Michael Samuel

From the study of film and television to video games and online media, my interdisciplinary research explores how technology and culture intersect to shape the way we create, share, and experience stories, and fundamentally relate to one another. Through my role as co-director of the Bristol Digital Game Lab, I have led a project since 2024 developing a game titled Spare Parts, which explores experiences of postnatal depression in new fathers and the potential for game-making to be used within therapeutic contexts. This practice-led research, produced in collaboration with Dr Richard Cole and Dr Danny Bacchus and developed in conversation with the third sector organisations, has lay the foundation for thinking about the capacity for games to impact paternal mental health research, with a view to instigating eventual policy change in the support of new fathers in the UK. As well as exploring how technology might help us better understand the complexities of paternal mental health, as co-director of the new MA Game Design (Narrative) programme, which is the first programme of its kind in the world, I feel emboldened to inspire and equip others with the skills to make their own games. Furthermore, this interest has governed my research outputs and is consistent in my research and publications, reflected in my long-term interest in the role of television in facilitating one's sense of national identity and heritage (Factual Heritage Television, monograph, Routledge, 2026); my collaborative project exploring television's capacity to elicit empathy through its narrative, form and consumption (Television and Empathy, co-edited collection, Palgrave, 2025); and my internationally reaching dialogue exploring the complex geopolitical relationships playing out in the international streaming war (Streaming and Screen Culture in the Asia-Pacific, co-edited collection, Palgrave, 2022). As well as leading innovative research, I have sustained a consistent profile in film and television studies. My monograph Northern Exposure A Cultural History (2021) and forthcoming co-authored book on the series Halt and Catch Fire (Intellect, 2027) are testament to this commitment to contribute to my discipline. At the Department of Film and Television, I am the unit convener for Approaching Video Games, Film and Television Authorship, and Analysing Television, and I co-supervise PhD student Lexie Henning, whose project examines implicit classical reception within The Last of Us Games. I am open to accepting applications from potential PhD candidates.

[2023] Succession is as much about technology as it is about money, power and family [2024] Book Review: Moments in Television: Complexity/simplicity [2025] Nintendo Switch 2 and anticipated sequels – what to look forward to in gaming in 2025 [2025] Television and Empathy [2026] Factual Heritage Television