Staff Profile

Dr. Michael Waugh is Degree Programme Director in Media, Communication and Cultural Studies (PQL0) at Newcastle University. He has previously lectured at University of Hertfordshire and Anglia Ruskin University. He teaches across many modules through all three stages of the PQL0 undergraduate programme, and developed and leads the module MCH2075: Popular Culture and Speculative Futures. He also co-founded and teaches on the module MCH2065: Race, Culture and Identity, and has won two Newcastle University Students' Union TEAs (The Education Awards) for Outstanding Contribution To Feedback (in 2019 and 2021).

Dr. Waugh's research is primarily focused on politics, identity and digitality in club and electronic music, foregrounding decolonial, queer and trans aesthetics and narratives in musical genres/movements such as deconstructed club, hyperpop and trap. His PhD thesis (Anglia Ruskin University, 2016) provided a cultural history of electronic and club music during the early 2010s, centring on musicians whose work explored or reflected the notion of the Post-Internet. This was the first – and remains the only – extended academic interrogation of the 'Post-Internet' and its relationship to contemporary music, and drew on interviews with fifteen artists (including Arca, SOPHIE, Holly Herndon, Ryan Trecartin, Jesse Kanda, Jam City, Evian Christ and TCF).

He has published articles in Popular Music and Critical Studies in Television, as well as chapters in Mute Records: Artists, Business, History and Disrupted Knowledge and in two major anthologies about hip hop. Alongside Professor Jennifer Walshe and Dr. Adam Harper, in 2017 Dr. Waugh co-organised a monthly series of talks about digital music titled 'Sound Salon' at Somerset House, presenting a keynote lecture that was highlighted in Time Out magazine and on BBC Radio 3's 'Late Junction'. In 2016, he was a keynote speaker at Berlin's 3hd Festival, produced by Creamcake, and the following year his research on Post-Internet music was the subject of a one-hour special radio show titled 'The Internet State of Mind' on German station WDR.

He was invited by Arca to write the press release for her 2015 album Mutant (Mute Records) and has written further press releases for musicians such as KUČKA, Du Blonde and Derek Piotr. He produced the programme notes for a Post-Internet music showcase at 2015's London Contemporary Music Festival and has presented papers at international conferences such as Porto's KISMIF, UCLan's Future Sound and several IASPM events.

Currently, Dr. Waugh is involved in a number of collaborative impact and engagement projects with North-East musicians, promoters and venues, putting on events such as club nights and exhibitions and consulting on the conceptual framing of local artists' output. In 2024, he is due to launch a podcast series documenting the history of deconstructed club and hyperpop from 2009 to the present day.

Waugh, M. (FORTHCOMING), 'Made a mil' off that mumblin’ s**t': The freestyling cyborgs of Post-Internet hip hop, in Turner, R. (ed.), Hip Hop: Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Waugh, M. (2023), Pain and suffering, uterus trumpets and The Wild Ride: Autoethnographic aca-fandom, para-social relationships and Diane podcast, in Longstaff, G., Sikka, T. & Walls, S. (eds.), Disrupted Knowledge: Scholarship in a Time of Change. Leiden: Brill/Haymarket

Waugh, M. (2022), 'Make sense of it': Cult and complex TV fandoms, post-truth reading strategies and an excess of meaning in Twin Peaks: Season 3. Critical Studies In Television, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/17496020221129048

Waugh, M. (2020), 'Every time I dress myself, it go m*********in' viral': Post-verbal flows and memetic hype in Young Thug's mumble rap. Popular Music, 39(2), 208-232. doi:10.1017/S026114302000015X

Waugh, M. (2019), Arca: Mute's Mutant, in Beaven, Z., O'Dair, M. & Osborne, R. (eds.), Mute Records: Artists, Business, History. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 209-222 http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781501340635

Waugh, M. (2017), 'My laptop is an extension of my memory and self': Post-Internet identity, virtual intimacy and digital queering in online popular music. Popular Music, 36(2), 233-251. doi:10.1017/S0261143017000083

Waugh, M. (2016), 'Music that actually matters'? Post-Internet musicians, retromania and authenticity in online popular musical milieux [PhD thesis] Available at: https://www.academia.edu/97930126/Music_that_actually_matters_Post_Internet_musicians_retromania_and_authenticity_in_online_popular_musical_milieux

Press release for Arca - Mutant (Mute Records, 2015): http://mute.com/arca/announces-details-for-new-album-mutant-to-be-released-20-november-watch-new-video-for-en

https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/blog/sound-salon-how-has-internet-changed-hip-hop

https://www.timeout.com/london/things-to-do/jennifer-walshe-sound-salon-with-dr-michael-waugh

I developed and lead MCH2075: Popular Culture & Speculative Futures, and co-founded (and teach on) MCH2065: Race, Culture & Identity.

In addition to supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, particularly related to popular culture, I have also regularly contributed to the following modules:

MCH1026: Social & Cultural Studies

MCH2069: Research Methods

MCH2080: Celebrity Culture

MCH3012: Fashion, Communication & Culture

MCH3063: Advertising & Consumption

Newcastle University Students' Union TEAs (The Education Awards):

2019 - Outstanding Contribution To Feedback (WINNER)

2021 - Outstanding Contribution To Feedback (WINNER)

• Articles

  • Waugh M. 'Make sense of it': Cult and complex TV fandoms, post-truth reading strategies and an excess of meaning in Twin Peaks: Season 3. Critical Studies in Television 2022, 0(0). In Preparation.
  • Waugh M. 'Every time I dress myself, it go m*********in' viral': Post-verbal flows and memetic hype in Young Thug's mumble rap. Popular Music 2020, 39(2), 208-232. In Preparation.
  • Waugh M. 'My laptop is an extension of my memory and self': Post-Internet identity, virtual intimacy and digital queering in online popular music. Popular Music 2017, 36(2), 233-251.

• Book Chapters

  • Waugh M. Pain and suffering, uterus trumpets and The Wild Ride: Autoethnographic aca-fandom, para-social relationships and Diane podcast. In: Longstaff G; Sikka T; Walls S, ed. Disrupted Knowledge: Scholarship in a Time of Change. Brill/Haymarket, 2023, pp.240-258. In Preparation.
  • Waugh M. 'Made a mil' off that mumblin' s**t': The freestyling cyborgs of Post-Internet hip hop. In: Turner, R, ed. Hip Hop: Cambridge Themes in American Literature and Culture. Cambridge University Press, 2023. In Preparation.
  • Waugh M. 'Arca: Mute's Mutant'. In: Beaven Z; O'Dair M; Osborne R, ed. Mute Records: Artists, Business, History. Bloomsbury Academic, 2019, pp.209-222. In Preparation.

• Online Publication

  • Waugh M. Press Release: Arca - Mutant (Mute Records). Mute Records, 2015. Available at: https://mute.com/arca/announces-details-for-new-album-mutant-to-be-released-20-november-watch-new-video-for-en. In Preparation.

• Reviews

  • Waugh M. Review: Popular Music and Retro Culture in the Digital Era, by Jean Hogarty. Popular Music 2017, 37(1), 148-150. In Preparation.
  • Waugh M. Review: Music 109: Notes on Experimental Music, by Alvin Lucier. Popular Music 2013, 32(2), 339-341. In Preparation.