Podcast Studies PhDs

The “Podcast Studies PhDs” group is an international collective of doctoral candidates in the emerging field of Podcast Studies who seek to connect and collaborate with each other to promote and advance research into podcasting from multi- and interdisciplinary backgrounds. We organise a number of events, including reading sessions that invite authors of podcasting research to talk about their work, themed workshops and informal writing sessions to keep us motivated. See our contact/join section for information on how to participate.

Upcoming Events

International Virtual Graduate Symposium – Link for Submissions

Join the Podcast PhD Network for our third online symposium exploring emerging research in international podcast studies.

If you’re an early career researcher working towards your MA, PhD or PostDoc or a practitioner we’d love for you to submit your work for this event.

Talks will be 15 minutes and a relatively informal. This is a space for exploring ideas so don’t feel pressure to only present something that is perfect.

Submissions close 30th June 

Past Events

Get in touch / Join

Or contact Anne Korfmacher on Twitter: @anne_korfmacher

Bios

Waqar Ahmed (School of Communications, Dublin City University, Ireland)
Waqar.ahmed3@mail.dcu.ie | Twitter: @WaqarSeyal
“Audio Podcasts and Audience Engagement in Ireland” (Working Title)
My work aims to provide an understanding of engagement practices of young audio podcast audiences in Ireland and to eventually uncover the creative potentials for audio podcast producers and journalists. This project will explore the changing relationship between podcast production and its audience. It will help to resynthesize the meanings of audience and engagement in the context of podcasting by using a mix-method approach.

Freja Berg (Department for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark)
fberg@sdu.dk / 0045 26170473
“Independent podcasting in Denmark” (working title)
The aim of the project is to map out the characteristics of independent Danish-language podcasts in terms of formats and content, and to investigate independent podcasting from a participatory media perspective. This entails examining podcasters’ conditions for production and distribution and their utilization of social media platforms to create listening communities in the era of platformization and commercialisation of the podcast medium. For this purpose, I combine quantitative content analysis, textual analysis, and qualitative interviews.

Danton Brasil (Federal Rural University of  Pernambuco, UFRPE, Recife, Pernambuco, Brasil)
Email: danbrasil95@gmail.com | Twitter: @DantonBrasil
“Pod-Who? Who and where are the podcasts made by historians and history teachers in brazil” (working title)
In 2020 we could observe a massive increase of listeners of Podcast in Brazil and thinking about its huge educational possibilities we, after explaining how the podcasting begun and what types and formats there is, this research is also showing and talking about the programs and shows produced by Historians and History Teachers.

Stacey Copeland (School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Canada)
staceycopeland.com | Twitter: @ASCopeland
What can a study of identity politics and cultural construction of audio media across multi-generations of queer radio makers reveal about the history and future of queer representation and gender politics in Canadian media? Through interviews, archival research and audio documentary creation my SSHRC-funded dissertation research explores aural identity and sonic spaces for queer women and lesbians in the Canadian media context. Research areas include: Sound Studies, Radio Studies, Podcasting, Voice and Culture, Gender and Feminist Studies, Media Production, Phenomenology, Broadcast history, Queer Theory and Culture.

Jeff Donison (Communication and Culture, York University, Canada)
Sound, Identity, and Representation in Canadian Minority Podcasting
My dissertation examines Canadian podcasting content and production practices facilitating racial and ethnic minority voice, identity and self-representation. My research particularly explores if podcasting allows marginalized podcasters to voice their experiences and histories as a form of resistance against mainstream media representations shaping the national imagination of what it means to be Canadian.

Alyn Euritt (Institute for American Studies, Universität Leipzig, Germany)
americanstudies.uni-leipzig.de/content/alyn-euritt-0 | Twitter: @aeuritt
“Podcasting Intimacy” (working title)
This project places textual analysis of specific podcasts alongside popular criticism/reviews and how-to articles to understand how podcasting defines intimacy. These definitions, I argue, draw on historical constructs of intimacy to negotiate podcasting’s cultural protocols and, by extension, its mediality. At the same time, they participate in a larger ongoing cultural negotiation about what it means to be intimate.

