About

I hold a BA in English Literature from the University of Cardiff, a PGCE in Education from Canterbury Christ Church University, an MSt in Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Film Studies from Queen Mary, University of London. My doctoral thesis interrogated the relationship between dance, music, film and girlhood in the contemporary neoliberal landscape, focusing particularly on dance performances by vulnerable and marginalised girls in recent independent films. My forthcoming monograph, based on this doctoral research, is entitled The Dancing Girl in Contemporary Cinema and will interweave political philosophy and film theory with dance and music scholarship in order to account for the political meanings constructed by the dancing girls in four contemporary films. I have joined the University of Warwick from Queen Mary, University of London, where I worked from 2018-2022, first as a Teaching Associate then as a Teaching Fellow.

My work benefits from regular dialogue with researchers, students of all ages and the general public. I have presented my work at conferences including BAFTSS, Film-Philosophy and SCMS as well as at public screenings at the Deptford and Genesis cinemas. I have organised screenings and symposia including 120 BPM Screening and Symposium, Teaching to Transgress: 20 Years of Women’s Studies and Suspirias Symposium. I was previously events leads for The Centre for Film and Ethics and organised Moving Beyond Boundaries: Dance, Politics and the Moving Image in conjunction with the centre in 2018. I am on the editoral board of the British Association of Film and Televisions journal Open Screens.

Research Interests

My research interests include feminist film theory, film philosophy (particularly phenomenology and political philosophy), girlhood on screen, film sound and music and celebrity studies. My current work is situated at the boundary of film and philosophy and is primarily focused on contemporary films, particularly those made by or focused on woman and girls. I am above all interested in film aesthetics and how these reflect and inform contemporary political structures.

Teaching

I currently convene the following modules:

FI113 - Theories for Film Studies (first-year core module)

FI249 - Hollywood Cinema: History, Industry, Theory (second-year core module)

F1310 - Dissertation Option (third-year optional module)

I also teach on:

FI908 - Screen Cultures and Methods (MA core module)

Supervision

I teach across many areas related to contemporary independent cinema, film philosophy and phenomenology, dance and pop music on screen and queer and women's cinema. I am interested in supervising postgraduate projects related to all of these areas.

Publications

Books

Performance as Politics: the Dancing Girl in Contemporary Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming 2025)

Journal Special Issues

2021
Robin Campillo’s 120 Battements par minute (2017): Screening AIDS, Activism, and Queer Identity in Contemporary France
Modern and Contemporary France

Articles

2024
Inauthenticity as a Disruption of Neoliberal Resilience Discourse in Brady Corbet's Vox Lux
Film Philosophy

2021
This Party is Political: the Moving politics of the Queer Dancefloor in 120 BPM (2017)
Modern and Contemporary France

2020
‘Visions of ecstasy’: resilience and melancholy in the musical moments of Bande de filles (Céline Sciamma, 2014)
French Screen Studies

2019
Learning Is Dangerous
MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture (2019)

Reviews

2022
Anna Backman Rogers, Still Life:Notes on Barbara Loden’s Wanda (Santa Barbara CA: Punctum Press, 2021)
Open Screens

2022
Céline Sciamma: Portraits. By Emma Wilson
French Studies

2021
‘Melanie Kennedy, Tweenhood: Femininity and Celebrity in Tween Popular Culture (2018)’
Film Studies

2018
James Harvey (2018) Jacques Rancière and the Politics of Art Cinema
Film-Philosophy

Selection of Conference Papers and Talks

2024
'Get Off Your Arse and Slam' Aspiration Anthems as a Critique of the Gig Economy in American Honey (2017)

2023
The Politics of the Dancing Girl in Contemporary Cinema: the Aesthetics of Counter Resilience in Céline Sciamma's Girlhood
Public Lecture (University of Birmingham)

2022
‘I am a damaged dollar’: Failed Vocal Performance as a Disruption of Neoliberal Resilience Discourse in Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux (2018)
BARN Virtual Colloquia

2022
Episode 5: Dirty Dancing (podcast interview)*
Cinérameuf

2020
Leave No Trace (introduction for Chiltern Film Society)*
The Elgiva Theatre

2020
American Honey (introduction for ‘Diamonds in the Sky’ Season)*
Genesis Cinema

2019
‘“This Party is Political: the Moving Politics of the Queer Dancefloor in 120 BPM (2017)”
SCMS Conference

2019
‘Shame on you, if you can't dance too’: The Intersectional Politics of Dance in Contemporary Cinema
Film-Philosophy Conference

2019
‘Finding Love in a Hopeless Place? Pop Music and Resilience in Bande de Filles and American Honey’
 BAFTSS Conference

2019
Orlando- Deptford Film and Book Club (panel discussion)*
Deptford Cinema

2019
Constructing Teen Identity on Screen: Thirteen Panel Discussion (for Dispatch Moving Image Feminist Collective)*
Genesis Cinema

2018
‘In Her Hips are Revolutions’: Dancing Dissensus in Catch Me Daddy (2014)
BAFTSS Conference

2018
‘Moving Beyond Boundaries: Dance, Politics and the Moving Image’
Postproduction