Interview: Ben Light

This January it’s Careers Month at So So Gay and throughout the month we’re talking to people across many industries to help you find the right career for you. Today we’re speaking to lecturer and academic researcher at the University of Salford, Professor Ben Light.

When did you first get interested in media and why?

I didn’t start getting interested in media professionally until I went to university – even though I didn’t do a media degree, but I initially became specifically interested in the internet and information technology around 1997 when I was doing my Masters. When I got my first job at the University of Manchester, that’s when my interest in looking at Gaydar began.

So tell us a bit more about this ongoing Gaydar project. You are looking at social media networks and how they support romantic relationship and dating, but that does research for that entail?

I started out an active participant in using Gaydar to experience it at first before I soon became interested in the user interface and how that works and the impact the website has on society and the gay community. I also do research as to why people like or don’t like using it and why, as well reasons why people use it, and I also found some pages on Facebook that were against Gaydar, which I thought were interesting so tried to find out why.

What made you want to branch out into higher education and how did you get into that through your own education?

When I finished university I didn’t get into the media profession straight away and ended up studying for a PhD. I had always quite liked the idea of being a lecturer and doing what they do so decided to go down that route, and I never thought at first that I’d ever become an academic.

As someone who openly identifies themselves as LGBT, how have you found the response and reaction from colleagues and students or do you feel you are treated as normal like everybody else?

Overall, incredibly positive and I think I’ve been particularly lucky actually. Although there’s been the odd individual, or rare incident, since 1999 I can probably name just a handful of times when it may have affected me, but I am not so fazed by it, yet that’s also perhaps because I have been here a while and am now a senior member of staff. It hasn’t stopped me from progressing here though, which is good. These days if I see any malicious graffiti or anything on tables or in toilets, whether it’s aimed at me or someone else or whether it’s homophobic or not, I just ask for them to be removed.

You’re also a member of Salford University’s LGBT Staff Network. What do they do as a Network within and outside the university?

Basically they work with university to improve staff policies that include LGBT people and their rights and are there as a support group and forum for staff. However, they also get involved in organising things for LGBT History Month, as well social events, including participating in Manchester Pride.

You have also worked with many LGBT organisations such as LGF and MESMAC in the past before going into higher education, so what are your other interests outside of your profession regarding LGBT issues and rights?

I still work with LGF and at the moment we are in the midst of a campaign about cervical screening for lesbian and bisexual women. However outside of work I wouldn’t say I’m an LGBT activist as such as most LGBT related stuff I do is embedded as part of my work life, for example I do public engagement work regarding my academic research, as I did not long ago with Gaydar when I gave a public talk about that.

What students and courses do you teach and have any of the materials you’ve used covered LGBT issues and the media?

I mainly teach postgraduate students in mostly IT-based media subjects nowadays and I supervise MA and PhD students on their projects. I stopped teaching undergraduate students a few years ago, but for no particular reason. I will usually touch on some of my own work and research into LGBT issues in most of my teachings, but I mainly look at social inclusion and diversity as whole, and the digital side of media.

What do you enjoy most about your current career, especially in comparison to your previous jobs?

There’s a lot of different things I really enjoy about it but my main three would have to be having lot of autonomy, the fact that it is constantly different each day and not like a normal 9-5 office job, and I get to travel a lot internationally, which is something I wasn’t able to do before. Also that I am able to have a direct impact on people’s lives and make a difference through my research, teachings and talks that I do is always a good thing to know – that is something not many people would probably believe academics do, but we do.

Do you have any advice for other LGBT people who are keen to enter the education sector?

Well first of all getting a Masters degree is pretty essential but preferably working up to doing a PhD and researching topics for that which you find unique and interesting that will make you more appealing to employees, as competition is very tough, especially during times of economic crises, cuts and university fees increasing. Specific advice for LGBT people is to make sure you do research into all the organisations you want to go for and see how LGBT-friendly they are – some are more so than others in terms of how they have made special efforts and progress in supporting LGBT people. Checking Stonewall – which recently ranked the Unviersity of Salford 21st in its 2012 list of top 100 LGBT-friendly employers – as an indicator is a great idea.

However probably the most important thing is to just be comfortable and confident with who you are – although understandably that is not always so easy for those who are not out or recently came out. With a good staff LGBT network at a university, they can help you without others having to know.