Research

My primary research is in contemporary film and media history and theory and is tied together by a focus on cultural - especially gender - identity, notably in its relation to aesthetics and in popular and/or transnational modes.

After completing a BA in Modern Languages I worked for six years in film development and production, before writing a PhD thesis examining filmed romantic comedy's phenomenal recent proliferation in France from a cultural studies perspective, the monograph resulting from which was shortlisted for The British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies' (BAFTSS) Best Monograph Prize. I concurrently co-edited a book examining the status of European cinema in today's increasingly globalised age.

More recently, alongside maintaining my expertise in cultural approaches to European audiovisual production, I have co-edited a volume looking at genre narratives authored by women in film and television globally that won the BAFTSS Best Edited Collection Prize (2019). Meanwhile, I have completed the related monograph Heightened Genre and Women's Filmmaking in Hollywood: the Rise of the Cine-fille (2021).

In March 2018 I was awarded a British Academy Rising Star Engagement Award to fund a series of events on the theme of 'Imagining "We" in the Age of "I": Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture'. I have co-edited a book deriving from the project with a trans-global and trans-media focus, currently shortlisted for one of the Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association's Outstanding Achievement awards, in collaboration with Diane Negra and Suzanne Leonard (2021).

In April 2019 I was awarded an AHRC Networking Grant to be Principal Investigator on the project 'Producing the Post-National Popular: The Expanding Imagination of Mainstream French Films and Television Series', whose key intervention is to take French production as emblematic of major expansions in the transnational circulation of audiovisual culture across even linguistic borders in the contemporary moment, drawing out the implications of this change for representations and cross-cultural perceptions and dialogue https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/research/french/currentprojects/postnationalpopularLink opens in a new window.

My various strands of contemporary work take in gender and sexuality studies (especially transnational and comparative); questions of embodied address, performance and celebrity; and issues of media technologically-constructed 'posthuman' identity, which will be the focus of my next monograph.

I was a member of the College of General Editors for Studies in French Cinema 2017-2020, before taking over as Co-Chief General Editor with Professor Ginette Vincendeau, renaming the journal French Screen Studies. I also sit on the board of MAI Feminism.

Teaching and Supervision

I specialise in teaching French media and society and, together with Douglas Morrey, have been responsible for the second- and final-year French Cinema module, which covers French cinema from the early 1930s to the present, as well as teaching the final-year module States of the Nation: French Cinema From 1990 to the Present and sometimes French Cinema from the First to the Second World War. I also teach a final-year module looking at Gender and Representation in French Media since 1970, which encompasses an interdisciplinary focus across film, television and written media, and at MA level on various courses (e.g. History and Film and running specialised modules: French Gender Studies, Genre in French Film History and Female Homosociality and Homoeroticism in Postfeminist French Cinema).

In addition, I have taught a second-year module in Hispanic Studies on Contemporary Spanish Cinema and teach on the cross-language module Languages and Cultures Beyond Boundaries.

In 2016-17 I was Visiting Scholar in Comparative Media Studies and Writing at MIT and Visiting Lecturer at Brandeis University, MA, where I taught modules on Introduction to the Moving Image and Genre Films in Cinema and Television.

I am currently supervising PhDs on one-parent families in French cinema of the 2010s, on French multiracial film comedy and on postnational French screen horror. I am interested in supervising projects on a range of topics in contemporary (especially European/French, US or postnational) film and media, emphasising popular modes and/or cultural and gender studies.

Publications

Monographs

Heightened Genre and Women's Filmmaking in Hollywood: the Rise of the Cine-fille, Palgrave Macmillan (2021).

From France with Love: Gender and Identity in French Romantic Comedy, I.B. Tauris (2015). Shortlisted for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Best Monograph 2017.

Co-edited volumes

M. Harrod, S. Leonard and D. Negra (eds), Imagining 'We' in the Age of 'I': Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture, Routledge (2021).

M. Harrod and K. Paszkiewicz (eds), Women Do Genre in Film and Television, Routledge (2017). Nominated for the Kraszna-Krausz Best Moving Image Book Award 2018 (only edited collection nominated) and WINNER of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Best Edited Collection Prize for 2019.

