Media History and Theory
Colleagues working in this area explore a wide range of themes. From the history of radio criticism to digital filmmaking, researchers examine media practices and artefacts from technical, cultural and interpersonal perspectives. Colleagues have expertise in the psychodynamics of contemporary entanglements between identity, screen media objects and popular culture, have critically documented the wave of post-2000 transnational mergers and acquisitions in the television production sector and critically consider a range of media from the work of Jean-Luc Goddard to contemporary representations of vampires and zombies.
French Cinema
Michael Witt is an internationally recognised expert on French cinema and particularly on the work of Jean-Luc Godard. His publications on Godard include the Jean-Luc Godard: Documents volume he co-edited for the Pompidou Centre in 2006, the expanded edition of The French Cinema Book (The British Film Institute, 2018) which he co-edited with Michael Temple (Birkbeck) and his monograph Jean-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian (Indiana University Press, 2013), which won the 2014 Limina Award for Best International Film Studies Book.
Politics and Gender
This field of research seeks to question and critique existing representations and practices and to create new spaces, theories and figures. Colleagues work across film, journalism, linguistics and cultural studies. While none of the work here is typical, as it ranges from research on ageing female celebrities to representations of the British suffrage movement, colleagues share an interest in genders, feminism, female identity and creativity, representation, ideology and power.
The New Man (2016)
Josh Appignanesi & Devorah Baum
A married couple (writer Devorah Baum & filmmaker Appignanesi) turn the camera on themselves as they undergo the ordeal of becoming parents in our era of IVF, late reproduction, and the crisis of masculinity. But when life-threatening complications hit, they’re tested to the brink. What emerges is an intimate, moving portrait of a generation going through a revolution that no-one’s talking about.
Digital Media and Mediations
Bringing together industry best practice and driving it forward, researchers in this area focus on understanding media and its impact and in developing new translation and localisation practises for both the film and videogaming industries. Colleagues work across technologies, time periods, disciplines and platforms in order to inform future practice and to critically evaluate current traditions.