Lukas Herzog (Department of Journalism, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Germany)
lukas.herzog.eco | Twitter: @LukasHerzog
They are often quite long and not especially focused. So why do we actually listen to (journalistic) podcasts? – My dissertation research focuses on finding answers to that question using different communication studies approaches and theories like the uses and gratifications approach and parasocial relationships. Research interests: journalistic podcasting, media production, media ethics

Bryan Jenkins (Communication, Culture and Media Studies Department, Howard University)
Bryan.M.Jenking@gmail.com | Twitter @BJynx
“Doing Podcasts Studies” (working title)
My work aims to conceptualize Black podcasts as an alternative media news source; recognize Black podcasts as a form of critical education; and to emphasize the community building that occurs through Black podcasts.

Anne Korfmacher (a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School, University of Cologne, Germany)
annekorfmacher.de | Twitter: @anne_korfmacher
“Fan Commentary Podcasts” (working title)
Using the cultural studies informed formalist methodology by literary studies scholar Caroline Levine, my work seeks to systematically describe and understand the commentary genre’s affordances and constraints for the diverse group of fan podcasters, analysing a corpus of reread, recap, review and riffing fan podcasts

Gretchen Miller (UNSW, Sydney, Australia)
http://www.gretchenmiller.com.au/
The Rescue Project
What is the experience of being a rescuer of damaged landscapes and broken creatures, in a milieu of environmental crisis in Australia? How do individuals and grassroots communities go about small acts of rescue, and how do they maintain the courage to do this work?  The Rescue Project is a practice-based PhD and citizen storytelling website, including a podcast, which asks for 500 w stories about landcare and native animal rescue. This thesis contributes to environmental communication through drawing new media scholarship into the field, as it foregrounds listening and hearing, the spoken word, community storytelling and the ecosonics of the more-than-human world. It offers environmental communication practitioners new ways to go about their work, while responding to current calls within this scholarship for a listening modality: for too long we have been deaf to the more-than-human sounds of the world. is a demonstration of how we might humbly hear these worlds speak.

Ryan Stanton (Department of Media and Communications, University of Sydney)
rsta0386@uni.sydney.edu.au | Twitter @RantingStant
Podcasting and Play: How Gaming Content Creators Utilize The Podcasting Medium (Working Title)
Podcasting and Gaming Content creation are both growing new media formats that consistently reach a wide audience of tech-savvy consumers – an audience that traditional media institutions are eager to reach. This thesis will look both at the ways in which creators of podcasts discussing gaming issues approach the medium, the various ways success in both podcasting and gaming content creation spheres are being formalised by traditional media metrics, and what the audience of gaming podcasts look for in these shows.

Kylie Sturgess (Media/Communications, Murdoch University, Australia)
kyliesturgess@gmail.com | Twitter: @kyliesturgess
“Audio Edu-tainment Narrative Teaching – A Tertiary Podcast Model” (working title)
An investigation into technological innovations in audio-based learning (incorporating current research from the fields of blended learning, narrative theory and sound technology) and how the changing landscape of modern broadcasting can benefit tertiary level students of radio. In addition to the benefits this model can have for students of radio broadcasting, the proposal could have implications on podcast audio learning materials for future students across different subject areas.
Research interests: learning during COVID-19,  narrative podcasts, creative radio, educational theory, sound studies, podcasting, media production.

Ella Waldmann (LARCA, Université de Paris, France)
ellawaldmann@gmail.com | Twitter: @ellawt
“Podcasts as literary objects” (working title)
In this project, I analyze American narrative nonfiction podcasts from a literary and media studies perspective, tracing back their genealogy in the history of literary journalism but also looking at the specificities of podcasting as a new medium and its impact on literary forms. Through a case study of the podcast S-Town, I aim to show that podcasts can be read as literary objects, and that as such they push the boundaries of what is commonly understood as literature.