Congratulations Polina (and thanks for the website news item!)

Between agency and victimhood: Adult Material and screening the female porn performer in the #MeToo era The porn star figure has typically occupied a polarizing position within media and feminist discourses, being a symbol of either agency or victimization. This article explores the way the televisio...

My new (and first!) article 'Between agency and victimhood: "Adult Material" and screening the female porn performer in the #MeToo era' is now out on @pornstudiesjournal.bsky.social. Available on open access! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

a woman in a red tank top has her arms up ALT: a woman in a red tank top has her arms up

Non academics always ask whether looking closely at a film 'ruins' it. I have never had that experience until writing my monograph chapter on Suspiria (2018), a film I (honestly!) did used to like.

Pleased that I have written the final line of it today. Goodbye, cursed object, I am so over you!

My book, The Superhero Blockbuster: Adaptation, Style, and Meaning, is out today in ebook format, published by @upmississippi.bsky.social! You can buy the ebook from the usual vendors and if you're affiliated with a university you may already have access at JSTOR here: doi.org/10.2307/jj.2...

Dad's been told he's got to have an insta for his fruit and veg biz and I have to say the images of kiwis and radishes are quite a soothing addition to my timeline

Take note: what is happening in the USA could easily happen here if we don't vocally, definitively resist

Thank you to @baftss2025.bsky.social for facilitating my dream (talking about Charli XCX at length with 2 brilliant scholars). The female pop doc (edited by @profkirsty.bsky.social) coming soon!

Presenting as part of the Comedic Aesthetics panel at #BAFTSS2025 tomorrow! My paper is called ‘It’s Not TV, It’s A24’ and will be looking at how A24 have positioned themselves as a producer of televised stand-up comedy and the ways in which this reinforces their strong brand identity.

@baftss2025.bsky.social is go! Building on my work on resilience discourse & pop music on friday I'll be presenting on Charli XCX's Alone Together & how the film responds to & exceeds resilient formations of the recent female pop doc through an emphasis on LGBTQ fandom & digital space building

Really looking forward to delivering this paper on a fascinating film that sunk without a trace with the brilliant @havasjulia.bsky.social as part of Friday's Genre Hybridity panel @baftss2025.bsky.social

Breaking and Making the Fourth Wall on YouTube: Direct Address and Audiovisual Narration in Online Video Published in Quarterly Review of Film and Video (Ahead of Print, 2025)

James MacDowell’s new article, ‘Breaking (and making) the Fourth Wall on YouTube’ is now published (and is open access) in the Quarterly Review of Film and Video. Read below:

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Nice to be on home (Warwick!) turf for @baftss2025.bsky.social this week. I'll be presenting on the Performance & Stardom SIG sponsored panel, sharing research on the female pop doc alongside @profkirsty.bsky.social. Come for the screenshots of my Instagram feed, stay for the hyperpop bangers!

The Superhero Blockbuster The Superhero Blockbuster: Adaptation, Style, and Meaning builds an innovative framework for analyzing one of the most prominent genres in twenty-first-century Hollywood. In combining theories of adap...

Looks like a preview of my book - The Superhero Blockbuster: Adaptation, Style, and Meaning - is now available on Google! It's a clumsily formatted ebook version with no images but still good for a sneaky peek.

books.google.co.uk/books/about/...

Come join us for BAFTSS 2025! We've got so many great papers scheduled.

A Nazi Word for a Nazi Thing by So Mayer An essay on art, bodies and fascism In an era where identity politics is being weaponised against the very people it has sought to make visible, how can we reclaim complexity? In 1937 the ...

"But is it fascist?" My book A NAZI WORD FOR A NAZI THING has the answer: yes it is.

So is endlessly classifying shit, which is eugenics.

What do we do about it? My book also has the answer: make & love messy queer anarchist art to keep each other alive.

peninsulapress.co.uk/products/a-n...

Speechless with rage that our greedy capitalist overlords want to destroy a rare thriving cultural hub and beloved cinema landmark in central London because…..why? They don’t have enough money already? Sign this petition.

Inauthenticity as a Disruption of Neoliberal Resilience Discourse in Brady Corbet's <i>Vox Lux</i> | Film-Philosophy Brady Corbet's Vox Lux (2018) depicts school shooting survivor Celeste's transformation into a singing superstar, connecting the trauma of a terrorist attack to the phenomenon of musical celebrity. In...

Here's a link to my article which discusses this in relation to Vox Lux, pop music & neoliberalism www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10....

This got absolutely no traction, but if you (like me) loved The Brutalist here is a link to my article on Brady Corbet's Vox Lux, a film that I find even more interesting as a take on American politics & neoliberalism & discuss through the lens of its focus on pop stardom

It strikes me the Corbet is one of our foremost chroniclers of capitalist realism- something I explore in my article on Vox Lux. One of his tools is tone: the sense of inevitability & foreboding that pervade films about 'plucky' individuals is a reckoning with history but also late stage capitalism

Inauthenticity as a Disruption of Neoliberal Resilience Discourse in Brady Corbet's <i>Vox Lux</i> | Film-Philosophy Brady Corbet's Vox Lux (2018) depicts school shooting survivor Celeste's transformation into a singing superstar, connecting the trauma of a terrorist attack to the phenomenon of musical celebrity. In...

Here's a link to my article which discusses this in relation to Vox Lux, pop music & neoliberalism www.euppublishing.com/doi/full/10....

It strikes me the Corbet is one of our foremost chroniclers of capitalist realism- something I explore in my article on Vox Lux. One of his tools is tone: the sense of inevitability & foreboding that pervade films about 'plucky' individuals is a reckoning with history but also late stage capitalism

Call for papers is here call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/09/....

Excited to share that i'll be a keynote (!!) at the first British Popular Culture(s) Conference at Falmouth Uni in June. Probably banging on about British woman filmmakers, dance, new realism (and of course Andrea Arnold). It's on 5th-7th of June and a nice excuse for a little excusion to Cornwall!

Women of the L.A. Rebellion: Shorts Q&A YouTube video by The Garden Cinema

I'm so proud of programming films by 3 'insurgent sisters' (Julie Dash, Alile Sharon Larkin & Zeinabu irene Davis). The discussion testifies to how groundbreaking their representations of Black femininity were & how important they continue to be. Discussion link here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=k60t...

Reflecting on last year and all the cool stuff that happened, professionally...one of the coolest being hosting @laurastaab.bsky.social Guilia Rho &
Yaya Azariah Clarke for this discussion about short films made by women of the LA Rebellion, which can be viewed at the link below!

read.dukeupress.edu/liquid-black...

'Barracks and City Girls open productive paths for studying gathering as they engage in collaborative cultural productions that emphasize paying Black femmes as a radical act and position Black queer and femme scammers as architects of this radical praxis'

The only journal I *rush* to read as soon as it comes out is Liquid Blackness. There is always a gem. This time Jillian Hernandez's 'Ca$h App Connectivities: High-Maintenance Feminism and Payment as Praxis' - the analysis of City Girl's 'Jobs' we all needed 👏