methodological approaches combine textual analysis (looking at media content) with more industry-facing, hands-on approaches.
The current book projects turn to representations of gender violence in popular media. My second book, Representing Gender Violence in Contemporary Screen Media: Cutting Through the Park, is under contract with Routledge and it studies themes of surveillance technology in representations of stranger rape in television and film. My third book project, Feeling Safe: Gender Harm and Safety DIscourses in Platform Media, studies themes in gender safety discourses across various platforms including safety apps and dating apps.
My first book The Aesthetics of TV Nostalgia (Bloomsbury, 2019) is an industry study of the people designing sets and costumes for nostalgic US television programmes. I address how questions around gender play out on television alongside larger concerns around historical progress and regress that are attached to technological change. You can find my other publications in the areas of television representations of gender, the female body in narratives around nationhood, digital archives, and creative production in Adaptation, Television & New Media, Feminist Media Studies, Cinema Journal, Continuum, Surveillance & Society and Convergence.
Availability
- Dr Alex Bevan is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Arts, Yale University
- Masters (Coursework), Northwestern University
- Doctor of Philosophy, Northwestern University
Research interests
-
Gender Studies and Gender Violence
Media representations of gender and gender violence in popular media
-
Space
The portrayals of space in media. The entanglement between the design of space and media technology.
-
Media and Cultural Studies
The history of media technology, platforms, and discourses of technological change
Research impacts
My research on gender violence addresses one of the most pervasive and systemic of social crises. The binary of domestic violence and stranger violence, as it is constructed in media and platform design, hinders and derails public attention, intervention, and policy. The way violence against women is represented in media tells us repeated stories around what spaces and behaviors are safe, how women's movements should be trackable with technology, and whom is at fault or responsible.
I welcome any industry, NFP, or government collaborations that place gender safety at the center of their remits. I offer skillsets in the areas of gender advoacy, gender education, media and communications anaylsis, brand analysis, multiplatform branding and messaging, and user experience research.
Works
Search Professor Alex Bevan’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Journal Article
Feeling safe: safety app discourse and affective labor
Bevan, Alex (2024). Feeling safe: safety app discourse and affective labor. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 30 (3), 1170-1185. doi: 10.1177/13548565231218412
2023
Journal Article
Jon Hamm's Post-Mad Men Persona and Representations of Hegemonic Masculinity
Bevan, Alex (2023). Jon Hamm's Post-Mad Men Persona and Representations of Hegemonic Masculinity. Celebrity Studies, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), 1-16. doi: 10.1080/19392397.2023.2226264
2022
Journal Article
Dating, dying and digital connection during COVID
Bevan, Alex (2022). Dating, dying and digital connection during COVID. Meanjin, 81 (3), 150-159.
2022
Journal Article
Heard/Depp: A Movement Built on Absence & What I'm Not Saying
Bevan, Alex (2022). Heard/Depp: A Movement Built on Absence & What I'm Not Saying . MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture.
2022
Book Chapter
The stone-cold power dame: TV women in power, state security, and national discourse
Bevan, Alex (2022). The stone-cold power dame: TV women in power, state security, and national discourse. TV Transformations and Transgressive Women: From Prisoner Cell Block H to Wentworth. (pp. 289-309) edited by Radha O'Meara, Craig Batty, Tessa Dwyer and Stayci Taylor. Oxford, United Kingdom: Peter Lang.
2021
Journal Article
Women’s bodies and the evolution of anti-rape technologies: from the hoop skirt to the smart frock
Wilson-Barnao, Caroline, Bevan, Alex and Lincoln, Robyn (2021). Women’s bodies and the evolution of anti-rape technologies: from the hoop skirt to the smart frock. Body and Society, 27 (4), 30-54. doi: 10.1177/1357034x211058782
2019
Journal Article
Designed for threat: Surveillance, mass shootings, and pre-emptive design in school architecture
Bevan, Alex (2019). Designed for threat: Surveillance, mass shootings, and pre-emptive design in school architecture. Surveillance and Society, 17 (3/4), 550-564. doi: 10.24908/ss.v17i3/4.7077
2019
Journal Article
Transferring below-the-line skillsets across creative industries in early television
Bevan, Alex (2019). Transferring below-the-line skillsets across creative industries in early television. Continuum, 33 (4), 1-15. doi: 10.1080/10304312.2019.1621265
2019
Book
The aesthetics of nostalgia TV: production design and the Boomer era
Bevan, Alex (2019). The aesthetics of nostalgia TV: production design and the Boomer era. New York, NY, United States: Bloomsbury. doi: 10.5040/9781501331442
2019
Conference Publication
From chastity belts to smart frocks: The promise of rape-prevention technology
Wilson-Barnao, Caroline, Bevan, Alex and Lincoln, Robyn (2019). From chastity belts to smart frocks: The promise of rape-prevention technology. Association of Internet Researchers Conference, Brisbane, Australia, 3-5 October, 2019.