M. Harrod, M. Liz and A. Timoshkina (eds), The Europeanness of European Cinema: Identity, Meaning, Globalization, I.B. Tauris (2015).

Journal Special Issues

M. Harrod and P. Powrie (eds), ‘New directions in contemporary French comedies,’ Studies in French Cinema 18:1 (2018).

Journal Articles

• 'Channelling globalism: Canal+ as Transnational French Genre Film Producer,' Contemporary French Civilization vol. 6, no. 3 (2021) Special Issue on 'Canal + and Contemporary French Cinema and Television,' (eds. Christopher Meir and Raymond Kuhn), pp. 285-307.

• ‘From Postnational Mobility to Posthuman Fluidity: Unfixed Identities and Social Responsibilities in Personal Shopper (Assayas 2016) and Happy End (Haneke 2017),’ Northern Lights: Film and Media Studies Yearbook no. 18 (2020), Special Issue on 'Europe at the Crossroads: Cinematic Takes' (ed. Temenuga Trifonova), pp. 85–101.

• ‘“Money Can't Buy Me Love”: Radical Right-wing Populism in French Romantic Comedies of the 2010s,’ New Review of Film and Television Studies, Special Issue on ‘Radical Romantic Comedy', vol. 18, no. 1 (January 2020) (ed. Maria San Fiippo), pp. 101-118.

• M. Harrod and P. Powrie, ‘New directions in contemporary French comedies: From nation, sex and class to ethnicity, community and the vagaries of the postmodern,’ Studies in French Cinema vol. 18, no.1 (2018), pp. 1-17.
• ‘Sweet Nothings? Imagining the Inexpressible in Contemporary French Romantic Comedy,’ Studies in French Cinema, vol. 13, no. 2 (2013), pp.171-187. Winner of the 2013 Susan Hayward Prize.
• ‘The Réalisatrice and the Rom-Com in the 2000s,’ Studies in French Cinema vol. 12, no. 3 (2012), Special Issue on ‘Women’s Filmmaking in the 2000s,’ (ed. Carrie Tarr), pp.227-240.
• ‘Linguistic Difference as Ontological Sameness in Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (Boon 2008),’ Studies in French Cinema vol. 12, no. 1 (2012), pp.75-86. Winner of the 2012 Susan Hayward Prize.
• ‘The Aesthetics of Pastiche in the Work of Richard Linklater,’ Screen vol. 51, no.1 (2010), pp.21-37.

Book Chapters

• With S. Leonard and D. Negra, 'Introduction: Romance and social bonding in contemporary culture - before and after COVID-19,' in M. Harrod, S. Leonard and D. Negra (eds), Imagining 'We' in the Age of 'I': Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture (London and New York: Routledge), pp. 1-28.

• ‘“Money Can't Buy Me Love": Radical Right-wing Populism in French Romantic Comedies of the 2010s,’ in M. San Filippo (ed.), After ‘Happily Ever After’ (Wayne State University Press, 2021), pp. 197-216.

• 'Parisian Lovers in the Contemporary Romcom,' in A. Phillips and G. Vincendeau (eds), Paris in the Cinema - Beyond the Flâneur, Palgrave (2017), pp. 156-166.
• ‘The Myth of Lena Dunham,’ in M. Harrod and K. Paskiewicz (eds), Women Do Genre in Film and Television, Routledge (2017), pp. 179-197.
• With K. Paszkiewicz, ‘Introduction: Women's Authorship and Genre in Contemporary Film and Television,’ in M. Harrod and K. Paskiewicz (eds), Women Do Genre in Film and Television, Routledge (2017), pp. 1-20.
• ‘Cinephilia as Multilingualism in The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius, 2011) and Blancanieves (Pablo Berger, 2012),’ in T. Mamula and L. Patti (eds), The Multilingual Screen, Bloomsbury (2016), pp. 69-89.
• ‘“As If a Girl’s Reach Should Exceed Her Grasp”: Gendering Genericity and Spectatorial Address in the Work of Amy Heckerling,’ in F. Smith and T. Shary (eds), Refocus on the Films of Amy Heckerling, Edinburgh University Press (2016), pp. 53-72.
• ‘Girlfriends, Postfeminism and the European Chick-Flick in France,’ in F. Handyside and K. Taylor (eds), International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts, Palgrave Macmillan (2015), pp.35-49.
• ‘Danièle Thompson: French Women’s Screenwriting Goes Global,’ in J. Selbo and J. Nelmes (eds), Women Screenwriters: An International Guide, Palgrave Macmillan (2015), pp. 346-351.

