Prof Kirsty Fairclough

‘It’s all starting to come to life’: Behind the scenes at Co-op Live as Manchester prepares for the BRIT Awards 2026 - Prolific North In just over two weeks, Harry Styles, Olivia Dean, Wolf Alice and many more will descend on Manchester as the BRITs take over Co-op Live, leaving the capital for the first time in the ceremony’s near ...

"Manchester's always been cool... now it's cooler than ever."

Our Manchester music expert and BRITs Fringe Steering Group member @profkirsty.bsky.social spoke to Prolific North about what Manchester hosting the BRIT Awards means for the city. 🎶

Read more 🔗 https://bit.ly/4qwNkQw

This week, BRITs nominations officially launched in Manchester! 🎤🎉

@profkirsty.bsky.social shares more about our School of Digital Arts hosting a #BRITsFringe event.

Watch this space for more info coming soon and tell us your favourite nominees 👇

From Abba Voyage to Lennon’s childhood home: Professor’s fresh look at music autobiographies Professor Kirsty Fairclough’s new book on pop star autobiography as an expanded genre

A new book by popular culture expert @profkirsty.bsky.social challenges the idea of a traditional music autobiography by studying how musicians narrate their lives, from Taylor Swift’s Instagram posts to the childhood homes of Lennon and McCartney.

🔗 https://bit.ly/3N3LvMG

BBC Radio 6 Music - Chris Hawkins, 01/12/2025 Chris with the early morning breakfast show

Interesting conversation this morning between @profkirsty.bsky.social and Chris Hawkins about contemporary music / biography

#BBCRadio6 Music - Chris Hawkins, 01/12/2025
share.google/dWsDWFC8Tr4s...

🌐🚨 CALL FOR PAPERS 🚨🌐

'The Visual Politics of Digital Ecologies'

🗓️ 2-3 February 2026
📍 @oxfordgeography.bsky.social

We invite one-word titles (e.g. hallucinating, zooming, obscuring, glitching, generating)

Deadline: 14th November

Full info: digicologies.com/cfp

Call for chapters: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Literature and Popular Music edited by Tom Attah, Christian Lloyd and me.

This comprehensive, interdisciplinary handbook will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2017.

iaspm.org.uk/the-bloomsbu...

An Audience with Sir Phil Redmond — Join a legend of British television for a fascinating career retrospective. Join a legend of British television for a fascinating career retrospective.

Looking forward to chatting to Sir Phil.

homemcr.org/whats-on/an-...

👥 We’re actively recruiting reviewers! If you’d like to join or share feedback on how to improve the journal, we’d love to hear from you!

📖 In the coming months, we’ll also be reintroducing published works from our archives—stay tuned!

#Sociology #GradStudent #Research

We’re celebrating the brilliant BFI NETWORK alumni selected for Venice Biennale and Toronto International Film Festival! Read more about their features here: rb.gy/m51r3f 👏 #BFINetwork #VeniceBiennale #TIFF2025

Call for book proposals! We're looking for fresh takes on the punk movement to mark the upcoming 50th anniversary as part of the next instalment of our acclaimed @manchesterup.bsky.social British Pop Archive series.

Photo of a sitting Japanese woman with red hair in a bob style wearing a black and yellow dotted outfit which matches the background

'I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned'
-Yayoi Kusama

#WomensArt #MondayMotivation

Thank you, much appreciated. Well done on your position. Let’s catch up when you’re back in Mcr.

‘We can’t ask to turn the clock back. The resources just aren’t there’ As he begins his stint as Universities UK president, Malcolm Press tells Helen Packer that the sector’s demands of government need to be realistic about the constrained state of public finances and th...

As he begins his stint as Universities UK president, Malcolm Press tells @helenpacker.bsky.social that the sector’s demands of government need to be realistic and that the sector will have to address its own problems through efficiencies and collaboration
#academicsky #edusky

This was entirely predictable in an environment where there is little to no spare cash in universities to cover research expenses.

LAST CALL! Undershed: Call for Immersive Artwork @wshed.bsky.social‬: apply to an exhibition themed around the question: "What does home mean to you?"

🗓️ Deadline: July 20

https://www.watershed.co.uk/jobs-opportunities/2025/07/undershed-call-immersive-artwork

It’s out! Published by @bloomsburymus.bsky.social

Loved working with a great team in @Tom Attah and @Christian Lloyd.

