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School of Modern Languages and Cultures

Dr Mary Harrod

PhotoAssociate Professor in French and Screen Studies

Tel: +44 (0)24 765 23014

Fourth Floor, Faculty of Arts Building

Email: M dot G dot M dot Harrod at warwick dot ac dot uk

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'. In collaboration with Diane Negra and Suzanne Leonard, I have co-edited a book deriving from the project with a trans-global and trans-media focus, which won a Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association Outstanding Achievement Award (Edited Collection of the Year, 2022).

I have recently completed an AHRC Networking Grant as Principal Investigator on the project 'Producing the Post-National Popular: The Expanding Imagination of Mainstream French Films and Television Series', whose key intervention was 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 am Co-Chief General Editor of French Screen Studies (with Ginette Vincendeau). I also sit on the board of MAI Feminism.

Visiting Appointments and Speaking Invitations

As well as having held a visiting scholarship at MIT and a concurrent visiting lectureship at Brandeis University (Boston), I have presented by invitation widely at academic institutions including among many others the Universities of Oxford, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Maryland and Gdansk, King's College London and the Sorbonne, as well as speaking at cultural institutions such as the MIT Museum (Boston), the London Cinema Museum, the Institut Français or the British Film Institute, where I appear regularly.

Teaching and Supervision

I specialise in teaching French media and society and am responsible for the final-year modules States of the Nation: French Film and Society From 1995 to the Present and Gender and Representation in French Media since 1970, as well as sometimes the second-year module French Cinema from the First to the Second World War. I have taught 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 historically taught a second-year module in Hispanic Studies on Contemporary Spanish Cinema and taught on the cross-language module Languages and Cultures Beyond Boundaries.

In 2016-17 I was Visiting Lecturer at Brandeis University, I taught modules on Introduction to the Moving Image and Genre Films in Cinema and Television (taught using only women directors).

I have experience supervising doctoral theses on transnational screen horror; multiracial film comedy; and one-parent families in contemporary French cinema. I am interested in supervising projects on a range of topics in contemporary (especially European, US, Hispanic or trans/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/Bloomsbury (2015). Shortlisted for the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies Best Monograph 2017.

Co-edited volumes

M. Harrod and R. Moine, Is it French? Popular Postnational Screen Fiction from France, Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming November 2023).

M. Harrod, S. Leonard and D. Negra (eds), Imagining 'We' in the Age of 'I': Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture, Routledge (2021). WINNER of Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association (MeCCSA) Outstanding Achievement Award (Edited Collection of the Year, 2022).

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/Bloomsbury (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

  • ‘Staging the generic self: Céline Sciamma’s autofictional praxis,’ French Screen Studies vol. 23, no. ii-iii (2023), pp. 212-230. Full article: Staging the generic self: Céline Sciamma’s autofictional praxis (tandfonline.com). Open Access.

  • ‘Nostalgia, Melancholia, Trauma: Backlash Postfeminism in Contemporary French Cinematic Romance,’ Nottingham French Studies vol. 61, no. 3 (2022), Special Issue on French Postfeminism, pp. 208–226.

  • ‘The “Selfish” Mothers of Contemporary French Screen Comedy,’ Genre en séries, cinéma, télévision, médias no. 12-13 (2022), Special Issue on Gender and Comedy: Stars, Performances, Characters. https://doi.org/10.4000/ges.2994. Open Access.

  • 'Heightened Genre and Women’s Filmmaking in Hollywood: Twilight (Catherine Hardwicke, 2008) as Teen Gothic,' Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics vol. 6, no. 2 (2022). https://doi.org/10.20897/femenc/12343 (written article and video essay). Open Access.
  • '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

  • ‘The Unbearable Weight of Gendered Genre: Richard Linklater’s post-Boyhood Masculinities,’ in K. Wilkins and T. Vermeulen (eds.), Refocus: The Films of Richard Linklater, Edinburgh University Press, pp. 115-135.

  • 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 K. 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.

Media, Public Engagement and Non-Traditional Academia

Background and Formal Qualifications

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

Advice and feedback hours

Term 2 - Thursdays 11-1 or by appointment (e.g. most Wednesdays 5.30-7).

Teaching

Undergraduate modules
FR340 States of the Nation: French Cinema and Society from 1995 to the present (convenor)
FR335 Gender and Representation in French Media since 1970 (convenor)

In 2021: FR268 French Cinema and Society from the First to the Second World War (convenor)

Historical:

HP308 Contemporary Spanish Cinema (convenor)

European Cinema

LN210 Languages and Cultures Beyond Boundaries

FR344 French Cinema (co-convenor)

Postgraduate Courses/Advanced Special Options

History and Film

French Gender Studies

Genre in French Film History

Female Homosociality and Homoeroticism in Postfeminist French Cinema

FR923 Intellectual Contexts: Intercultural Transactions