Dr Matt Denny
Teaching Fellow in Film & Television Studies
Email: m dot denny at warwick dot ac dot ukPronouns: he/him
Phone: +44 24 76 5 73646
Room FAB 1.25, Faculty of Arts Building
University of Warwick
Coventry, CV4 7HS
About
I hold a First Class BA in Film and Literature, an MA For Research in Film and Television Studies, and earned my PhD in Film and Television Studies in 2016 - all from The Department of Film and Television Studies at Warwick. My doctoral thesis is concerned with theories of film authorship and postmodern cinema.
In addition to my teaching responsibilities, I am also the department's Widening Participation and Outreach OfficerLink opens in a new window. For the Autumn Term 2022, I will be responsible for Undergraduate Admissions
Current Teaching
For the 2022 - 2022 academic year I will be convening our outside options modules: Film Analysis and MethodsLink opens in a new window in the Autumn and Film History and MethodsLink opens in a new window in the Spring.
I have been a regular contributor to the IATLLink opens in a new window module Genetics: Science and SocietyLink opens in a new window
Research Interests
- Film Theory; particularly theories of film authorship, genre, and issues of representation (especially as this relates to genre cinema)
- Contemporary Hollywood Cinema; specialising in action cinema and post-classical style
- Horror Cinema; with particular interest in British Horror cinema, definitions of the gothic, folk horror, and the relationship between horror and science-fiction
- Film-philosophy; including R.G. Collingwood's philosophy of art, Nietzsche (particularly depictions of eternal recurrence), postmodern aesthetics, post-structuralism, and representations of the posthuman and non-human (particularly in relation to Artificial Intelligence, the demonic, and the spectral)
Research Disclaimer
As a teaching fellow, I am employed on a Teaching Only Contract. Before this I have had various hourly paid sessional teaching contracts and a professional services job (managing widening participation and study abroad). This means that presenting and publishing research does not feature as part of my workload allocation, nor has it been since I completed my PhD. While I do receive the benefits of institutional affiliation, library access, and supportive colleagues, I do not receive monetary support from the university for my research, and any research I do undertake must be conducted in my spare time rather than in working hours.
Publications
- ‘Deconstructing Depth: Proximity and Contemplation in Déjà Vu’, Film-Philosophy Special Issue: The Surfaces of Film-Philosophy, 22:2, (2018) 240-260 [available here]Link opens in a new window
- ‘Introduction: The Surfaces of Film-Philosophy’, Film-Philosophy Special Issue: The Surfaces of Film-Philosophy, 22:2, (2018) 143-147 (co-author) [available here]Link opens in a new window
- ‘In Celebration of Her Wickedness?: Critical Intertextuality and the Female Vampire in Byzantium’, in Gender and Contemporary Horror in Film, edited by Samantha Holland, Robert Shail, and Steven Gerrard (Bingley: Emerald Publishing, 2019) [link to publisher website]Link opens in a new window
- 'Queer Cinema' in The Oxford Handbook of New Science Fiction Cinemas, edited by J.P. Telotte, (Oxford University Press, 2023) (co-author) [available here]Link opens in a new window
Conference Papers
- 'Tony Scott's Déjà Vu (2006): Looking Again at Spectacle, Style, and Substance'
Film-Philosophy Conference, 20th – 22nd June 2015, Oxford University - 'In Celebration of Her Wickedness? Critical Intertextuality and the Female Vampire in Byzantium'
Fear 2000 Conference, 21st – 22nd April 2017, Sheffield Hallam University - 'Don’t Call it a Horror Film: The Uses of the Gothic in Crimson Peak'
Gothic Feminisms Conference, 24th – 26th May 2017, University of Kent Canterbury - 'The Postmodern Auteur: A New Wave Legacy'
The American New Wave: A Retrospective, 4th – 6th July 2017, Bangor University - ‘Robotic Revenants and Machine Ghosts: Posthuman Hauntings in Transcendence and Be Right Back’
CATH Postgraduate Conference: ‘It is true, we shall be monsters’: new perspectives on horror, science fiction and the monstrous onscreen, 13th June 2018, De Montfort University, - ‘Gothic, Folk, and Post: Labels and Value in Horror Cinema’
International Gothic association Conference 2018: Gothic Hybridities: Interdisciplinary, Multimodal and Transhistorical Approaches, July 31st–August 3rd 2018, Manchester Metropolitan University - ‘Acting Like He has Genuine Emotions: Human and Inhuman Characters in 2001: A Space Odyssey’
Character as Character: Understanding and Appreciating People in films, 13th October 2018, University of Bristol 2018 - ‘“The Field … The Field … It’s Covered in Blood!”: Watership Down as Folk Horror’
The legacy of Watership Down: Animals, Adaptation, Animation, 10th November 2018, The University of Warwick - 'Female Labour and Algorithmic Horror in Cam’
Gothic Feminisms Conference, 2nd - 3rd May 2019, University of Kent Canterbury - 'Views from Hills: Folk Horror as a Mode of Seeing'
Folk Horror in the 21st Century, 5th - 6th September 2019, Falmouth University - 'Happy Death Day, Dionysis: Nietzsche and the Final Girl'
International Gothic Conference 2022: Gothic Interruptions, 26th - 29th July, Trinity College Dublin - '“These Woods Are No Place for Children!”: Reconsidering Children’s Folk Horror'
Fear 2000 Horror Uncaged, 21st - 22nd July and 27th - 29th July 2023, Sheffield Hallam University [forthcoming] - '“That goes in the butt bank”: Tina Belcher and The Horny Teen in a Queer Time and Place'
Sex in Contemporary Media: An Interdisciplinary Conference 4th - 6th October 2023, University of Warwick and Online [forthcoming]
Memberships and Associations
I am a member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSSLink opens in a new window)
I am a member of the International Gothic Assoiciation (IGA)Link opens in a new window
I am a Warwick LGBTUA+ supporterLink opens in a new window
Public Engagement
- I was a guest on Eavesdropping at the MoviesLink opens in a new window, discussing Hereditary (Ari Aster, 2018) with José ArroyoLink opens in a new window and Michael Glass
- I appeared on Showcase for TRT World to discuss Martin Scorsese and The Age of MarvelLink opens in a new window
- I appear as one of the contributors to the Gender and AI Podcast, a project devised and organised by Dr Nike JungLink opens in a new window (University of Groningen) Both sessions of the podcast are available below
Teaching
Undergraduate