Kirsten MacLeod
kirsten macleod 1

Dr Kirsten MacLeod

Professor

 0131 455 3343

  K.Macleod2@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Dr. Kirsten MacLeod is Professor of Creative Media Practice at Edinburgh Napier University. She is the Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity & Inclusion in the School of Arts & Creative Industries. She lectures on the BA (Hons) Television. She has worked as a filmmaker and media practitioner for over 20 years in broadcast and community based media.
She received a BA (Hons) Archaeology & Social Anthropology from Edinburgh University (1991) and an MA Visual Anthropology from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, University of Manchester (1994). She received her PhD in Creative Media Practice from the University of the West of Scotland (2014), based on practice led research in community media contexts in Govan and the Isle of Bute.

Kirsten was PI on AHRC/GCRF funded "Pacific Community Filmmaking and Gender, Impact and Engagement" project. The international, inter-disciplinary project, focused on developing community filmmaking to tackle gender based violence and gender inequality in the Pacific (2019-2020) https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT007990%2F1

The project set up the Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium and produced a slate of films by Pacific filmmakers working with their communities on GBV and the impact of covid on women.

Kirsten was a Co-I and filmmaker on Napier led, "Investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers and refugees during the Covid 19 outbreak" funded by Economic and Social Research Council & GCRF (£53, 888) (2019-21). https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV015990%2F1 This led to the production of the collaboratively produced short documentary, I'm Still Here.

Kirsten executive produced and edit produced the Napier collaborative documentary, Bleeding Free, about period poverty and dignity in Scotland and Uganda. This was part of the Bleedin Saor project which won the 2022 Times Higher Education Award for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. The film was made with students across SACI.

Kirsten coordinates many practical production projects and collaborations with organisations and industry such as the HMP Polmont YOI Media Project which won a 2017 Herald Higher Education Award for Widening Access.

She supervises PhD students across practice led, practice based and by publication covering social media and sport, community media and distribution, collaborative documentary production and ethics of participation.

She collaborates with partners such as Plantation Productions in Govan and has developed projects and screenings with organisations such as The Gallery of Modern Art, National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive and the Scottish Mental Health Arts & Film Festival and the Glasgow Women’s Library. She works internationally with filmmakers and academics on the pacific Community filmmaking consortium and with menstrual health education agencies in Uganda.

As a practice led researcher Kirsten is interested in examining community media as a form of knowledge practice situating filmmaking as a form of enquiry though which knowledge emerges during the production process. This approach to filmmaking and research is ethnographically informed, connecting media practice to place and people as well as acknowledging the personal and subjective agency of filmmaker and participants. Her research emphasises the relations of production which emerge during production and how knowledge is recorded and shaped by this process.

Kirsten is interested in community media as a way of deconstructing & reconstructing the past, such as in projects on the the Spanish Civil War in Govan, campaigning women on Clydeside and the Spanish Armada in Scotland.

Kirsten has worked in television on a range of factual programmes and series. She began her career as a researcher on Warriors of the Disappearing World (Granada TV/The Learning Channel) and Mars & Venus with Desmond Morris (Discovery) and began filming and directing with Keeping the Dream Alive, a 30 minute obs doc for BBC2 series, United Kingdom! (Mosaic films, 1997). Production credits include Shooting Producer/Director on series Liverpool Mums (Bazal for Ch5); Red Light Girls (Granada/ITV/Sky); The Wedding (Ginger for BBC2); Can You Live Without…Your Mum? (Ch4, Fulcrum TV), Heir Hunters (Flame TV). In 2009 Kirsten was Series Producer for MnETV on BBC Alba series, Frapaisean chon chaorach (Sheepdog Trials) and Trom is Tapaidh (Heavies).

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Indigenous Engagement, Research Partnerships and Knowledge Mobilisation, Rio de Janeiro
  • Community Filmmaking for Gender Equality in the Pacific - Fiji
  • Community Filmmaking for Gender Equality in the Pacific - Papua New Guinea
  • Community Filmmaking for Gender Equality in the Pacific- St Andrews symposium
  • Royal Television Society (RTS) Scotland Awards Panellist -Invited to be a jury panellist for the awards category - Factual - Documentary and Specialist Factual: Arts
  • Document Film Festival, 2017, Critical Forum invited panellist - Telling True Stories: Developing Human Rights documentaries, Centre for Contemporary Art Glasgow
  • Jury panel member Document Human Rights International Film Festival, Glasgow, 2016. Invited to be panellist for the category - International Documentary.

