Explore our campus, including our modern accommodation and innovative course facilities on our virtual tour.

What are you looking for?

Courses

Events

Staff

Staff Profile

  1. Home
  2. Staff Directory
  3. Anthony Stepniak

  • Anthony is a Senior Lecturer in Media and Cultural Theory teaching, leading and designing modules from levels 3-7 on our BA (Hons) Creative Film, Television and Digital Media Production, BA (Hons) Film and Screen Studies and BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Stage and Screen undergraduate degree programmes.

    In his role as Deputy Head of Subject, Anthony leads the programmes and teams in our Media, Film, Journalism and Special Effects area with both operational and strategic responsibility for student experience, learning and teaching, student recruitment, curriculum and portfolio and both budget and staff line management. Additionally, Anthony is currently programme leader for our BA (Hons) Creative Film, Television and Digital Media Production programme.

    Anthony led on the writing and formulation of our BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Stage and Screen degree and was previously programme leader for the course in order oversee its establishment and implementation.

    Additional to his learning and teaching responsibilities, Anthony is active in the wider institutional environment as a member of the University Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Forum, Access and Participation Plan (APP) operational and steering groups and the Disability Coordinators Group. Anthony is also co-chair of the LGBT+ Staff Network and was one of the co-authors of the 2024 UON Access and Participation Plan.

    Anthony contributes towards our HEA programme for academic professional development where he runs a workshop on Methods for LGBT+ Inclusive Learning and Teaching. Anthony is also a trained validation panel member, contributing towards the quality assurance processes for new and existing degree programmes across the University. Currently Anthony is leading a cross institutional project focused on redesigning the function of Personal Academic Tutoring (PAT) at the university.

    Anthony was the European Officer for the Young Adult Literature, Media and Culture association from 2017-2020 and is currently a contributor for the Young Adult Studies Association (YASA). Anthony is a regular on BBC Radio Northampton discussing research relevant topics from LGBT+ screen media, book reviews, award show commentaries and opinion pieces and the promotion of student experience related initiatives at the university.

  • Anthony has taught and currently teaches media and cultural theory and research methodologies on a range of programmes at the University including BA (Hons) Creative Film, Television and Digital Media Production, BA (Hons) Film and Screen Studies, BA (Hons) Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics for Stage and Screen, BA (Hons) Fashion Design, BA (Hons) Sociology, MSc (Hons) Public Sociology, BA (Hons) Multimedia Journalism, BA (Hons) Multimedia Sports Journalism and the Arts Cognate of the Integrated Foundation Year Programme.

    Current and previously taught modules include:

    • MED1084: Media and Creative Industries
    • MED1085: Writing the Media
    • MED1094: Beyond the Disney Princess: Representation and Animation
    • MED2078: Researching the Media
    • MED2124: Researching Screen Media
    • MED2125: Gender, Race and Sexuality: Identity in Contemporary Screen Media
    • MED4031 Practical Project and Dissertation Module
    • MED4037 Final Major Project
    • HMP1002: History of a Thousand Faces: Make-up and Identity on Stage and Screen
    • HMP1004: Hair and Who We Are: Contextualising Hair and Identity on Stage and Screen
    • HMP1005: Cosmetic Constitutions: The Critical Connection Between Hair, Make-up and Identity
    • HMP2002: Transformation in a Transmedia Universe: Prosthetics and Identity
    • HMP2005: Researching Trends in Hair, Make-up and Prosthetics
    • HMP3004: Short Critical Dissertation
    • JOU2017: Media Theory and Research Skills
    • FSH2101: Contextual Studies 2
    • FSH2108: Fashion Professional Practice
    • SOC1072: Media, Crime and Society
    • SOCM083: Communication Studies for Social Impact
    • FDN020: Investigating Your Subject
    • FDN021: Negotiated Learning Project

  • Anthony’s PhD was media and cultural studies focused and was entitled: ‘It’s Time to Give This Wretched World the Queen it Deserves: ‘Critically Tracking the Evolution of the Wicked Queen in Contemporary Narratives’.

    Anthony’s research interests focus on:

    • Representations of Wicked Queens and women, evil and power.
    • Queer identity representation and notions of abjection in contemporary screen media and literature, especially Young Adult literature, media and culture.
    • Exploring pedagogical models of learning and teaching including methods of LGBT+ inclusive learning and teaching, Active blended learning and putting theory into practice for practice-based arts students in higher education.

