Welcome to BIRMAC, the home of Interdisciplinary Research in Media and Culture at Birkbeck. Our mission is to share the multifaceted research taking place at the Department of Film, Media and Cultural Studies, School of Arts, Birkbeck College. Many of our research events and projects are collaborations with colleagues from across Birkbeck and beyond. We invite you to participate in our interdisciplinary research via live discussions, workshops, publications and working sessions, which are listed on this website.
About
Currently BIRMAC is directed by Dr Rebekah Cupitt. Between 2021-2023 BIRMAC was co-Directors by Dr Rebekah Cupitt and Dr Lina Dzuverovic who built on the work of previous directors Dr Janet McCabe, Dr Silke Arnold de Simine and the late Dr Lorraine Lim.
Dr Rebekah Cupitt is a Lecturer at Birkbeck’s Department for Film, Media and Cultural Studies. Rebekah’s research focuses on the people who use technology in their everyday lives and the socio-cultural aspects of technology relevant to its design. More specifically, Rebekah examines the ways in which technology influences communication in Swedish Sign Language and how it then becomes an active participant in performances of dDeaf (and hearing) identity in technology and media-rich organisational contexts. Rebekah’s research takes a post-human and anti-normative approach to techno-utopias which often haunt human-computer interactions and therefore have implications for design. Cupitt has a BA (University of Queensland, Australia) and an MA in Social Anthropology (Stockholm University, Sweden) and holds a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction specialising in Mediated Communication (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden).
Advisory Board
Currently under re-formation.
History
BIRMAC was co-founded In 2014 By Dr Janet McCabe And Dr Lorraine Lim who co-directed the centre until 2017.
Between 2017-2021 BIRMAC was co-directed by Dr Janet McCabe, Reader in Television and Film Studies and Dr Silke Arnold-de Simine, Reader in Memory, Media & Cultural Studies.
