Film Studies MA: Who teaches this course

• Staff teaching on this course

The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences teaches this course. Students benefit from a lively study environment, thanks to the wide range of postgraduate courses on offer.

Programmes cover everything from English literature and music to human rights and politics.

The Faculty provides a vibrant and forward-thinking environment for study with:

• courses designed in collaboration with industry professionals – keeping you up to date with the latest developments;
• established connections with the London arts and media scene – with a range of guest speakers, professors and lecturers visiting the University; and
• committed and enthusiastic staff – many of whom are expert practitioners as well as leading academics and researchers.

The Faculty's combination of academics and practitioners makes it a unique environment in which to further your studies and your career.

Where is the Faculty based? Most students are based at the University's Penrhyn Road campus, with our music and education courses taught at the Kingston Hill campus.

Dr Will Brooker

Dr Will Brooker's books include a cultural history of Batman from 1939–99, a study of Star Wars fan communities, a volume of new essays on Blade Runner, and an examination of Alice in Wonderland from 1865 until the present day. His most recent work includes the BFI Film Classics volume on Star Wars (2009) and he is currently writing a new book on Christopher Nolan's Batman films.

Dr Simon Brown

Dr Simon Brown's research focuses upon the areas of early cinema, British cinema, colour cinematography and contemporary American quality television. He has published on a variety of topics including the development of the British Film Industry from 1894 to 1914, the cinematic depiction of the Titanic disaster, and the representation of Britain in colour films of the 1920s and 1930s. His most recent research has focussed upon key American television series including Alias, The X-Files, Dexter and Californication. His current research is on the representation of the 1970s horror film in the series Supernatural.

Dr Corin Depper

Dr Corin Depper's PhD research was on Ezra Pound and Jean-Luc Godard, and he maintains a strong interdisciplinary focus, with a particular interest in film, philosophy, and the visual arts. At present, he is working on a monograph that takes a phenomenological approach to exploring the relationship between cinematic space and gallery space, developing ideas around the American artists Matthew Barney and Dan Flavin. His further research concerns twentieth century modernism, including papers on Robert Graves and David Jones.

Dr Matt Melia

Dr Matt Melia is currently researching issues of space, politics and identity in 1950s and 1960s British television comedy and Science Fiction. His own PhD research focused on issues of architecture, cruelty, space and modernity in post-war French drama and writing (specifically Antonin Artaud, Jean Genet and Samuel Beckett).

Professor John Mullarkey

Professor John Mullarkey is the author of Bergson and Philosophy (1999), Post-Continental Philosophy: An Outline (2006), and Philosophy and the Moving Image: Refractions of Reality (2010), and is an editor of Film-Philosophy. His work explores variations of 'non-standard-philosophy', arguing that philosophy is a subject that continually shifts its identity through engaging with (supposedly) 'non-philosophical' fields such as film. He is currently working on a book-film project dealing with the representations of animals in film and philosophy.

John welcomes research proposals in the areas of film theory; film and philosophy; film practice as research; animals and philosophy; animals and representation (especially in film); François Laruelle and non-philosophy; Gilles Deleuze; Henri Bergson; Alain Badiou; Michel Henry; contemporary French philosophy; and philosophy of diagrams.

Dr Cathy O'Brien

Dr Cathy O'Brien teaches modules on New Hollywood and European Cinema. Her research has concentrated on French film and literature, with a particular interest in religion and culture. She is currently writing a book entitled The Celluloid Madonna (to be published by Wallflower Press in 2010), which investigates the intersections between theology and the cinema through an examination of the screen portrait of the Virgin Mary.

Professor Matthew Pateman

Professor Matthew Pateman is the prize-winning author of Julian Barnes and The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as numerous articles on Joss Whedon, television, aesthetics, literature, popular culture, music video and others. He is on the editorial board of Slayage: The Journal of the Joss Whedon Association and The International Journal of Scottish Theatre and Film.

Matthew welcomes research proposals in the areas of popular aesthetics, Joss Whedon, cultural theory, Jean-Francois Lyotard, televisual narrative, contemporary French philosophy, literature and television, and David Bowie.

Dr Andrea Rinke

Dr Andrea Rinke is the course director for the Film Studies MA and teaches modules on European Cinema and World Cinema. Her research has concentrated on German cinema with a particular interest in gender and culture. Her most recent publications include a book entitled Socialist Models, Private Dreamers and Rebels: The Representation of Women in East German Cinema (Edwin Mellen Press, 2006), which investigates the cultural significance of screen heroines in East German cinema within their socio-historical context.

Dr Tom Whittaker

Dr Tom Whittaker's research focuses on three key areas – the relationship between cultural geography and film; soundscapes; and the role of the producer. His doctoral thesis explored the representation of space in the work of the Spanish producer, Elías Querejeta, and forms the basis of his forthcoming book The Films of Elías Querejeta: A Producer of Landscapes, which will be published in 2011 by University of Wales Press. Elsewhere, Tom has published widely on Spanish and British film, and his articles have appeared in journals such as Jump Cut, International Journal of Cultural Studies and Journal of British Cinema and Television.

Visiting Professor:

Paul Andrew Williams is Visiting Professor and a film director described as one of Britain's rising stars. His first film, London to Brighton, won critical acclaim and his next feature, The Cottage, was previewed exclusively before an audience of Kingston students. Paul regularly visits film making classes to offer expert feedback on student projects and advice about how to make it in the industry.