[Commlist] Safe For Work? Conversations about harm in the creative industries event

Upcoming free event at Aston:

Register here - places limited. In-person only.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/safe-for-work-conversations-about-harm-and-the-creative-industries-tickets-1308131158509?aff=oddtdtcreator

Safe for Work? Conversations about harm and the creative industries

(Organised by Aston University Media, Culture and Inequalities Research 
Group; University of Nottingham, Institute for Screen Industries 
Research; Loughborough University Centre for Research in Communication 
and Culture; and ReCARETV)

TW: reference to suicide and mental health.

Join us at Aston University Business School for a series of 
conversations about harms in the creative industries and cultural work. 
In the popular imaginary, cultural labour – with its associations of 
pleasure, creativity, excitement and reward – seldom registers as a form 
of work that might be dangerous. And yet, high-profile reports of the 
deaths of cultural workers in recent years have begun to reveal that 
many workplaces in the creative industries are not safe. Evidence 
continues to mount of a deepening crisis of mental health affecting 
cultural workers, born from toxic cultures of overwork, bullying, and 
aggression. Racism, misogyny, classism and ableism are pervasive 
features of working lives in these sectors, meaning that the dangers of 
cultural work are unevenly experienced according to deep structural 
inequalities in media and cultural production also butt up against 
important questions of harms and Human Rights. Whilst Covid-19 
“unmasked” the ongoing crises and exploitation of workers in the media 
industries (Mayer et al 2024), the harmful impacts on workers’ health 
have a much longer history.

What is to be done? In this symposium, scholars and experts will discuss 
research on the dangers of contemporary cultural work, and discuss what 
possibilities may exist for making such work less treacherous. How do 
the dangers and harms of cultural work vary across different sectors, 
including music, television, film, fashion, craft production, and 
journalism? By sharing insights across different sectors, and mapping 
the contours of the current crisis, it hopes to chart a way forward and 
establish a network for those who work within, research, and care about 
the creative industries.

The event is hosted by researches on the AHRC-funded project ‘RECARE-TV: 
Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care’, but it brings 
in experts from other key projects about cultural work, care(lessness) 
and harm. Reality Television, Working Practices and Duties of Care 
(ReCARE TV) | Aston University

Speakers: Rohit Dasgupta (LSE) Tanya Horeck (ARU) Yuval Katz 
(Loughborough) Amelia Knott (TV Industry Human Rights Forum) Vicki Mayer 
(Tulane) George Musgrave (Goldsmiths) Jack Newsinger (Nottingham) Karen 
Patel (BCU) Emily Coleman (Open) Anamik Saha (Leeds) Nina Willment 
(York) Mhairi Brennan (Aston)Helen Wood (Aston).



Schedule May 9th 2025 Aston University Business School

10.00 Arrivals and Coffee



10.30-10.45 Welcome and Introduction

10.45 – 11.45 Conversations about the influence of Covid-19

Dr Rohit Dasgupta (LSE): 'Wearing out: Queer Precarities & Crafting

Belonging in India during COVID-19'

Prof Vicki Mayer (Tulane): ‘Enter (and Exit) the COVID Compliance Officer'



12.00-1.30

Conversations about TV and Harm

Dr Jack Newsinger and Dr Nina Willment (Nottingham) ‘Harm and Morally 
Compromised Labour in UK TV Production Work’

Amelia Knott (TV Industry Human Rights Forum) ‘Human Rights in UKTV: 
Risks and Challenges’

Dr Mhairi Brennan (Aston) ‘Does anyone have a right NOT to be on TV?'



1.30-2.30 LUNCH



2.30-4.00

Conversations about Inequalities and Danger

Dr. Karen Patel (BCU) "We don’t want brown people here": the impact of 
racism and microaggressions in craft’

Dr. Yuval Katz (Loughborough) ‘Double-consciousness journalism: 
Palestinian journalists in Israeli mainstream news’

Prof. Anamik Saha (Leeds) ‘The Danger of Attacks on DEI for Diversity in 
UK Media’



4.30-5.30

Conversations about Mental Health and Crisis

Prof. Helen Wood (Aston) ‘Reality Television and the Mental Health Main 
Stage’

Dr. George Musgrave (Goldsmiths) ‘Suicide, and the music industry: 
Epidemiology, risk factors and possible intervention approaches’



5.30 Respondent Prof. Tanya Horeck (ARU)

6.00-7.00 Book Launch Dr Emily Coleman (2025) The People We Watch: 
Documentary Contributors and What Their Experiences Tell Us About the 
Cultural Industries , Palgrave Macmillan.

Network discussion and reception

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