Skip to main content Skip to navigation

Film and Television Studies

Leanne Weston

Early Career Reseacher

Background

I have a BA (1st Class) in Film with Television Studies, an MA (Distinction), in Film and Television Studies, and earned my PhD in Film and Television in August 2021 - all from the University of Warwick. My PhD, supervised by Professor Rachel Moseley, explored music programming, memory, and materiality in post-broadcast screen culture. It focussed on the aesthetics of such programming, its function as a point of access to the musical past and as a site of positive nostalgic engagement.

I also hold a PG cert in Film Journalism, delivered in conjunction with Sight and Sound, the BFI, and the University of Glasgow. I worked as a contributing writer for Cine Outsider for a number of years, writing on a wide range of film and television texts. I have also written booklet essays for DVD releases.

I am a member of the Centre for Television Histories, the Midlands Television Research Group, and the Songwriting Studies Research Network. Until July 2022, I co-convened the BAFTSS Performance and Stardom Special Interest Group with Julie Lobalzo Wright.

Alongside my research, I work as an administrator for the Habitability GRP

Research Interests

My research interests include the use of popular music in film and television, arts and music programming, television memory and nostalgia, stardom and performance, the biopic, the representation of gender in popular culture, television historiography, and film and television aesthetics.

Current Research

I am currently working to turn my PhD thesis into a monograph. During my time as IAS Early Career Fellow (21-22), I began researching the connections between television history, memory, and the biopic.

Teaching

I have worked as a TA on several modules including Classical Hollywood, Discovering Cinema, and Film and Television analysis, providing seminar teaching and online learning support. I have also lectured on the MA core module Screen Cultures and Methods on television flow, and curation and branding in post-broadcast television. During the writing of my thesis, I also gave a guest lecture on British music television for the undergraduate module Television History and Criticism, based upon elements of my doctoral research.

Publications

Forthcoming:

  • "I know now. A terrible thing is coming": Watership Down, Music, and/as Horror,' Watership Down: Perspectives On and Beyond Animated Violence, Catherine Lester, editor. Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.
  • '"The Mood That Passes Through You": Reverberations of Music and Meaning in The Piano.’ Refocus: The Films of Jane Campion, Bowler, Alexia L., and Adele Jones, editors. Edinburgh University Press, 2023.
  • ‘A Voice Too Much: Performance and Authenticity in Biographical Television Drama.’ Singing Out: The Musical Voice in Audiovisual Media, Haworth, Catherine, and Beth Carroll, Edinburgh University Press, 2023. Co-written with Hannah Andrews.

Published:

Conference Organisation
Conference Papers and Talks
  • ‘"Were you listening to that?": Music, Memory and Meaning in Yellowjackets’, No Return: A Yellowjackets Symposium, BAFTSS Horror SIG, 18 June 2022 [online].
  • ‘(In)Visible Woman: Ruth Madeley and Representing Disabled Lives on Screen,’ The Politics of Casting in Media, The University of South Wales, 20-21 November 2021 [online].
  • 'Best Actress?: Deconstructing and Reconstructing Stardom and Star Myth in Feud: Bette and Joan,' Reinvigorating and Reinventing Stardom, University of Warwick, 2 November 2019.
  • '"This Woman’s Work": Call the Midwife, Gender, Genre and Hierarchies of Value,’ Reclaiming the Screen: Addressing Overlooked Women in Film and Television, De Montfort University, 14 June 2019.
  • 'Video Didn’t Kill the Radio Star: Visual Radio, Nostalgia, and Performing Authenticity,' Department Research Day, University of Warwick, 15 May 2019.
  • '"I know now. A terrible thing is coming": Watership Down, Music, and/as Horror,' Watership Down 40, University of Warwick, 10 November 2018.
  • “Yesterday Once More”: Screen Presence, Affect and Materiality in Music Television,' Screen Cultures, Birmingham City University, 10 July 2018.
  • 'Skam/Shame: Teen TV Goes Global,' International TV Study Day, University of Warwick, 21 June 2018.
  • ‘“That’s Entertainment:” The Old Grey Whistle Test, Music Television, Memory, and Legacy.' Music 625: The Performance of Music on Television, C.1955-’85, University of Leeds, 7-9 June 2018.
  • ‘“I Can [Still] Hear Music”: BBC Four, Branding, and Music Programming,' Department Research Day, University of Warwick, 16 May 2018.
  • ‘“What it Feels Like for a Girl”: Gender, Perspective and Empathy in Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why,' Investigating Identities in Young Adult YA Narratives: One Day Symposium, University of Northampton, 16 December 2017.
  • 'Sound Affects: Music and Meaning in The Handmaid’s Tale,' The Handmaid’s Tale: Gender, Genre, Adaptation A Two-Day Symposium, University of Worcester, 30 September – 1 October 2017.
  • ‘Memory and Materiality in Music Television,' Department Research Day, University of Warwick, 17 May 2017.
  • ‘Ode to Joy: Motherhood and Personhood in Lenny Abrahamson's Room.' Roles, University of Birmingham, 19 May 2016.
  • ‘“Written on the Body”: My Mad Fat Diary and Self-image or, How Rae Earl Learned to Love Herself,’ "Let's Hear It For The Girls": Girlhood, Media and Popular Culture, 1990 - present. University of Warwick, 12 March 2015.
Current Roles 
Past Roles
style= Contact:

Leanne dot Weston at warwick dot ac dot uk

phoplogo

ohboy.jpg

bbcmygen

hhtitle

rsg

SLFNlogo

TOTP68

lfabbeyrd