Allan Burnett

Postdoc

I am a postdoctoral researcher and teacher of modern history. My research focuses on the role of media in apocalyptic culture during the 20th century as well as the role of media in social upheaval and armed conflict.

Live from the apocalypse - media at the end of the world

I am interested in how media practice and philosophy pertain to historical questions of apocalyptic transformation, particularly in the aftermath of the world wars. With a transnational perspective on British society in European, North American, and global contexts, my current work focuses on media in the 1960s and 1970s as agents of potential revelation and change for humanity and the environment.

Since 2024 I have been a postdoctoral researcher and teacher at the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS) at Linköping University. My primary affiliation is to the Division for History, Arts, and Religious Studies (HKR), where I am co-ordinator of the LiU hub for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic imaginaries.

Prior to this position at Linköping University, in 2024 I was awarded my PhD at Lund University in the subject Media History at the Department of Communication and Media (KOM), where I also worked as a teacher. My work builds on my early education at the University of Edinburgh, where my graduate and postgraduate studies encompassed history, literature, sociology, and ethnography. It also builds on my early career background as a journalist and an author of history books for children working with schools, libraries, museums, and other education institutions.

Research

LiU hub for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic imaginaries

The LiU hub for apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic imaginaries is a meeting point for a seminar series and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

Publications

Order in Ruins: British Society and the Media Assemblage of ‘The World at War’ c. 1970 - 1975 (Lund, Media-Tryck: 2024)

Teaching

I currently teach undergraduate students in history at Linköping. I have previously taught and co-ordinated first and second-cycle courses at Lund in media history in combination with rhetoric and journalism.

Organisation

Division of History, Arts and Religious Studies (HKR)

We focus on how people think and act, how these thoughts are conveyed in texts, images, and artefacts in the past and the present, how they are understood and used, and how they are expressed in human actions, cultures, and politics.

Department of Culture and Society (IKOS)

At the Department of Culture and Society (IKOS), social sciences and the humanities gather in environments where research and education work together.

Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FILFAK)

The Faculty of Arts and Sciences provides education and research in humanities, social- and behavioral sciences, commercial law, art disciplines and thematic science.