Dr Leanne Weston
Associate Teaching FellowEmail: Leanne.Weston@warwick.ac.uk |
About
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, their 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 a programme 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, which I will be continuing to explore.
Teaching
In the Autumn Term (22-23), I will be teaching on Film and Television Stardom alongside Julie Lobalzo Wright.
In previous years, I have taught on several modules. For undergraduate students, these include Classical Hollywood, Discovering Cinema, and Film and Television Analysis. I have also delivered a guest lecture on British music television for the undergraduate module Television History and Criticism, based upon elements of my doctoral research. For MA students, I lectured on the MA core module Screen Cultures and Methods on television flow, and curation and branding in post-broadcast television.
Publications
Forthcoming:
- '"We Can Work it Out”: Reassessing Musicality, Fidelity, and Excess in Across the Universe,’ A Critical Companion to Julie Taymor, Matthew Hodge, editor. Lexington Books.
- ‘A Voice Too Much: Performance and Authenticity in Biographical Television Drama.’ Singing Out: The Musical Voice in Audiovisual Media, Haworth, Catherine, and Beth Carroll, editors. Edinburgh University Press, 2023. Co-written with Hannah Andrews.
Published:
- 'On Living with Television' (Review), Critical Studies in Television, 18.2 (June 2023), pp.224–226.
- '"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.
- 'Oscars 2023: How Aftersun uses music to perfectly express grief,' The Conversation (10 March 2023).
- "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, 2023.
- 'Amy: Beyond the Stage' (Review), Jazz Research Journal, 15 1-2 (December 2022), pp.153–159.
- 'The Day She Came to Dingle: Arena, Cultural Memory, and Musical Reclamation of Amy Winehouse', Viewfinder Magazine, no. 120 (July 2022).
- 'Special Dossier: BBC Four at 20', Critical Studies in Television,17.2 (June 2022), co-edited with Michael Samuel.
- ‘The Last Broadcast: Reflections on the Life and Legacy of BBC Four’. Critical Studies in Television, 17.2 (June 2022), pp. 178-186, co-written with Michael Samuel.
- '(In)Visible Woman: Ruth Madeley and Representing Disabled Lives on Screen', Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal, vol. 9, no. 2 (April 2022), pp. 88–96.
- ‘(Re)Writing Music History: Television, Memory, and Nostalgia in The People's History of Pop’. The Velvet Light Trap, vol. 88, no. 1, University of Texas Press, 2021, pp. 59–70.
- ‘Kate Winslet, the Performing Body and Star Image in Mare of Easttown’. Performance and Stardom Blog, 23 September 2021, co-written with Julie Lobalzo Wright.
- ‘Live Forever: Glastonbury 2020, Television, Time, Memory, and Nostalgia.’ CST Online, 25 September 2020.
- ‘“Everybody Needs a Place to Think" or Do They?: The End of BBC Four, Arts Programming and Precarity.’ CST Online, 22 May 2020.
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'Good Girl, Bad Luck: Gender, Performance and Morality in Georgy Girl,' Georgy Girl (Indicator/Powerhouse Films, 2018).
- 'All the Right Notes: Woody Allen's Radio Days,' Woody Allen: Seven Films 1986-1991 (Arrow Academy, 2017).
- 'Harmonies of Discord: Pop Oldies and Horror Trailers,' In Media Res (2 May 2016).
Conference Organisation
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Anonymity, Un-Originality, Collectivity - Contested Modes of Authorship, University of Warwick, 20-21 May 2022. Co-organised with Leonello Bazzurro, Melissa Pawelski, and Alessandra Tafaro.
- Organisation, production, and dissemination of delegate materials for The Story of Children's Television (University of Warwick, 6-7 July 2015), and the symposium Film as Film Today: On the Criticism and Theory of V. F. Perkins (University of Warwick, 4-5 September 2018).
Chaired Talks and Panels
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'Stanley Cavell and the Vicissitudes of Love,' Panel chair, University of Warwick, 19 May 2023.
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‘"You Can't Stop the Beat": John Travolta as an Ageing Dancer' Talk chair. Dr Lisa Duffy, BAFTSS New Connections series, 15 June 2022 [online]. Dr Duffy’s talk was hosted by the Department of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, in association with the BAFTSS Performance & Stardom SIG.
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
- Member of BAFTSS and several SIGs, including Performance and Stardom and Horror.
- Peer reviewer for Critical Studies in Television.
- Peer reviewer for Jazz Research Journal.
- Peer reviewer for Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal.
Past Roles
- Co-convenor of the BAFTSS Performance and Stardom Special Interest Group (2021-2022).
- Research Assistant for the AHRC-funded project 'Producers and Production Practices in the History of Italian Cinema, 1949-1975.' (2018-2019).
- PhD representative of the Film and Television postgraduate SSLC (2016-2017).
- Mentor to MA students applying for doctoral funding (2016-2017).
- Member of the PGR Professional Development Student Panel (2016-2017).