Film Studies BA(Hons): Who teaches this course

Find out more here about the Faculty or School where you will be taught and about some of the key teaching staff for this course.

A team of well-qualified staff from the School of Performance and Screen Studies teaches this course, including:

Mata Ayoub is a film maker who teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I. Across the field's practical modules, she teaches Introduction to Digital Video Production in the first year and Production of a Short Documentary in the second year in film, and the first year practical module Live and Direct in TV. Mata is also the director of the University's Centre for Academic Support and Employability (CASE).

Dr Will Brooker is the Director of Research for Film and Television. He teaches on the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II, as well as the second year Investigating Cinema module and the final year Special Study, Cinema and the Postmodern City. His research interests lie in audience interpretation and reception, with a particular focus on media fandom around science-fiction cinema. He has published widely on the Star Wars saga and its followers.

Dr Simon Brown is the Director of Studies with overall responsibility for the film and television studies programmes. He teaches on the core Year 1 modules Approaches to Cinema I and II, plus Silent Cinema. He also teaches the second year British Cinema module.

His 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, Supernatural, Dexter and Californication.

Fiona Curran teaches across the field's practical modules, including Introduction to Digital Video Production in the first year, Production of a Short Documentary in the second year, and Advanced Pre-Production and Advanced Film Production in the third year. Fiona also teaches on the film making MA, where she specialises in sound design.

She is an ex-industry professional with 21 years of experience in all areas of post production across a wide variety of film genres and TV formats. She is also a published poet. A specialist in sound design, documentary and experimental forms, her own practice includes sonic art, poetry and film, ranging from 'Sonic Experiments: The Classical Mash-Up' to the 'Tableaux and the Face out of Context' in film, illustrated by her recently completed film Clean.

Dr Corin Depper teaches film theory, avant-garde and world cinemas across the degree programme. In the first year he teaches on the core modules Approaches to Cinema I and II as well as Silent Cinema. In the second year he teaches Realism and Representation and Case Studies in World Cinema and in the final year he teaches Identity and Difference. Corin also teaches on the Film Studies MA. Corin'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.

Nelson Douglas is a professional lens based media artist, who teaches across the field's practical modules, including Introduction to Digital Video Production in the first year, Production of a Short Documentary in the second year, and Advanced Pre-Production and Advanced Film Production in the third year. Nelson also teaches on the film making MA with a particular focus on cinematography.

For the last ten years, Nelson has produce a series of exhibitions and films working with community groups excluded from mainstream society by education language, culture and gender. Many of his work has been commissioned / exhibited by English Heritage, Arts Council of Great Britain and The National Trust.

Abbe Fletcher is a film-maker who teaches the practical modules Advanced Pre- Production and Advanced Film Production. Her current research interests include documentary film-making, experimental film and video, and editing practices. Abbe also teaches on the film making MA.

Mick Kennedy teaches the field's practical modules. He has a background in cultural production, largely with disadvantaged communities. Mick is part of an independent dance-music recording label and an audiovisual production company. His research interests include Italian, Iranian and ghetto cinemas, and the use of non-professional actors in film and video production. Mick also teaches and leads the film making MA.

Dr Matt Melia teaches both in Film and in the TV Studies degree programme. He teaches the core first year Approaches to Cinema I and II modules in film, and in TV he teaches on TV Times and Watch Carefully. In the second year he teaches The Light Programme in TV and in the third year he teaches Watch the Skies: Science Fiction Film and TV across film and TV, as well as Advanced Independent Research and Days of Hope in TV, and Cult Film. He also teaches on the Film Studies MA.

Matt 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 teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II. John 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.

Dr Cathy O'Brien contributes to the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II. At undergraduate level, she teaches modules on French Cinema, Case Studies in Contemporary European Cinema, New Wave Cinema and Vamps, Divas, Tramps, Lolitas. She also teaches on the Film Studies MA. As an expert in French, Cathy also teaches translation in the Modern Languages department. Her research has concentrated on French culture, with a particular focus on intersections between religion and film. Her book entitled The Celluloid Madonna, which examines the screen portrait of the Virgin Mary, should be published by Wallflower Press in 2011.

Professor Matthew Pateman teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I, and the final year Dissertation module across Film and TV. Matthew 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.

Mark Penson teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II, and Hollywood Cinema. He also teaches on Cult Film in the third year. He is currently developing research on cinema audiences and film reception.

Roy Perkins is a film maker and writer who teaches film editing and production across the practical modules and on the film making MA. He has worked in the film and TV industry as an editor and director, and is co-author of British Film Editors: The Heart of the Movie (BFI 2004). His research interests include film authorship and the production process, and historical documentary.

Carmen Rabalska teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II, and also Silent Cinema. In the second year she teaches the core theory module, Realism and Representation along with Popular Genres and Case Studies in Contemporary European Cinema. In the final year she teaches Identity and Difference and South of the Border, which focuses upon Spanish and Latin American cinema.

Dr Andrea Rinke teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II. In the second year she teaches modules on Post War German Cinema and also Case Studies in Contemporary European Cinema. In the final year she teaches on the representation of drug addiction in cinema, and also Vamps, Divas, Tramps, Lolitas. Andrea also leads the Film Studies MA. Her recent research has been on films and film-making in the former East Germany (the GDR), in particular their representations of women, and also the representation of drug addiction in cinema.

Dr Tom Whittaker teaches the core first year modules Approaches to Cinema I and II, and Hollywood Cinema. In the second year he teaches Investigating Cinema, and Cult film in the third year. He also teaches on the Film Studies MA. Tom's main area of research is in Spanish cinema and he focuses on three key areas – the relationship between cultural geography and film; soundscapes; and the role of the producer.

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.

Film at Kingston: Institutional home of the Cinema Journal

From 2013 to 2018 Dr Will Brooker, Reader in Film, will be the first British editor of the Cinema Journal, the publication of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. SCMS is the leading scholarly organization in the United States and Cinema Journal, which has been running since 1967, is the leading scholarly publication in the field of Cinema and Media Studies.