    Anthony has organised two international conferences at the university:

    • Investigating Identities in Young Adult YA narratives, international conference at the University of Northampton 2017.
    • Straight to the Front Row: Investigating Contemporary Gay Male Cinema, International Conference at the University of Northampton 2019.

    Anthony has worked on a number of funded research projects including:

    • SuCEED@8 ‘Supporting the notion of PGR Community to Collaborate and Emotionally Engage with Digital Shifts at Level 8 (2017)
    • Exploring the use of the Socratic Dialogue in Teaching and Learning (2017)
    • The Changing Face of Northampton’s Racecourse (Heritage Lottery Funded) (2018)
    • Exploring the Ethical Implications of Staff:Student Research Partnerships. (2018)
    • TECH4ALL: Enhancing Digital Literacy in H.E (2019)
    • Exploring the University’s Access and Participation Plan (2020)
    • Investigating the Connection Between Personal Academic Tutoring and Student Retention and Progression from level 4 to 5 (2023-2024)
    • Developing an Inclusive Curriculum Across the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology (2024-2025)
    • Bouverie Interpretation Project with Delapre Abbey (2024-2025) (Association of Independent Museums & Heritage Lottery Funded)

    Anthony regularly presents his research at conferences; his conference presentations include:

    • ‘Reinterpreting Sleeping Beauty’s Maleficent from ‘The Mistress of All Evil’ to ‘The Fairy Who Could Not Fly’ at Vile Visions: Representations of Evil, a conference held in June 2016 at The University of Southampton.
    • ‘Bearing the Mark of the Patriarch, Woman’s Body as Warzone: The Gender Identity of Drusilla’ at ‘Euroslayage’ The 7th biennial conference on the Whedonverses 2016 at Kingston University.
    • ‘Entering the Matriarchal Space: The Feminine Fantastic: Gender, Genre and Difference’ at the Dark Fantasy symposium held at the University of Northampton. 2016
    • ‘Blurring Binaries/ Blurring Butler: Performing Gender in Lisa Williamson’s The Art of Being Normal’ at Investigating Identities in Young Adult YA narratives at the University of Northampton UK. 2017.
    • ‘Representations of the Wicked Queen in Contemporary Narratives’ at the East Midlands Doctoral Network Conference at Bishops Grosseteste University UK. 2018.
    • ‘The Ethical Implications of Staff:Student Research Partnerships’ (Poster Presentation) at the RAISE special interest group on the theme of the Power Relations in Staff and Student Partnerships, held at the University of Westminster UK. 2019.
    • ‘Researching the ethical implications within staff:student partnerships’ at the Change Agent Network (CAN) conference on The Evolving Landscape of Staff-Student Partnership, held at the Open University UK. 2019,
    • ‘When Selfhood Dominates the (Sub)Text: Selfhood, Sexuality and the Notion of Becoming  Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe’ at Being Human in YA Literature’s at the University of Roehampton UK. 2019.
    • ‘Having Her Own Happily Ever After: The 10th Kingdom as a Sinister Sequel and Revenge (Meta) Narrative for Snow White’s Wicked Queen’ which I presented at ‘Re-imagining the Gothic With A Vengeance, vol 5: Returns, Revenge, Reckonings’ at the University of Sheffield UK. 2019.
    • ‘Evil Never Looked so Good: Reimagined Wicked Queens in 21st Century Screen Media’ (Co-presented with Dr Lorna Jowett) at Evil Women / Women and Evil Interdisciplinary Conference, Online. 2021.
    • ‘Feeling Seen on Both Sides: a View of LGBTQ+ Inclusive Learning and Teaching from LGBTQ+ staff’ (Co-presented with Dr Lorna Jowett) at the University of Northampton’s Learning and Teaching Conference, 2022.
    • ‘How can the PAT system be effectively used to support retention and progression from level 4 to 5 across the university?  An analysis of current practice’ (Co-presented with Dr Tanya Richardson) at the University of Northampton’s Access and Participation Conference, 2024.

  • 2017:

    ‘Cast Aside’ – An Extra in the Pictures: Mansfield’s Modernist Representation of the Marginal

    2018:

    Actualizing Abjection: Drusilla, the Whedonverses’ Queen of Queerness:
    https://www.whedonstudies.tv/uploads/2/6/2/8/26288593/2.stepniak_-_slayage_15.2.pdf

    Co-creation, contexts, and complexity: a case study concerning blended learning by Dave Burnapp, Rob Farmer, Sam Reese, Anthony Stepniak:
    https://journals.studentengagement.org.uk/index.php/studentchangeagents/article/view/649/pdf