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Dr Matt Denny

Teaching Fellow in Film & Television Studies

Email: m dot denny at warwick dot ac dot uk
Pronouns: 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

    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