Erik Knudsen

Erik Knudsen is Professor of Media Practice at the University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK, where he is also the Faculty Director of Research for the Faculty of Culture and Creative Industries. He was formerly a Professor of Visual and Digital Culture at Bournemouth University. Prior to this, he was Professor of Film Practice at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK. At The University of Salford, he was the Head of The School of Media Music and Performance between 2010 and 2012. He regularly conducts guest workshops at international film schools, such as the Escuela Internacional de Cine y Television in Cuba, where he was Head of Editing between 2001 and 2009. He was born in Ghana to a Danish father and Ghanaian mother in 1956. He grew up, and was primarily educated, in Denmark, with a few years of schooling in Britain. After a stint of Law studies at Århus University in Denmark, he then went on to study film production at York University in Toronto, Canada, from where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Specialist Honours in Film Production in 1983. He returned to Britain in 1984, where he has lived and worked since. He gained his PhD from the University of Salford, 2002.

A former musician, singer and song writer, he has also directed more than a dozen Fringe stage productions in London and Toronto, including Wedekin’s Spring Awakening, Wilde’s Salome, Camus’ Caligula and Pinter’s The Room. Programmes for radio constitute an important body of work, including extensive work for the BBC World Service such as the 20 part drama, Against The Law, 2 x 20 part series on African literature, African Voices I and II, and the serialisation of his short stories A Dream Come True, The Birthday and Albert’s Betrayal.

Until September 2007, Erik was the Course Director of the MA in Documentary Production and the MA in Fiction Film Production in the School of Media Music and Performance at the University of Salford. Between 1997 and 1999 he was the Course Leader and Head of Production of the PG Dip/MA Film Production (fiction) programme at the Northern School of Film and Television at Leeds Metropolitan University. He is also an advisor to North West Arts Board and a former chair of the board of the Horse and Bamboo Theatre Company in Rossendale, former Chair of the Board of Trustees at Square Chapel Arts Centre in Halifax, UK, and is a former member of the board of trustees for Clapperboard UK Ltd and the Cornerhouse, now HOME, Manchester.