Research degrees in Film Studies
Graduate Culture
The department has a lively and buoyant research culture supported by themed seminars, talks from distinguished speakers, the annual Hitchcock Lectures, Living British Cinema screenings, and staff-led conferences (‘Film Phenomenology’, November 2010). Our students are active in organising research events and screenings at Queen Mary (‘Sights and Sites: Topographical Approaches to British Cinema’ postgraduate study day, April 2011), and participate in a broader research network by presenting their work at conferences. Film Studies graduates review events for journals and newsletters and are involved with the production of the department’s newsletter, Cutaway. The department’s membership of the London Colleges Screen Studies Group facilitates a further level of research training and networking at a number of events each year.
Research Areas
We are interested in receiving applications from prospective MPhil and PhD students across a wide range of research areas. The department has particular strengths in - European Cinema: Ethnography and Histories of Reception: British Cinema, the Documentary Movement and Free Cinema: Film Stars as transnational figures: Film Archaeology and Materiality: Performance Theory: War in Historical and Contemporary Frames: Film, Photography and Cultural Memory: Ethics and Continental Philosophy.
The department is particularly strong in archive research (paper, photographic, film), historical and ethnographic methods, and film-philosophical approaches.
Research Context
Queen Mary is situated in East London, host to a thriving culture of café and small gallery film events, as well as in proximity to cultural institutions such as the Whitechapel Gallery and the Tate Modern, offering programmes of rare film works. The department participates in the vibrant East End Film Festival with talks, screenings and Mile End Films productions. Queen Mary is a short journey away from national library holdings of the BFI and the National Film Theatre complex at the Southbank, the British Library, Senate House Library, The Imperial War Museum Archives, The Kubrick Archives.
Current Research Students
Research topics of current MPhil and PhD students:
- Exploring the Garden as a Cinematic Site within British Film Culture
LAVINIA BRYDON
- Destination Malta: Cinematic Culture and Industry in a Micro-Mediterranean State
SHARLEEN CAUCHI
- Film Festivals: Cinema and Cultural exchange
MAR DIETRO-DOPIDO
- Landscaping the Mind: the use of Landscape and the portrayal of identity in the Swiss Heimatfilms of the 50s and the New Swiss Cinema
CRISTINA GONTERSWEILER
- Carnivals of transition: polyphonic voices in Monologic States – special cases form Cuba and Soviet/early Post-Soviet Russia
ANNA HILLMAN
- Animated Enchantment: a psychoanalytic exploration of the enduring popularity of Disney’s first feature films
HOWARD JACOBS
- The Wandering Adolescent and the Abandoned Child of millennial Japanese anime, videogames and horror cinema
MATT JACOBSEN
- Architecture, space and place in the contemporary American action film
NICK JONES
- The Ethics of Film
ALEX LICHTENFELS
- Ambiguity in the work of Frederick Wiseman and William Egglestone
JONATHAN MITCHELL
- Cinematic Deconstruction in Sub-Saharan African celluloid and video films
NOSA OPAYIUWANA
- Transnationalism and the Gangster Film
SIMON PATE
- The Spanish Middle Ages in Spanish Cinema
CONSUELO SANMATEU
- The relationship between the film adaptation of Spanish dramatic text and female visibility
JACKIE STIRLING
- Terrorism as Cinematic Fantasy
MAREN THOM
- Border Crossings: (re)presenting gender in surrealist film
DARREN THOMAS
- Branding Britain: the use of British Film in promoting the branding of Britain and the British Fashion Industry
- Re-making the Home in Post-War British Film and Literature
Entry requirements
For entry at MPhil or PhD level, we would normally expect candidates to have an MA or equivalent.
The School accepts students for the research degrees of MPhil and PhD of the University of London. Applicants for these degrees are accepted on the basis of previous academic performance and subject to the availability of a member of staff to supervise their work. Prospective students are advised to consult a potential supervisor before submitting a research proposal and formal application. You should also include a relevant piece of written work showing your potential for carrying out high level research in your subject area (preferably a final-year undergraduate or MA dissertation), with your application. Completed applications should be sent to the Admissions and Recruitment Office at Queen Mary.
Please also refer to the How to apply section.
For international students, please refer to the International students website.
Further information
For further information, please the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film Post-graduate page
Please contact:
Dr Libby Saxton
email: e.a.saxton@qmul.ac.uk
Apply online
Queen Mary, University of London post-graduate application pages