Dr Rebekah Willett

  • Qualifications and position:
    • BA, MA, PhD
    • Lecturer in Media, Culture and Communication
    • Lecturer in ICT in Education
  • Faculty:
    • Faculty of Culture and Pedagogy
  • Department:
    • London Knowledge Lab
  • Summary:
    • Dr Rebekah Willett is a lecturer in media, ICT and cultural studies. She is also a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Children, Youth and Media. She has conducted research on children's media cultures, focusing on issues of gender, literacy and learning.
  • Teaching:
    • Dr Willett teaches on the MA in Media, Culture and Communications and the MA in ICT and Education. She also supervises PhD students on topics related to children and media.
  • Research Projects:
    • She has recently completed a three-year project on amateur video making, and she is currently researching teenager's use of social networking sites. She will be a co-Investigator on a project from 2008-2010 which focuses on children's playground games and rhymes.

      She has recently completed a three-year project on amateur video making, and a project on teenager's use of social networking sites. She is currently a co-Investigator on a two-year project which focuses on children's playground games and rhymes, and a project which examines sexualized products aimed at children.
  • Postgraduate Research:
    • Dr Willett's research interests include gender, digital technologies, literacy and learning. She has recently completed a three-year project on amateur video making, and she is currently researching teenager's use of social networking sites. She will be a co-Investigator on a project from 2008-2010 which focuses on children's playground games and rhymes.

      • Daniel Cuzner 'The Hidden History of Amateur Film and Video Making in the UK'
      • Jo Henderson 'Documents of Ordinariness: the Video Nation project'
      • Naomi Hamer 'Contemporary children's literature, trans-media franchises and the literacy cultures of preadolescent girls'
      • Maria Lambriandidou 'The effects of television advertisements on the construction of children's consumer identities'
  • Professional Activities:
    • Consultancy work has included evaluating projects and co-authoring reports (for Office of Communications, MediaSmart, and Cambridge Film Consortium)

      Member of United Kingdom Literacy Association (Digital Literacies SIG); Media, Communications and Cultural Studies Association; British Educational Research Association. Member of Editorial Board for Girlhood Studies: An interdisciplinary Journal.
  • Conferences/presentations:
    • • 'It feels like you've grown up a bit': Bebo and teenage identity (2009) ESRC Seminar Series: The educational and social impact of new technologies on young people in Britain. Seminar 4, 2 March 2009, London School of Economics, London.
      • ''Sharing the luv': Consumers, identity and Social Networking Sites' (2008) Child and Teen Consumption Conference 24-25 April 2008, Trondheim, Norway.
      • 'Children, video-making and research: emerging questions about visual methodologies' (with Liesbeth de Block) (2008) Advancing the Use of Visual Methods in Research on Children's Cultures. 16 April 2008. ESRC Qualiti Seminar, Cardiff University
      • 'Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures' (2007) Keynote speech at ESRC-funded conference: Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures. 9 June 2007. Institute of Education, University of London.
Dr Rebekah Willett

Contact details

Contact details

  • Email:

  • Address:
  • London Knowledge Lab
    Institute of Education
    University of London
    23-26 Emerald Street
    London WC1H 3QS

  • Office Location:
  • Level 3
    23-29 Emerald Street, WC1N 3QS

Publications

  • Buckingham, D., Willett, R. and Pini, M. (forthcoming) Home Truths? Video Production and Domestic Life. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
  • Buckingham, D. and Willett, R. (eds) (2009) Video Cultures: Media Technology and Amateur Creativity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Willett, R. (2009) 'Young people's video productions as new sites of learning' In V. Carrington and M. Robinson (eds), Contentious Technologies: Digital Literacies, Social Learning and Classroom Practices. London: Sage.
  • Willett, R., Robinson, M. and Marsh, J. (eds) (2008) Play, Creativity and Digital Cultures. London: Routledge.
  • Willett, R. (2008) 'Consumer Citizens Online: Structure, agency and gender in online participation' In D. Buckingham (ed.), Youth, Identity and Digital Media.. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Willett, R. (2008) ''What you wear tells a lot about you': Girls dress up online', Gender and Education 20(5), 421-434.
  • Willett, R. (2007) 'Technology, Pedagogy and Digital Production: A Case Study of Children Learning New Media Skills', Learning Media and Technology 32(2), 167-181.
  • Willett, R. (2007) 'Consuming Fashion and Producing Meaning through Online Paper Dolls' In S. Weber and S. Dixon (eds), Growing up online: Children and technology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Willett, R. (2006) 'Poofy Dresses and Big Guns: A poststructuralist analysis of gendered positioning through talk amongst friends', Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education 27(4), 441-445.
  • Willett, R. (forthcoming) 'As soon as you get on Bebo you just go mad: Young consumers and the discursive construction of teenagers online', Young Consumers: Insight and Ideas for Responsible Marketers