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University of Southern California
University of Southern California
History

Ryan Linkof

linkof@usc.edu

MAJOR FIELD: Modern British Cultural History

ADVISERS: Philippa Levine, Vanessa Schwartz

STATUS: ABD
I came to USC in the fall of 2005 after receiving my B.A. summa cum laude from UC Berkeley. I am interested in the visual culture of modern Britain, histories of sexuality, and histories of popular culture. My research straddles disciplinary boundaries, encompassing art history, media studies, and literary analysis. My dissertation, tentatively titled "Exposed: The Origins of British Tabloid Celebrity, 1900-1940," examines how the growth of photographic tabloid newspapers gave rise to a new set of journalistic practices predicated upon the pursuit of celebrities. Because tabloid newspapers quickly became associated with degraded, unethical reportage and an intrusive photographic culture, their widespread popularity stoked debate about how far the press could and should go to deliver on the promise of journalistic access to famous people. My dissertation explores how the tabloids, in seeking out images of and information about celebrities, assaulted established journalistic codes, ethical codes and ultimately legal codes relating to the representation of private individuals. I aim to elucidate the early years of the development of the tabloid format in order to make sense of the important role that the tabloid press has played, and continues to play, in British culture.