BFI Film Classics: The Empire Strikes Back, 2020. (Cover: Audrey Estok).
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I'm a university lecturer in the UK with over a decade's experience researching histories of film and media - particularly Star Wars - which I share with audiences via print, broadcast, and social media. I publish regularly in Sight & Sound and have appeared across a range of BBC radio and television shows. I'm also a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, and a member of the Critics' Circle Film Section.
This site collates my work exploring cinema from its beginnings to the present day. I focus on: film and media technologies; media, the environment, and climate change; political economies of film; gender, race, and class; accessibility and ethics; women in the creative industries; cinema and the military-industrial complex; and archives. At the moment, I'm interested in how these elements combine in the production, distribution, and reception of Star Wars. |
My most recent book, BFI Film Classics: The Empire Strikes Back (2020), is available from Bloomsbury. You can find links to my print, online, video, radio and other work on Star Wars - including a project to determine women's screen time in the films - on the Media: Star Wars page of this site.
From October 2022 to March 2025, I have an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement fellowship for the project 'The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking: Using Star Wars to Improve Sector Sustainability Practices.' The research interrogates the ecological effects of two areas of screen industry practice: first, lifecycles of props and costumes made for the Star Wars franchise, from the extraction of raw materials through to waste disposal, and second, the impacts on communities and wildlife of location shoots. The project identifies good practice - and, of course, harms that require urgent change - and aims to support practitioners in making greener work. You can find out more about the work (case studies, findings, calculators, training resources and a film) at eifproject.com.
In the past, I have worked as a film programmer and events organiser. I've also been involved in activist spaces that focus on workers' rights and ending cultures of gender-based violence in universities. In 2018, I founded and directed the Glasgow Feminist Arts Festival, which took place at the Centre for Contemporary Arts and showcased international filmmakers, creative writers, spoken word artists, performers and musicians marginalised by gender.
From October 2022 to March 2025, I have an AHRC Research, Development and Engagement fellowship for the project 'The Environmental Impact of Filmmaking: Using Star Wars to Improve Sector Sustainability Practices.' The research interrogates the ecological effects of two areas of screen industry practice: first, lifecycles of props and costumes made for the Star Wars franchise, from the extraction of raw materials through to waste disposal, and second, the impacts on communities and wildlife of location shoots. The project identifies good practice - and, of course, harms that require urgent change - and aims to support practitioners in making greener work. You can find out more about the work (case studies, findings, calculators, training resources and a film) at eifproject.com.
In the past, I have worked as a film programmer and events organiser. I've also been involved in activist spaces that focus on workers' rights and ending cultures of gender-based violence in universities. In 2018, I founded and directed the Glasgow Feminist Arts Festival, which took place at the Centre for Contemporary Arts and showcased international filmmakers, creative writers, spoken word artists, performers and musicians marginalised by gender.