Ellen Watts

Contact

• workRoom B61 Law and Social Sciences
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Ellen.Watts@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

I joined the School of Politics and International Relations as an Assistant Professor in September 2022. Prior to this I was a Fellow in Qualitative Research Methodology at the LSE, and a Teaching Fellow at Royal Holloway where I completed my PhD in 2019.

In the 2023-24 academic year I will be Deputy Senior Tutor for 2nd Year Undergraduates.

Expertise Summary

Political Communication

Cultural Politics

Qualitative Research Methods (particularly using documents and media sources)

Teaching Summary

I currently convene POLI2055: Experiencing National Identity. This module aims to provide students with practical experience of designing and conducting qualitative research, through theories of how… read more

Research Summary

I am interested in the many and varied intersections between politics and entertainment.

My research to date has focused on celebrity activism, with an emphasis on how celebrities make claims to represent citizens and causes and when these claims are recognised as legitimate. I am currently working on a project about the footballer Marcus Rashford's child poverty activism, which asks who he speaks for and what forms of authority he draws on to do so. This builds on my PhD thesis, which used case studies of celebrity activists to investigate how celebrity capital can be exchanged for political legitimacy.

I am also interested in questions of who has authority and how it is claimed, sustained, or challenged in political communication more broadly.

Recent Publications

• ELLEN WATTS, 2020. ‘Russell Brand’s a joke, right?’ Contrasting perceptions of Russell Brand’s legitimacy in grassroots and electoral politics The European Journal of Cultural Studies. 23(1), 35-53
• CHADWICK, ANDREW, MCDOWELL-NAYLOR, DECLAN, SMITH, AMY P. and WATTS, ELLEN, 2020. Authority signaling: How relational interactions between journalists and politicians create primary definers in UK broadcast news JOURNALISM. 21(7), 896-914
• ELLEN WATTS and ANDREW CHADWICK, 2020. ‘With and between you all’: Celebrity status, user-audience networks, and representative claims in Emma Watson’s Feminist Politics.. In: REBECCA ANN LIND, ed., Produsing Theory in a Digital World 3.0: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory Peter Lang. 11-30
• ELLEN WATTS, 2019. Stormzy, status, and the serious business of social media spats. In: DAN JACKSON, EINAR THORSEN, DARREN LILLEKER and NATHALIE WEIDHASE, eds., Election Analysis 2019: Media, Voters and the Campaign Bournemouth University: The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community. 128

• View all publications

Ph.D. supervision

I am interested in supervising students who want to work in the following areas:

Developing qualitative-interpretive approaches to the study of politics;

Research methods in the PIR curriculum;

Political Communication, particularly questions of representation;

Politics and popular culture/entertainment;

I currently convene POLI2055: Experiencing National Identity. This module aims to provide students with practical experience of designing and conducting qualitative research, through theories of how national identities are constructed in everyday life and promoted by political elites.

I have also taught on:

POLI1014: Introduction to Comparative Politics

POLI1019: British Constitution in Crisis

POLI2009: British Party Politics

POLI2047: How Voters Decide

I am interested in discussions around how and where research methods training can be best delivered within the UG PIR curriculum, particularly in the integration of qualitative methods and interpretive research design. I have designed online exercises and resources for research methods textbooks and consulted with publishers.

Future Research

I have an interest in political comedy and satire, particularly in how television satire deals with contentious issues of (national) identity and responds in real-time to crises. I am also interested in how satirists (attempt to) negotiate expectations of objectivity and impartiality. I would be interested in collaborations on this or closely related topics.

• ELLEN WATTS, 2020. ‘Russell Brand’s a joke, right?’ Contrasting perceptions of Russell Brand’s legitimacy in grassroots and electoral politics The European Journal of Cultural Studies. 23(1), 35-53
• CHADWICK, ANDREW, MCDOWELL-NAYLOR, DECLAN, SMITH, AMY P. and WATTS, ELLEN, 2020. Authority signaling: How relational interactions between journalists and politicians create primary definers in UK broadcast news JOURNALISM. 21(7), 896-914
• ELLEN WATTS and ANDREW CHADWICK, 2020. ‘With and between you all’: Celebrity status, user-audience networks, and representative claims in Emma Watson’s Feminist Politics.. In: REBECCA ANN LIND, ed., Produsing Theory in a Digital World 3.0: The Intersection of Audiences and Production in Contemporary Theory Peter Lang. 11-30
• ELLEN WATTS, 2019. Stormzy, status, and the serious business of social media spats. In: DAN JACKSON, EINAR THORSEN, DARREN LILLEKER and NATHALIE WEIDHASE, eds., Election Analysis 2019: Media, Voters and the Campaign Bournemouth University: The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community. 128
• ELLEN WATTS, 2017. Celebrities4Corbyn: continuity and change in Labour’s use of celebrities.. In: EINAR THORSEN, DAN JACKSON and DARREN LILLEKER, eds., General Election Analysis 2017: Media, Voters and the Campaign Bournemouth University: The Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community.