Mark Parker

Mark is a CHASE-funded PhD researcher at the University of Kent. 

Mark received a BA (Hons) in History from the University of Bristol before completing an MPhil in American History at the University of Cambridge.

He is supervised by Professor David Stirrup and Professor John Wills  

Mark believes that analyses of social movements must necessarily engage internal contradictions in aims, ideology, and approach to accurately capture their character. Towards this end, his dissertation integrates analyses of art, political commentary, and direct-action activism into a cohesive narrative which seeks to explicate the intricacies of the Red Power movement in its dominant phase (c. 1969-1978).  

Interdisciplinarity underpins Mark’s research. In engaging diverse primary materials, he looks towards critical and postcolonial theory, reception studies, History, and English in an effort to achieve clarity in the analysis of complexity. However, fundamental to this research is an engagement with Indigenous theory. In privileging the works of Indigenous theorists, he strives to ensure his work is cognisant of the growing demand for ethical research in Indigenous studies. 

PhD Title 

Art and the Red Power movement, 1969-1978