• ‘Franglais, Anglais and Contemporary French Comedy,’ in M. Harrod, M. Liz and A. Timoshkina (eds), The Europeanness of European Cinema: Identity, Meaning, Globalization, I.B. Tauris (2015), pp. 145-158.
• With M. Liz and A. Timoshkina, 'The Europeanness of European Cinema: An Overview,’ in M. Harrod, M. Liz and A. Timoshkina (eds), The Europeanness of European Cinema: Identity, Meaning, Globalization, I.B. Tauris (2015), pp.1-13.
• ‘Auteur Meets Genre: Rohmer and the Rom-Com,’ in L. Anderst (ed.), The Films of Eric Rohmer: French New Wave to Old Master, Palgrave Macmillan (2014), pp.101-113.

• Three entries, Directory of World Cinema: France, T. Palmer and C. Michael (eds), Intellect (2013).

Book Reviews and Review Articles

• Charlotte Gainsbourg: Transnational and Transmedia Stardom by Felicity Chaplin, French Studies vol. 76, no. 2 (April 2022), Pages 311–312, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knac003
• Middlebrow Cinema by Sally Faulkner (ed.), New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film
  Vol.17, No. 1 (2020): 122-125.
• The Nasty Woman and the Neo Femme Fatale in Contemporary Cinema by Agnieszka Piotrowska, Film-Philosophy no. 24 (2020): 250-253.
• Nancy Meyers by Deborah Jermyn, Feminist Media Studies, no. 2 (February 2018): 329-330.
• French Cinema in Close-Up by Michael Abecassis with M. Block (eds), Studies in European Cinema vol. 13 (August 2016)
• Nationalism and the Cinema in France: Political Mythologies and Film Events, 1945-1995 by Hugo Frey, French History vol. 30, no. 2 (2016): 282-283.

• French Comedy on Screen: A Cinematic History by Rémi Fournier-Lanzoni, French Studies vol. 69, no. 4 (2015): 573-574.
• Je t’aime...moi non plus: Franco-British Cinematic Relations by L. Mazdon and C. Wheatley (eds), Screening the Past no. 33 (April 2012).
• Richard Linklater by David T. Johnson, Senses of Cinema no. 64 (September 2012)

Translation

• Translation from Spanish (with Paszkiewicz) of Barbara Zecchi’s ‘Comedy as a Feminist Strategy: Spanish Women Filmmakers Reclaim Laughter,’ in M. Harrod and K. Paskiewicz (eds), Women Do Genre in Film and Television, Routledge (2017), pp. 91-105.

Public Engagement and Non-Traditional Academia

• Blog post on the Depp-Heard controversy https://maifeminism.com/the-avalanche-of-misogynistic-hate-speech-directed-at-amber-heard-must-unite-women-against-resistance-to-our-voices/Link opens in a new window 15 June 2022.
• Proposed, organised and spoke at event discussing of contemporary attitudes to sex at Coventry City of Culture's Resonate Festival, University of Warwick Let's Talk About Sex — Resonate Festival, 20 April 2022.
• Interview on gender equality in European audiovisual industries for TRT World (international news channel based in Turkey), 27 January 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFvIPZvWAjgLink opens in a new window
• Masterclass on gender stereotypes in television, Are You Series? Festival, Brussels, 8-12 December 2021 Are You Series : la diversité et l’égalité dans la fiction. Part 3 | Talk | Bozar - YouTube.
• 'Has less sex in real life led to more raunch on our screens?' The Conversation,13 October 2021 Has less sex in real life led to more raunch on our screens? (theconversation.com) . Read 26,000 times across the United Kingdom, India, United States, Vietnam and Pakistan and reprinted in The Metro,16 October 2021, and The Independent, 1 November 2021 (as well as IOL, Newsify [App] and Menafn).
• 'Je ne suis pas un homme facile: inverser la domination de genre pour la rendre visible,' Le Genre et l'écran (Francophone film and TV blog), 6 août 2021 Je ne suis pas un homme facile - ♀ le genre & l'écran ♂ (genre-ecran.net).
• Mary Harrod, Suzanne Leonard and Diane Negra, 'Romance in the Time of Coronavirus,' SCMS+ 'Short Attention Span Criticism,' June 2020 https://www.cmstudies.org/page/SCMSPlus?fbclid=IwAR0LJU-LXGLEmCBJ8rDnlXkCvdCk3VLXPJ8VFODsBclvKfnHBD9GLNXNC68 (article 14).

