Michael Clark

Michael received a Film Studies BA from the University of Kent in 2016. His undergraduate work culminated with a dissertation about the often unremarked upon ways in which the slasher sub-genre of horror has evolved, as demonstrated by the film It Follows. He was awarded the Martin Walsh Prize in 2016 for achieving the highest grade among his cohort. Michael subsequently completed a Film Studies MA in 2017, also at the University of Kent, upon submission of a dissertation about declining quality in television narrative series and the related notion of ‘jumping the shark’, which he concedes was nothing more than a brazen excuse to write about The Simpsons. For his work, he was awarded the MA Film Achievement Prize 2016-17.    

Working Title: In the Long Run: The Problem of Appreciating Long-Running Television Fictions

In the autumn of 2018, Michael began researching the intersection between philosophical aesthetics and television for his PhD, with particular reference to the various ways in which comedy and drama series can mutate when negotiating the demands of longevity, and the problems this common occurrence may pose to traditional notions of work-identity and aesthetic appreciation. He hopes to use this as another excuse to watch The Simpsons, and perhaps some Twin Peaks.

Main Supervisor: Dr Margrethe Bruun Vaage

Second Supervisor: Professor Murray Smith