2019
Conference Publication
Transferring Below-the-Line Skillsets Across Creative Industries in Early Television
Bevan, Alex (2019). Transferring Below-the-Line Skillsets Across Creative Industries in Early Television. Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Seattle, WA, United States, March 14 2019.
2018
Journal Article
3-D printed sets and props : how designers integrate digital technologies
Bevan, Alexandra (2018). 3-D printed sets and props : how designers integrate digital technologies. Convergence, 24 (6), 135485651878934-567. doi: 10.1177/1354856518789345
2018
Journal Article
Transmedia theory's author discourse and its limitations
O'Meara, Radha and Bevan, Alex (2018). Transmedia theory's author discourse and its limitations. M / C Journal: A Journal of Media and Culture, 12 (1).
2018
Conference Publication
Wentworth, Surveillance and Citizenship
Bevan, Alex (2018). Wentworth, Surveillance and Citizenship. Wentworth is the New Prisoner Conference, Melbourne, Australia, April 6 2018.
2017
Other Outputs
Never Been Cool (podcast)
Bevan, Alex (2017). Never Been Cool (podcast). Itunes and YouTube: Itunes and YouTube.
2017
Other Outputs
The Incessant Violation in Aronosky's Mother! Makes Me Mad in a Good Way
Bevan, Alex (2017, 10 13). The Incessant Violation in Aronosky's Mother! Makes Me Mad in a Good Way PopMatters
2017
Journal Article
How to make victory rolls: gender, memory and the archive in YouTube pinup girl hair tutorials
Bevan, Alex (2017). How to make victory rolls: gender, memory and the archive in YouTube pinup girl hair tutorials. Feminist Media Studies, 17 (5), 755-773. doi: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1298645
2017
Conference Publication
Designed for Threat: School Architecture, Mass Shootings and Surveillance Culture
Bevan, Alex (2017). Designed for Threat: School Architecture, Mass Shootings and Surveillance Culture. Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago, IL, United States, March 22-26 2017.
2016
Conference Publication
One Fifth the Thickness of a Human Hair: 3D Printing and New Approaches in Film and TV Art Direction
Bevan, Alex (2016). One Fifth the Thickness of a Human Hair: 3D Printing and New Approaches in Film and TV Art Direction. Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Atlanta, GA, March 30-April 3 2016.
2015
Journal Article
Reality TV by June Deery
Bevan, Alex (2015). Reality TV by June Deery. Information, Communication and Society, 19 (12), 1799-1802. doi: 10.1080/1369118X.2015.1114658
Funding
Past funding
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Alex Bevan is:
- Available for supervision
Before you email them, read our advice on how to contact a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
-
Doctor Philosophy
In what ways has creativity, play and social exchange manifested itself in the amateur radio community in Australia
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Nicholas Carah
-
Doctor Philosophy
Reality Check: augmented reality on social media
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Nicholas Carah
-
Master Philosophy
Le Corbusier's media of design: an inquiry of drawing, representation and design ideation through architectural case studies
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Antony Moulis
-
Doctor Philosophy
Algorithmic Realities: Platform Data Processing Perceptions of Productivity Content Creators, and Their Influence
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Nicholas Carah
-
Doctor Philosophy
Diffusion of New Media and Public Service Broadcasting: Is New Media a Lifeline for Public Radio Broadcasting in Bangladesh?
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Pradip Thomas
Media
Enquiries
Contact Dr Alex Bevan directly for media enquiries about:
- art direction
- creative industries
- design history
- fashion
- gender
- media criticism
- production design
- sexuality
- television history
Need help?
For help with finding experts, story ideas and media enquiries, contact our Media team: