Academic CV

Academic and innovative researcher

  • Reader in Journalism at City, University of London
  • Head of Department of Journalism at City, University of London (1 August 2019- 31 July 2021)
  • Deputy Head of Department of Journalism 1 May 2018 – 31 July 2019)
  • PhD supervisor and research active academic with expertise in intelligence and a pioneer on research into intelligence-media relations
  • PhD: on UK intelligence agencies and news media relations. Completed 2015
  • Awarded grants from research councils – see research page
  • Expertise in subject leadership and course development including designing and running an app development module
  • Identified as the UK’s first data journalist
  • Recent publications include Spies, Spin and the Fourth Estate (EUP 2020) and co-edited Investigative Journalism 3rd Edition with Hug de Burgh (Routledge 2021)
  • Experienced external examiner

Successful research grants

ESRC Impact Acceleration grant administered by Bangor University: Intelligence Elites and Public Accountability. Investigates how civil society (the press/NGOs) can better hold political-intelligence elites publically to account. Value £6,010. PI Prof Vian Bakir (Bangor) CI Paul Lashmar (Cuty), CI Sarah Kavanagh (NUJ).

ESRC funded: CI on DATA – PSST! Debating and Assessing Transparency Arrangements – Privacy, Security, Surveillance, Trust. PI Vian Bakir (Bangor) Value: £30,000. Our 2-year ESRC Seminar Series (2014-16) explored, from multi-disciplinary and multi-end user perspectives, how different aspects of transparency, whether state-imposed, commercially-imposed, peer-imposed, or voluntarily entered into, affect questions of privacy, security, surveillance and trust.

Initiator and Co-Investigator on Innovate UK funded “Interactive Social Experience Engine (iSEE) for History and Heritage – A Dorset Prehistoric Feasibility Study” a partnership project between Brunel University and Dorset County Museum. Six month project completed 31st August 2014, value £55,000.

Failed Applications:

Grant bid to ESRC: A Toolkit for Civil Society: Holding Intelligence Elites to Public Account.A Toolkit for Civil Society: Holding Intelligence Elites to Public Account. Start date: 1 Sep 2019 £300,000. 36 months. Submitted 1 Dec 2018. PI Paul Lashmar, City UoL   and CI Prof Vian Bakir, Bangor University. Rejected 23 May 2019

Gaber I, Lashmar P, Piazza, R and Webb P.  “Corbyn, Broadcasters and Bias”. Application to ESRC open grant. Submitted November 2016 for £150,000. Not awarded but had excellent peer reviews (May 2017.

Consultant to ESRC funded (£13.5k) project: “How to Hold Political-Intelligence-Elites Publically to Account”.  PI – Prof Vian Bakir at Bangor. Delivered 2018.

Academic employment 

  • Sept 2017-current: Department of Journalism, City, University of London  (full time)

Advisory posts

  • 2008 – 2018 Adviser: The Centre for Investigative Journalism (TCIJ). On the steering group that created the Bureau for Investigative Journalism
  • 2015 Guest editor: Ethical Space journal on ethical issues on the intelligence agency and media interface in the light of Edward Snowden’s revelations. Published December 2015
  • Sept 2015 External Advisor: for re-approval panel for BA Journalism at CESINE University, Santander, Spain (a partnership with London Met)
  • 2013-2017 External Examiner: BA and MA Journalism at University of Winchester
  • 2010-2014 External Examiner: MA Journalism at London College of Communication
  • 2007-2009 External Examiner: MA in Journalism course at Brunel University
  • July 2003 External Assessor: on validation panel for BA Journalism (Hons) at Kingston University

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Previous teaching experience

  • Oct 2015 – Sept 2017: Head of Journalism, Senior Lecturer. University of Sussex
    Role included: being responsible for four Journalism MAs and a BA Journalism. Convenor for MA Journalism (NCTJ accredited) and MA International Journalism.
  • 2009–2015 Brunel University: Head of Journalism and Course convenor: MA International Journalism, UG Convenor, UG admissions tutor. Senior Lecturer
  • 2008-2010 University of Bedfordshire: Research Fellow at Research Institute for Media Art and Design (RIMAD)
  • 2007-2009 Southampton Solent University: Associate lecturer teaching on BA (Hons) Journalism
  • 2001-2009 University College Falmouth: Part-time staff member on the MA Broadcast Journalism course (part of a team that developed the course from a PgDip to multi-strand vocational Broadcast Journalism MA, validated April 2006). Also convened the MA Broadcast Investigative Journalism strand. Part of a team that developed and launched a MA in International Journalism (validated April 2006).

Collaborations

  • April 2014: Malawi Institute of Journalism: Carried out baseline assessment of provision of investigative journalism in Malawi.
  • 2008 Western Journalists and China: Working with Professor Ivor Gaber, Paul toured China in August 2007 organising two-day seminars for Chinese journalists and information officers in Beijing, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Nanjing. The courses were a joint partnership between University of Westminster’s China Media Centre and Tshinghau University and funded by the British Embassy in Beijing. The courses were designed to prepare Chinese media professionals for the arrival of the Western media in the Beijing 2008 Olympic year. Hosted by Professor Li Xiguang, Executive Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication of Tsinghua University, they were attended by many senior journalists and government information officials.

Visiting lecturer

Between 1984-2001 Paul gave many lectures on journalism at media schools including City University and London College of Communications. He also has lectured on historical research at Kingston University, the Institute of Contemporary British History, Leicester University, Queen Mary and Westfield College, Nottingham University and the University of Birmingham.