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Dr Alberto Mira's (Reader, Oxford Brookes University 1999-Present) research bridges the gap between academic studies and ideas within the gay movement and non-homophobic media needing concepts and evidence to construct discourse. Dr Mira's work on cultural history of homosexuality and gay authorship and spectatorship have had an impact on public perceptions. Dr Mira's work has also been used in non-academic writers' conferences, librarians' associations and a number of gay groups. Key areas explored by Dr Mira's work includes: gay vs queer paradigms, appropriation as a mechanism of gay spectatorship, gender as a cultural position, how gendered voices are constructed and articulated textually, ideology and construction of gender images, spectator's investment in gay characters, reading and interpreting gender in film, gay subtext, camp. Dr Mira's work has engaged with academic debates and illustrated them in divulgative talks and articles.
Mowlabocus' research (2006-present) on gay men's social-media-use practices and new sexual-risk behaviours has led to new understandings of the role of media in health interventions. It has also led to changes in the health promotion and intervention practices of sexual health charities including the Terrence Higgins Trust (THT), as well as in statutory services, including those offered within Brighton and Hove City Primary Care Trust, which covers an area with the highest UK percentage LGBT population and a very high incidence of HIV diagnosis and infection. These changes include, in the case of THT, the development and use of a new information website and intervention toolkit — designed to decrease the spread of HIV amongst those engaged in unsafe behaviours — which is being used in training for its staff across its 31 regional offices in the UK.
(a) contributing to public debate on the various issues relating to pornography;
(b) advising policy makers about pornography, its forms, meanings and consumption;
(c) raising awareness and understanding of pornography among practicing youth, and sexual health, professionals through the organization of various public events;
(d) advising members of the legal profession in relation to pending prosecutions of materials seized under the Obscene Publications Act and provisions within the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act;
(e) informing Defence actions in relation to those prosecutions;
(f) giving expert evidence to the Crown Court in three prosecutions and informing the decisions of the Jury.