Humanities Research Centre
Transatlantic Fellowship Award
Final Report Form
APPLICANT DETAILS
Name:
Lauren Jade Thompson
Department:
Film and Television Studies
Telephone:
02476573646
Email:
Lauren.Thompson@warwick.ac.uk
DETAILS OF AWARD
Title:
The Television Set and the Sofa
Brief outline of Research
Objectives/Activities and Proposed
Outcomes:
The trip formed part of the groundwork for a large-scale research project
focusing on the relationship between the domestic objects of the sofa and the
television set. I am interested in exploring the sofa as a medium-specific motif of
television both in lived experience and within broadcast content.
 Time to discuss the planning and development of the project with Prof.
Lynn Spigel, an expert in the medium's relationship to everyday life.
 Presentation of a research paper at Northwestern University to gather
feedback on initial research questions and corpus.
 A day spent at sharing best practice in outreach and education at the
Museum of Broadcast Communications, seeking advice on the museum
installation aspects of the project, and contributing to their
Encyclopaedia of Television.
 Two days spent undertaking ethnographic research at the ‘Central Perk’
Friends-themed coffee shop in New York City, observing behaviour of
fans around the famous ‘orange couch’.
Timescale:
Duration: 10 days
Proposed Start Date:
Proposed End Date:
24th March
2nd April
Actual Start Date: 6th April
Actual End Date: 16th April
Additional Information:
OUTPUTS & OUTCOMES
Have the original objectives of the
TF Project/Activity been achieved?
If applicable, please give details of
any collaborations developed as a
result of this TF award and any
plans to further develop those
collaborations:
√ Yes (please provide details under the sections below)
 No (please explain)
 Ethnographic research was not undertaken due to closure of the Friends
coffee shop, attended NYU talk instead

Prof Lynn Spigel (Northwestern) – provided guidance on
the research, including suggestions for further reading,
insight into the US broadcast context and an outline of her
own, as yet unpublished, work on photographs of families
with television sets.



If applicable, please give details of
specific research outputs, i.e.
monographs or papers published,
conference presentations given,
etc.:

Please give any additional
information regarding the
outcomes from your TF award (e.g.
personal/professional
development).

Dr Maureen Ryan(DePaul/Northwestern) - have shared
work on lifestyle television, will be working collaboratively to
support teaching on our respective television history
courses. Currently, Maureen’s course is focused on US
television history and Lauren’s on the UK. We will be
sharing syllabuses and content outlines to support greater
coverage of both national contexts for our students. We also
have plans to form conference panel for Console-ing
Passions in 2016.
Dr Paul Booth (DePaul) – have shared research on Doctor
Who and public service broadcasting, will be following up
this when he visits UK in June – will be used to develop
content for Television History and Criticism module on
which I teach at Warwick
Doug Fowler (Museum of Broadcast Communications) –
strong links built with their schools outreach programme,
plan tocontinute to work with Doug via email/Skype to build
history sessions for delivery at Warwick and in local schools
based on his use of film/video and document-based
questioning.
Proposal has now been worked up and submitted to the
Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship scheme
Attended Anna McCarthy (NYU) research seminar on
‘content’ in the digital age
Signature
Date:
21/04/2015
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