• Reuters interview with Sonia Elks for quotation for her article, ‘The bitch is back? UK film festival sparks debate over use of term’ http://news.trust.org/item/20190505110309-spvid/, Thomson Reuters Foundation News, 5 May 2019. Reproduced for print and media in dozens of international media outlets including The Daily Mail newspaper, All Africa Radio and several Asian newspapers.

• 'The Favourite: At Last We're Seeing Lesbianism Take Centre Stage in Popular Culture', The Conversation, January 25 2019 https://theconversation.com/the-favourite-at-last-were-seeing-lesbianism-take-centre-stage-in-popular-culture-110045 Reprinted in The Independent online, 31 January 2019, The New European, 7 February 2019, p.44, and The i Newspaper online, 26 February 2019, among several other publications.

• BBC Coventry and Warwickshire, 2pm, interview discussing research project Imagining ‘We’ in the Age of ‘I,’ 27 September 2018.

• '#MeToo or #Moi Non Plus? How French Feminists are Divided Over Catherine Deneuve's Letter,' The Conversation, 12 January 2018 https://theconversation.com/metoo-or-moi-non-plus-how-french-feminists-are-divided-over-catherine-deneuves-letter-89978#comment_1508058. Reprinted by Fair Observer, 13 January 2018, and The New European, 18 January 2018, p. 27.
• BBC News 24 with Shaun Ley, 2pm on Saturday 24 October 2017, discussing sexism in Hollywood and the Weinstein scandal https://www.dropbox.com/s/s4rc6pphy3gqror/BBC_News_Channel-2017-10-14_14-09-55.mp4?dl=0
• BBC Coventry and Warwick, Thursday 12 October 'Drive-Time' with Phil Upton at 5.45pm (on the Weinstein scandal).
• LBC Radio, London, Friday 13 October at 9.30pm (on the Weinstein scandal).
• 'Girls may be flawed, but its feminist legacy will last,' The Conversation, February 10 2017 https://theconversation.com/girls-may-be-flawed-but-its-feminist-legacy-will-last-72442. Reprinted in The Independent, Thursday 16 February 2017, p. 35.
• Discussing the French rom-com as part of 'French Thought' feature on 'Free Thinking', BBC Radio 3, Thursday 9 July 2015,10pm (at 34 mins 30s) https://www.dropbox.com/s/kgb4zlh3opob56f/Free%20Thinking%20-%209th%20July%202015.mp3?dl=0
• 'How Hollywood-style rom-coms seduced France', The Conversation, 24 June 2015 https://theconversation.com/how-hollywood-style-rom-coms-seduced-france-43680.
• I am also a repeat contributor to Sight and Sound and a regular speaker at events for schools and teaching bodies.

Background and Formal Qualifications

BA(/MA Oxon) (Oxford [Magdalen College], French and Spanish); MA and PhD (King's College London, Film Studies). After my PhD, I taught at King's College and at the London School of Economics and Political Science's Gender Institute, before joining Warwick in 2014. I have also completed Warwick's PCAPP qualification (Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice) and am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Administrative Roles

I am in charge of social media for the School of Modern Languages and Cultures. I have historically been Chair of Examinations for French Studies and for the School of Modern Languages (intermediate year).