Dr Abi Rhodes

• PhD Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, University of Nottingham
• MA Critical Theory and Politics, University of Nottingham
• BA English and Philosophy, University of Keele

Prior to becoming an Assistant Professor at the University of Birmingham I was an ESRC funded postdoctoral Impact and Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Nottingham, where I also completed my Midlands4Cities/AHRC funded PhD and an MA in Critical Theory and Politics.  

Since 2017, I have taught on multiple undergraduate and postgraduate modules at the Universities of Nottingham and Coventry in areas such as media (digital, legacy, social), communication and cultural studies, and critical theory.

From 2020-22, I was also a project coordinator with the human rights education Journey to Justice, co-creating and delivering a major national resource and education programme on economic justice. I started my working life as a publishing executive with the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, where I am still a member of the Board.

Alongside colleagues in the School, I am teaching on the Digital Media and Communications UG programme. I am responsible for curating and delivering the first year Researching Digital Cultures and Media History and Technologies modules.

I also convene Professional Research Skills of Linguists and Professional Communication modules on the BA English Language and Linguistics UG programme.

I am an Associate Fellow of the HEA.

I specialise in social movement communication and grassroots storytelling. My main areas of research are the political and social role of digital, new and legacy media and content and discourse analysis in the digital environment.

During 2022, I was the PI on an ESRC funded postdoctoral Impact and Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the University of Nottingham. My project considered the role of storytelling for economic justice and continued my relationship with the human rights education charity Journey to Justice.

My doctoral research, funded by Midlands4Cities/AHRC, analysed the campaigning strategies, tactics and arguments around the National Health Service (NHS) that were employed by the social movement People’s Assembly Against Austerity and the manifestos of two main political parties during the 2015 and 2017 UK general elections.  Using NVivo and Critical and Political Discourse Analysis, I analysed the language of online and offline communication, including tweets, activist websites, podcasts, visual performances on the street and other social media video messaging. This research was expanded to include Extinction Rebellion and the 2019 general election in my monograph Social Movements in Elections (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).