Dr Ruth Adams

Ruth has worked at King’s since 2003 and was instrumental in establishing the MA in Cultural & Creative Industries. She currently chairs the CMCI Undergraduate Assessment Board.

Ruth undertook her postgraduate studies at The London Consortium; completing an MRes in Cultural Studies & Humanities and a doctoral thesis, 'Gentlemen and Players: The Victoria and Albert Museum - An Institutional Case Study of the Culture and Society Tradition'.

Research Interests and PhD Supervision

• Representations of Englishness
• Critical interrogations of the discourse of ‘heritage’
• Youth subcultures and popular music
• Postcolonial identities and culture
• Class, gender, and cultural representation and consumption

Ruth’s current research projects include: 'Culture Wars' in the Creative Industries, expanding the parameters of English folk music; Grime and Drill music as expressions of national and cultural identity and heritage; and representations of country houses and the aristocracy in popular culture. Ruth welcomes applications for PhD topics related to any of her research interests for the academic year 2024-25.

For more details, please see her full research profile.

Teaching

Ruth convenes and teaches a variety of both BA and MA optional modules based on her research. She also supervises BA and MA dissertations and doctoral theses. 

Expertise and Public Engagement

Ruth has made a number of television and radio appearances. These include ‘Cunk on Britain’ and 'Cunk on Earth' (BBC & Netflix), ‘Peter York’s Hipster Handbook’ (BBC); 'Elizabeth: A Life Through the Lens (Channel 4); BBC Radio 4 'Today' Programme, 'Thinking Allowed' and 'The Third Degree'; Sky News & Channel 5 News, Korean television (KBS) and BBC Radio Wales. She has been a contributor to features articles in newspapers and magazines in the UK, Sweden, Brazil, and the UAE.

Ruth has given keynote addresses at conferences in Brazil and Colombia, and has been invited to give talks at symposia, festivals and theatres in the UK, South Korea and France. She was a member of the AHRC Peer Review College and an external examiner for Goldsmiths, University of London, University of Sheffield and University of Chester.

Selected publications

Abigail’s Party – “It’s not a question of ignorance, Laurence, it’s a question of taste”’, in Wrigley A. & Wyver J. (eds.)

Screen plays: Theatre plays on British television, (Manchester University Press, 2022); ‘“Are you going backwards. Or are you going forwards?”

England Past and England Future in 1970s Punk’, in Coulter C. (ed.), Working for the Clampdown: The Clash, The Dawn of Neoliberalism and the Political Promise of Punk, (Manchester University Press, June 2019)

“Home sweet home, that’s where I come from, where I got my knowledge of the road and the flow from”: Grime as an expression of identity in postcolonial London’, in Popular Music and Society, (Online publication May 2018)

‘The Queen on the Big Screen(s) – Outdoor Screens and Public Congregations’, in Merck M. (ed.), The British Monarchy on Screen, (Manchester University Press, February 2016)

‘The V&A, The Destruction of the Country House, and the Creation of ‘English Heritage’’ in museum & society, Vol. 11, No. 1, March 2013