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Women Working in Film & Television - SACI

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Times Higher Education Award Winner: Outstanding Contribution to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
  • Nominated for theNapier Above and Beyond Awards, 2018 for my work as part the Polmont Media Project, a collaboration between ENU and Scottish Prison Service. The project facilitates students working with inmates at Polmont YOI to produce films and photogtraphy.
  • Herald Higher Education Award, 2017 for Widening Access for Napier -Polmont YOI media project. Supported stdents and coordinated project whereby they worked with inmates at Polmont YOI to produce short films in the prison.
  • Teaching Fellow, Edinburgh Napier University
  • Fellow, Higher Education Academy

 

Invited Speaker

  • Red Clydeside 50th Anniversary event in honour of UCS work-in, Clydebank.
  • Institute for Gender Studies, Ochanomizu University, Tokyo
  • The British Academy - Menstruation: Sharing Experiences form the global north and south
  • "Co- Creative Filmmaking: Process, Representation and Ethics” invited speaker at Document International Film Festival 2018
  • Paper presentation, "Documentary Processes of Knowledge & Creative Practice" at MeCCSA (Media Communication and Cultural Studies) Conference, 2018 (London South Bank University). Presented interim research from Asylum Project on local knowledge and documentary practice and on documentary production as research methodology
  • Presentation Pecha Kucha style,on "Creative Media practice, research and TV production - a Career Journey" to School Arts & Creative Industries staff and students.
  • Seminar presentation - Centre for Film Studies, St. Andrews University - "Community Media Practice: Filming local knowledge past and present."
  • Explorathon 2017, "Video history in a Day" at Whale Arts Centre, Wester Hailes, Edinburgh. Facilitated research and practice project with students of BA TV Community Media module who filmed with young people and families on subject of local history at the Whale Arts Community Centre. The event was sponsored through Beltane Network of EU University Researchers.
  • Seminar presentation at Centre for Film Studies, University of St. Andrews on "Community Media Practice: Filming local knowledge past and present." Paper presented my practice and research in community media production to staff, UG & PG students.
  • Challenging Media Landscapes Conference, University of Salford (22/11/16). Presented paper, "Participatory filmmaking as documentary practice"
  • Radical Film Network Un-conference, Glasgow University. Invited to participate and host seminar at Radical Film Festival Un-conference on practice & research in community and alternative media in Govan and broader contexts of participatory production, communities and alternative media.
  • Screen Studies Conference, Glasgow University (2016) – invited to contribute to panel "Developing & Engaging Radical Film Cultures” on my practice as a filmmaker working with local communities in Govan.
  • SACI Practice as Research Symposium presentation, "Participatory Community Media Practice & Research." Paper and discussion on practice as research methodologies in media production research.
  • Seminar presentation to Napier Centre for Media & Culture on Practice Led Research in Community Media production and how I have applied these in my work, including on documentary and archive project in Govan, Glasgow, "With a Song in your Heart." The production was produced in association with Plantation Productions and National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive.
  • MeCCSA (Media Culture and Communication Studies Association) Annual Conference 2016, Canterbury Christchurch University. “Mediating Community – methodologies of research and practice in Govan.” This paper is part of work towards a journal article on researcha nd practice methodologies based on my research in community media in Govan.
  • MeCCSA Annual conference, University of Newcastle. “Lady Alba and the Hills Have Ayes – Reflections on Scottish Alternative Media and the Independence Referendum.” This paper was based on research I carried out during the Scottish Independence Referendum 2014 into grassroots media and campaigning activity.
  • Paper presentation at Doing Women’s Film & Television History Conference, University of East Anglia. “We had never heard of feminism: Older women and the production of knowledge in participatory production” was based on research from community media production in Govan working with older women and developed into critique of broader context of older women in media production.
  • Becoming Scotland: Screen Cultures in a Small Nation Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. Paper on "Process, place and the person: mediating experience and identity through community-based and alternative media in Scotland."
  • Paper presentation at Community Filmmaking Conference, British Film Institute, 2014. Paper, “I film therefore I am: Mediating Island Identity through community based filmmaking“ presented research on community media and Scottish islands. Conference part of BFI funded research into community media in UK.
  • Paper presentation at ‘Sites of Protest’ symposium, MeCCSA Protest Network, Canterbury Christchurch University. “The Caledonian Turn – People’s Protest and Alternative Media in the Run up to the Scottish Referendum, 2014” based on research from the 2014 Scottish Referendum into participation and protest.
  • Spaces of (Dis)location, Practice as Research Network, University of Glasgow, 2012. Invited to present paper, “What do you know? Collaborative documentary production as an epistemological social process.”
  • Presented paper at Women’s History Network 20th Annual Conference, London Metropolitan University, “You Play Your Part: Women’s History via Participatory Media – A Glasgow example.”
  • 'Knowledge, Culture, Social Change' Conference, University of Western Sydney, Australia. Invited to present paper on practice led research in community and participatory media and knowledge in Scottish island and urban contexts - “I Film Therefore I am: Process, Practice & Participation in Community Media.”
  • AVPhD /Documentary Now! Brunel University, London. Invited to present paper to Audio Visual PhD conference on preliminary PhD research into documentary production, participatory media and knowledge - “I film therefore I am.”
  • MeCCSAAnnual Conference, University of Bournemouth. “I did not want to make this film, this film wanted to make me: techniques of production in the representation of place - examples from the Isle of Bute Video Project.”
  • MeCCSA Annual Conference, University of Bedforshire. “We film therefore we are: Media made in communities - process, practice & participation.”
  • Media Discourse Group, MeCCSA PG Network, 2012, De Montfort University, “You Play Your Part: an ethnographically informed, practice led approach to documentary knowledge.’
  • Doing Women’s Film & Television History, Norwich University. “We had never heard of feminism: Older women and the production of knowledge in participatory production.” (April 2014)

