You are here: / / Dr Nicola Mann
A person sits on a chair against a plain background, wearing a patterned shirt and black pants, smiling at the camera.

Dr Nicola Mann

Professor of Communications and Visual Cultures
Head of Department of Communications & The Arts

Contact:
Email: [email protected]
School: Department of Communications & The Arts
Research centre: International Visual Arts and Cultures

About

Nicola joined Richmond American University London in 2012. She holds a PhD in Visual and Cultural Studies from the University of Rochester, New York, and an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London. Informed by urban culture studies and community activism, her academic research considers dominant visualisations of subsidized housing communities in London in light of recent regeneration efforts. Through analysis of various television shows including Top Boy (Channel 4), Nicola addresses the ways in which council estates are mythologized in popular visual culture as a racially- and politically-charged sites that deserve to be demolished.

Nicola has a diverse background working across the academic, arts, culture, and charity sectors. Until 2016, she worked as a freelance coordinator for the Arts Council of England-funded organization, The Happy Museum Project. Supported by this experience and her interest in social arts practice, in late 2023 Nicola started her tenure as the Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Museum of Richmond, London.

Nicola has contributed her work to a number of publications including Afterimage, Aesthetica, Invisible Culture, and an edited volume with Charlotte Bonham-Carter titled, Rhetoric, Social Value and the Arts: But How Does It Work? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). She has co-organized numerous events in recent years, including a panel session at the Association of Art Historians conference, the College Art Association conference, and, most recently, a fundraising talk by Dame Zandra Rhodes at the Museum of Richmond.

Research interests

  • Visual Culture
  • Popular Culture
  • Urban Regeneration
  • Cultural Studies
  • The Social Value of the Arts
  • Museum Education.

Taught programmes:

  • MA Art History and Visual Culture
  • MA Visual Arts Management and Curating
  • BA Art History and Visual Culture
  • BA American Studies

Taught Modules

  • AVC 7100 – Research Methods
  • AVC 7105 – Visual Cultures
  • VAM 7100 – Research Methods
  • VAM 7105 – Arts Education
  • AVC 4205 – Introduction to Visual Culture
  • AVC 5400 – British Art & Architecture
  • AMS 5400 – American Television Drama
  • AVC 6296 – Snr Seminar 1 in Art History and Visual Culture

Publications

Book Chapters:

  • “From SuperOther to SuperMother: The Journey towards Liberty” in Engaging the Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture, ed. Elyce Rae Helford, (University of Mississippi Press, 2016).
  • “Performing Cultural Authenticity in CBS’s Good Times”, in The Paradox of Authenticity in a Globalized World, ed. Dr. Russell Cobb, (Palgrave Macmillan, U.K.: 2014).
  • “Don’t Believe the Hype: The Death and Resurrection of Chicago’s ‘Hood in the American Visual Imagination, Habitus of the ‘Hood, ed. Dr. Hans Skott-Myhre and Chris Richardson, (Bristol, U.K.: Intellect Press, 2012: 271-298).

Articles:

  • “A Disconnected Community? (Re)visioning the Heygate Council Estate through Digital Activism”, Between Texts and Cities, Writing Visual Culture, eds. Daniel Marques Sampaio & Michael Heilgemeir, (May 2015)
  • “Criminalizing the ‘Hood”, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism, (38.6, May/June 2011: 19-26).
  • “From Pathways to Portals: Getting to the Root of a Public Housing Community”, in Communicative Lands, Community Landscapes, Brock Review, Vol. 11, No. 2, (May 2011)
  • “From Pathways to Portals: Getting to the Root of a Public Housing Community”, in Community Building and Social Networks, Proteus: A Journal of Ideas, (April 2011)
  • “Criminalizing the ‘Hood: The Death of Public Housing in the American Visual Imagination”, Cross-Cultural Poetics: Streetnotes, ed. Blagovesta Momchedjikova, (Spring 2010)
  • Co-organizer with Dr Annita Ventouris: “Increasing Happiness and Wellbeing through Arts Participation & Play” conference, Richmond, The American International University in London, March 18 2016.
  • Co-organizer with Charlotte Bonham-Carter: “The Institutionalization of Social Practice” panel, College Art Association 104th Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. February 3 2016.
  • Co-organizer with Dr Susan Pell: “Re(V)isioning the Urban Imagination: The Art and Politics of Redevelopment” conference Richmond, the American International University in London. 2014
  • “A Disconected Community? (Re)visioning the Heygate Council Estate through Digital Activism”, Crime & Deviance in 20th Century Britain conference, University of Lincoln, U.K. 2014
  • Session Organizer with along with Charlotte-Bonham Carter: “But How Does it Work? Clarifying the Rhetoric Surrounding Social Value in the Arts”, Association of Art Historians Conference, RCA, London, U.K. 2014
  • “From SuperOther to SuperMother: The Journey towards Liberty” at the inaugural IVAC conference, Richmond University, London. 2014
    Symposium participant and presenter, “Sustainability and the City: America and the Urban World,” Salzburg Seminar American Studies Association (SSASA), Austria 2013
  • “Making Sense of Visual Culture” conference, Roundtable participant, Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester, USA. 2011  
  • “The Death of the Projects in the American Visual Imagination”, European Social Science History Conference, Ghent, Belgium. 2010
  • “Portal: A Journey through the Subterranean World of Cabrini Green Forest”, Greenscapes: Landscapes of Myth and Imagination Conference, Brock University, St. Catharine’s, Ontario, Canada. 2009
  • “Portal: A Journey through the Subterranean World of Cabrini Green Forest”, Mobility and Creativity Conference, University of Surrey, U.K. 2009
  • “Criminalizing the ‘Hood: The Death of Public Housing in the American Visual Imagination”, Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association Annual Conference, Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. 2008
  • “Criminalizing the ‘Hood: The Death of the Projects in the American Visual Imagination”, Crime Cultures Conference, University of Portsmouth, U.K. 2008
  • “Tripping the Light Fantastic: Representing the Teenage Twilight”, Constructed Light, Constructed Meanings Graduate Conference, Saint Louis University, Missouri, USA. 2008
  • “Tripping the Light Fantastic: Representing the Teenage Twilight”, Susan B. Anthony Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies Conference, University of Rochester, N.Y., USA. 2008
  • “Notes from the Underground: A Journey through the Subterranean World of Daniel Roth’s Cabrini Green Forest”, Contestations, Association of Art Historians Annual Conference, University of Ulster, Belfast, Northern Ireland. 2007