Dr David Clarke is one of the UK's leading authorities on contemporary legend and folklore. He is co-founder of the Contemporary Legend research group in SCII and Project Lead for the AHRC-funded National Folklore Survey. He combines his interests in folklore with his teaching and research in journalism and story-telling. He is an experienced broadcaster and has acted as a consultant for The National Archives and the BBC.

Dr David Clarke is one of the UK's leading authorities on contemporary legend and folklore. He is a co-founder of the Centre for Contemporary Legend research group in SCII and is Project Lead for the AHRC-funded project, the National Folklore Survey for England. He represents Europe on the council for the International Society for Contemporary Legend (ISCLR), founded in Sheffield in 1982.

David was a founding member of the Journalism BA (Hons) at Sheffield Hallam University in 2005-6 and for the past 20 years has taught investigative journalism, media law and regulation and court reporting on the undergraduate and postgraduate journalism and PR courses. He supervises PhD candidates and was Director of Studies for three successful completions and is currently supervising two PhDs.

He is an experienced broadcaster and has acted as consultant for The National Archives and the BBC. His main research interests include legends and rumours, supernatural folklore, investigative journalism and archival research. 

Specialist areas of interest

• Media Law and Regulation
• Investigative Journalism
• Contemporary Legend and Folklore