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Summary

Simon is a Reader in Media and Communications at ´å»¨ÂÛ̳. He is an internationally recognised expert on humour and comedy, whose research has provided a foundational critique of racist and offensive humour, and significantly reshaped understandings of the links between populism and comedy. Simon is a founding member of the Centre for Comedy Studies Research (CCSR) at ´å»¨ÂÛ̳. 

Simon completed his PhD in the Department of Sociology, University of Bristol, with a thesis entitled Humour, Rhetoric and Racism: A Sociological Critique of Racist Humour. That thesis formed the basis of his first book, The Rhetoric of Racist Humour: US, UK and Global Race Joking, which was published by Ashgate in September 2011. His first journal article (The ‘Other’ Laughs Back: Humour and Resistance in Anti-Racist Comedy, Sociology 2010 44.1: 31-48), won the British Sociological Association’s ‘Sage Prize for Innovation and/or Excellence 2011’. 

Between his PhD and arriving at ´å»¨ÂÛ̳ in 2012, Simon worked as a Research Associate in Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester and held an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Communications and Media Studies, Department of Social Sciences, Loughborough University.

Qualifications:

• PhD Sociology (Bristol)
• MSc Sociology (Bristol)
• BA History and Sociology (UWE)

Responsibility

Postgraduate Programme Coordinator, Sociology and Communications.

Deputy Chair of Board of Examiners.

Convenor, MSc Media and Communications.