Dr Richard Howells is a journalist and broadcaster turned academic who nowadays (and gleefully) combines both fields. He specialises in media and culture, including the popular and the visual. This includes everything from discussions and documentaries to commenting on the topical issues of the day.

Richard started as a print and radio journalist, producer and presenter (most recently with the BBC) who, in a moment of Quixotic inspiration, gave it all up to go to Harvard. There, he graduated summa cum laude (with highest honours) before returning to his native England to take his Doctorate in Social and Political Sciences at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He is now Reader in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King’s College London.

His books include two editions of The Myth of the Titanic (1999 and 2012) and Visual Culture (2003 and 2012 –there is also a Chinese edition), while his scholarly journal publications include studies of British documentary photography, the importance of media in education, the public value of the humanities, pioneers of early film, celebrity photography, and race, identity and the humour of Ali G. He specialises in the use of case studies to reveal broader truths. Most recently, he collaborated with the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA to edit: Outrage: Art, Controversy, and Society (2012) including his own opening chapter on art, controversy and power. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television.

Television credits include documentaries for the BBC and the Discovery Channel, along with discussion and comment appearances on BBC television and radio, Sky News, ITV, ABC Television (USA), ABC (Australia), CCTV (China), and ZDF (Germany) In addition to being an invited speaker at universities and academic conferences around the world, Richard has lectured to more general audiences at venues such as the National Portrait Gallery in London, Kenwood House, the Institute of Ideas and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

Richard Howells is married to the designer Sarah Howson, and lives in central London and West Sussex.