Dr George Larke-Walsh

I gained my PhD from University of Sunderland in 2002. Since then I have worked at the University of Northumbria, UK and the University of North Texas, USA before returning to Sunderland in 2021.

My research mainly focuses on topics of crime in both fiction and non-fiction media. My early work explores how reviewers and viewers shape concepts of the gangster genre, how US media shape mythologies of the mafia, and how it promotes concepts of white ethnicity and masculine identities in such narratives. Since 2007 I have extended my research to also focus on authorship, ethics, and emotional engagement in documentaries. I am interested in how documentaries encourage compassion and/or how they retain a social purpose when engaging in highly emotive, or sensational topics.

My most recent publications have focused on gangsters in television series, nostalgic TV crime shows, and the social purpose of true crime documentaries. My newest book is a new collection of original scholarship titled True Crime in American Media (Routledge, 2023).