 

Media Activity

  • Launch of "I Am Still Here"
  • Interview on BBC Radio Orkney with David Delday about my Spanish Armada research and documentary film project, "Asylum Armada" (21/06/17). The interview publicised the research and encouraged members of the public to get in touch & take part.
  • "Hunt for the Spanish Armada Comes to Mull", The Oban Times, 11 May 2017. Interview & article on on Asylum Armada research and documentary film project.
  • "Looking into the Legacy of the Spanish Armada" - article & interview in The Orcadian newspaper, (18/05/17) relating to Asylum Armada research and documentary film project, encouraging local poeple to get in touch with stories and knowledge of the Armada in Orkney.
  • "Young Offenders Though Students’ lenses" Edinburgh Evening News, 19th May 2017. Interviewed for article about Napier led media project with BA TV students working in Polmont YOI with young offenders, which won Herald Higher Education Award for Widening Access, 2017.
  • Radio: Sunny Govan Radio. Interview on research and community based media production practice in Govan. Recorded as Christmas edition with my choice of playlist. (Glasgow, December, 2014). December, 2014.

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Aurora, Women in Leadership
  • Fellow Higher Education Academy
  • MeCCSA (Media Education Communication and Culture Studies Association) Practice Network

 

Public Engagement Activity

  • Produced and coordinated Community Media Practice Networking Day at CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts), Glasgow. Practitioners, partiicpants academics and public invited to share experience and discuss contexts and practice of community media production in Scotland.
  • Film screening & Audience Engagement, Pearce Institute, Govan. The Govan Banners (Director) as part of ‘Banners Tales of Glasgow’ Glasgow University research project. (27/05/15)
  • Film screening & Audience Engagement, Pearce Institute, Govan. You Play Your Part (Director & Producer) & Red Skirts on Clydeside. In association Glasgow University & Document Film Festival. (4/06/15)
  • Community Media Project Director: With a Song in your Heart – Participatory community based video production, Film Festival Screenings & Audience engagement. In association with Plantation Productions, National Library of Scotland Moving Image Archive, Go
  • Film Screenings & Audience discussion: The Only Way is Ethics Festival, Glasgow. - You Play Your Part & With a Song in Your Heart (produced & directed by me, with Plantation Productions) 30/11/15.- The Govan Banners (as above) 1/12/15.

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Havana Glasgow Film Festival - Screening and public discussion of "The Govan Banners" documentary
  • 'Regenerating Govan through film' - screenings of my documentary films and presentation to public audience as part of Radical Film Festival, 2016
  • "With a Song in your Heart" community media film presented for permanent exhibition at NLSMIA, Kelvin Hall, Glasgow

 

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49 results

“Are we criminals?” – everyday racialisation in temporary asylum accommodation

Journal Article
Guma, T., Blake, Y., Maclean, G., MacLeod, K., Makutsa, R., & Sharapov, K. (2024)
“Are we criminals?” – everyday racialisation in temporary asylum accommodation. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 47(4), 742-762. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2023.2238052
This paper critically examines the placement of people seeking asylum in temporary accommodation during the Covid-19 pandemic. It is based on a 14-month collaborative ethnogra...

