Dr James Lyons

James's research takes an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary media phenomena: from the rise of Seattle to a city of global prominence in the 1990s, through the emergence of alternative comics as a vastly fertile area of cultural production, to the role of a landmark television show such as Miami Vice in reshaping US broadcasting in the 1980s. Whether it’s the ascendancy of Starbucks to international dominance, or the place of popcorn in our experience of cinema-going, what drives his research is the desire to understand the complex mechanisms shaping distinctive, but often deceptively simple aspects of our culture. His current work examines how documentary film represents risk, from global climate change, to obesity, to extreme sports. He appeared in The New York Times in October 2012, talking about his research on Starbucks. Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/us/tullys-coffee-struggles-against-a-v...