Anna Wintour's net worth to undergo major transformation after "Vogue" exit The fashion icon's decision to step down as editor-in-chief of the magazine may have been a smart decision.

I had a chat with Newsweek about Anna Wintour's celebrity status following her departure from Vogue.

www.newsweek.com/anna-wintour...

Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences Using a radical and inclusive definition of the genre, this collection explores musicians' autobiographies as articulated in print, on stage, and through variou…

Our book was published by
@bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social today! Nice work @profkirsty.bsky.social ‬and #ChristianLloyd and ALL our amazing authors - some very experienced scholars, some brand new voices. Looking forward to our copies in the post. www.bloomsbury.com/uk/rereading...

Very pleased to have a chapter on CUD: Rich and Strange @cud.bsky.social (thanks to @williampotter.com) in Rereading Musicians and their Audiences edited by @profkirsty.bsky.social, Tom Attah and Christian Lloyd

Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences Using a radical and inclusive definition of the genre, this collection explores musicians' autobiographies as articulated in print, on stage, and through variou…

out today: 'Rereading Musicians and Their Audiences: Popular Music Autobiographies', ed. Tom Attah, @profkirsty.bsky.social, & Christian Lloyd. featuring my chapter on Lady Gaga as pop's greatest Wildean since Bowie - 'Lady Gaga's Wildean Self-Representations'! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/rereading...

Last night at the newly developed Campfield, @mayorofgm.bsky.social launched a bold new vision for the next decade in Mcr. And it’s always lovely to catch up with some of my favourite GM powerhouse women.

Taylor Swift, Charli xcx and Springsteen among live music acts who gave UK £10bn lift in 2024 Report says concerts attracted record 23.5m fans, leading to unprecedented spend across British economy A wave of big-name acts including Taylor Swift, Charli xcx and Bruce Springsteen helped to attract a record of more than 23 million live music fans in the UK last year, leading to an unprecedented £10bn of spending across the UK economy. A report from the industry body UK Music estimates that 23.5 million “music tourists” attended concerts and festivals last year, up almost a quarter on the 19.2 million in 2023. Continue reading...

Taylor Swift, Charli xcx and Springsteen among live music acts who gave UK £10bn lift in 2024

Today we're at the 'Rethinking Manchester’s Musical and Subcultural Histories' conference at @manmetuni.bsky.social‬ with our list of British Pop Archive, Subcultures & Manchester Music titles 🎧

- Say hi
- Buy books
- Learn how to publish with us 📗

Organised by @profkirsty.bsky.social‬

School of Digital Arts: Innovation at the Intersection of Art, Technology, and Industry Professor Kirsty Fairclough on how the School of Digital Arts at Manchester Metropolitan University is shaping the future of digital creativity.

As the brilliant Manchester School of Art Degree Show comes to a close, we revisit @profkirsty.bsky.social's article in our recent zine reflecting on the role of the School of Digital Arts at @manmetuni.bsky.social in shaping the next generation of cultural changemakers.

TOMORROW (Monday) - @tobyhadoke.bsky.social and myself will be in conversation at HOME in Manchester after a screening of the newly remastered Quatermass Xperiment film… tickets selling like hot rockets (is that a thing?)

homemcr.org/spektrix/Cho...

Neither Factory Records nor Madchester: Rethinking Manchester’s Musical and Subcultural Histories - School of Digital Arts (SODA) – Manchester Metropolitan University Cities tell stories about themselves. Manchester likes to tell a story about itself that’s often summed up in the alleged words of Tony Wilson, founder of

#Manchester is a major musical city and we'll be debating where it's been and where it's going next week...

schoolofdigitalarts.mmu.ac.uk/events/neith....

I’m gathering a list of #OpenAccess or #freelyaccessible #Film, #Television, #ScreenStudies, #audiovisualmediastudies Publications, Editors and Advocates People at Bluesky. Please let me know if you’d like me to add you. go.bsky.app/NBipNnW

Drag artists are getting attacked. This safety handbook aims to help. As Pride Month approaches, a group of drag artists and their allies are releasing guidelines to help performers navigate a landscape of online harassment and physical violence.

As Pride Month approaches, a group of drag artists and their allies are releasing guidelines to help performers navigate a landscape of online harassment and physical violence.