Benjamin Davies

My research focuses on the content of contemporary multimedia political communication from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). This involves gathering, archiving and examining concrete examples of multimedia communication (e.g., posters, videos and songs), and analysing their messaging. During my PhD, I aim primarily to look at materials from the last few decades. But I am interested in the use of such materials throughout the entire history of the PRC.

I am also interested in conversations about the state of research in this field, ideology and politics in the PRC generally, the definition and nature of political communication, and the historical and contemporary use of political communication in related countries such as the Soviet Union/Russia.

Methodologically speaking, I am very interested in the use of computational methods, such as webscraping, automated image analysis and natural language processing, in such research.

I joined the Centre as a PhD student in 2022. I have studied literature, languages and social sciences at several British and Swedish universities. My BA dissertation on the late works of J.M. Coetzee was published in 2020.