Film Studies

Research in the Film Studies programme of the Queen Mary University of London is organised into four main areas, Film Cultures, Film Philosophy, Film Practice, and Decolonizing Film with the Centre for Film and Ethics as the main research centre.

Features

We are always interested in receiving applications from highly qualified prospective PhD students wishing to work with us in these general research areas.

Film Philosophy cluster boasts research not only within two main schools of Western philosophy (continental and analytic) but in Eastern thought as well. Members of the cluster have strengths in ethics, ideology, Marxist and post-Marxist critical thought, phenomenology, film archaeology, non-human and environmental humanities, vegan cinema and permacinema, end of life, finance, icon/icity, religion and film, philosophical exegesis, neurodiversity, gesture, cognitivism, fiction, Daoism, and works of specific philosophers including Agamben, Carroll, Benjamin, and Murdoch. The members include Lucy Bolton, Ashvin Devasundaram, Steven Eastwood, Grazia Ingravalle, Alasdair King, Sasha Litvintseva, Janet Harbord, Anat Pick, Libby Saxton, Mario Slugan, Guy Westwell, and Kiki Tianqi Yu. 

Film Cultures cluster investigates film histories, national cinemas, and various aspects of cinema as an institution. The cluster’s expertise lie in specific historical periods (early cinema, Classical Hollywood era, the interwar period, post-9/11 cinema), the cultures and industries of national cinemas (US, British, French, Russian, German, Italian, Yugoslav, Indian and Chinese cinemas), and a range of topics including stars, directors, producers, production companies, independent cinema, archives, production design, representation of war, cinema memory, film festivals, and studios. Lucy Bolton, Ashvin Devasundaram, Sue Harris, Grazia Ingravalle, Annette Kuhn, Mario Slugan, Guy Westwell, and Kiki Tianqi Yu count among the cluster’s members. 

The  Film Studies Film Studies  programme of the Queen Mary University of London Queen Mary University of London  is normally a 3-year full time (or 6-year part time) research only PhD programme (i.e., there is no mandatory coursework component and students are expected to immediately start their research). In May of every year of the programme full-time equivalent PhD students are expected to pass an annual progress review.

• For more information, please visit the programme page.