Online screening of 'I'm Still Here'

Presentation / Conference
Macleod, K., & Guma, T. (2022, September)
Online screening of 'I'm Still Here'. Presented at Royal Geographical Society Annual Conference 2022, Online

I'm Still Here

Digital Artefact
Guma, T. (2022)
I'm Still Here. [Documentary film]
This is an ethnographic documentary co-produced with refugees and people seeking asylum during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on video and photo diaries recorded by participants...

The Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium: Producing Pacific community-based films by Pacific filmmakers

Journal Article
MacLeod, K. (2022)
The Pacific Community Filmmaking Consortium: Producing Pacific community-based films by Pacific filmmakers. Media Practice and Education, 23(2), 195-201. https://doi.org/10.1080/25741136.2022.2059832
This case study will discuss the impact pathways associated with a practice-led impact and engagement project based in the Pacific through the establishment of The Pacific Com...

Safe environment? Understanding the housing of asylum seekers and refugees during the Covid-19 outbreak

Report
Guma, T., Maclean, G., MacLeod, K., & Sharapov, K. (2022)
Safe environment? Understanding the housing of asylum seekers and refugees during the Covid-19 outbreak. ESRC
This report presents the key findings of the research project: Investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house people seeking asylum during the Covid-19 outbreak. Th...

I Am Still Here

Exhibition / Performance
MacLeod, K., Guma, T., MacLean, G., & Sharapov, K. I Am Still Here. [Digital Video]. Exhibited at Glasgow Media Access Centre. 23 February 2022 - 23 February 2022. (Unpublished)

)
MacLeod, K., Guma, T., MacLean, G., & Sharapov, K. I Am Still Here. [Digital Video]. Exhibited at Glasgow Media Access Centre. 23 February 2022 - 23 February 2022. (Unpublished
Premiere screening of "I Am Still Here" documentary film at Glasgow Media Access Centre as part of hybrid launch of project "Investigating the use of temporary accommodation t...

‘Are we criminals?’ Encounters with accommodation providers and everyday housing experiences amongst asylum seekers living in Glasgow during the pandemic

Presentation / Conference
Guma, T., Blake, Y., Maclean, G., MacLeod, K., Sharapov, K., & Makutsa, R. (2021, December)
‘Are we criminals?’ Encounters with accommodation providers and everyday housing experiences amongst asylum seekers living in Glasgow during the pandemic. Paper presented at Refugee Borders and Home-making, Barcelona
This paper addresses these gaps in our knowledge. It draws from TEMPACCO research project (https://tempacco.wordpress.com/), which is an ongoing 12-month digital collaborative...

Bleeding Free – advocacy and activism in the production of a student led documentary on period poverty and menstrual health education

Presentation / Conference
MacLeod, K. (2021, October)
Bleeding Free – advocacy and activism in the production of a student led documentary on period poverty and menstrual health education. Paper presented at Menstruation in the Media (in collaboration with Menstruation Research Network), Sheffield Halam University
This paper will discuss the a university produced social impact documentary, Bleeding Free, produced by an advocacy and impact collective, Bleedin Saor . The collective (meani...

Bleeding Free

Exhibition / Performance
MacLeod, K. Bleeding Free. [Digital video]. Exhibited at Hobnobben Film Festival, Hobnobben, USA. 15 October 2021 - 17 April 2022. (Unpublished)

)
MacLeod, K. Bleeding Free. [Digital video]. Exhibited at Hobnobben Film Festival, Hobnobben, USA. 15 October 2021 - 17 April 2022. (Unpublished
Screening of documentary film, Bleeding Free at Hobnobben Film Festival, 2021. https://cinemacenter.org/hobnobben-2021-films/bleeding-free

Safe environment? Investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers during the Covid-19 outbreak

Report
Guma, T., Maclean, G., Macleod, K., & Sharapov, K. (2021)
Safe environment? Investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers during the Covid-19 outbreak. ESRC
This report presents interim findings of the research project: Investigating the use of temporary accommodation to house asylum seekers during the Covid-19 outbreak. The proje...

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