Nicholas Lee

My research is broadly focussed on marginality and ideological critique within the context of mainstream cultural institutions and forms. My PhD explored Marcel Duchamp's readymades as responses to the decline in traditional metaphysics within European easel painting, and my current research in visual arts is focused on the illusion of three-dimensionality in photographic imagery as a developmental tool of artificial intelligence design. 

I am currently co-editor of The Working-Class Avant-Garde, a special collection for Open Library of Humanities which focuses on the often overlooked contributions to arts and culture of working-class British artists and writers. My own published research in this area is concentrated on the writer and broadcaster Archie Hill (1928-86). In the field of Film Studies I have contributed articles for Sight and Sound and The Conversation. 

I am interested in supervising MRes and PhD projects on American independent filmmaking, British working-class artists and writers, technologies of image-making and the illusion of three-dimensionality. 

My teaching is focussed on marginal and alternative forms of the moving image. I currently teach undergraduate modules on American Independent Cinema and Experimental Filmmaking. I also supervise two Master's by Research students: one exploring Hong Kong national identity on film, and another examining nostalgia for childhood in 'Indiewood' cinema.  

From 2011 to 2020 I was a researcher for Rt. Hon. Lord Norman Fowler, and from 2016-2020 whilst he was Lord Speaker in the House of Lords. My work in this time was focussed primarily on policy relating to HIV/AIDs.

Since 2013 I have been a co-director of, and exhibitions curator for, the Peckham Pelican, a community-focussed exhibitons and events space, cafe and bar.