People

Dr Bruce Bennett

Dr Bruce Bennett

Lecturer

The LICA Building
Lancaster University
Bailrigg
Lancaster
United Kingdom
LA1 4YW


Tel: +44 1524 594753

PhD Supervision Interests

I am interested in working with students in any area of cinema, film studies, screen studies or visual culture, but have particular interests in:
Hollywood cinema, British cinema, Transnational cinema, Early cinema, Film, politics and class, cinema technology, Visual culture and climate change.

Current Teaching

POSTGRADUATE (PhD)

I am currently co-supervising the following PhD projects:

  • Anna Martin, Real Person Fanfiction (RPF) and online fan communities
  • Rona Murray, Situations of Absence: Silence and Invisibility in Women's Cinema
  • Liz Nichols, The Cinematic Punctum
  • Imogen Robertson, Intervals, Rhythms and Waves: Relations of Affect in Case Studies of Subjective Documentary from the 1980s and 1990s

I have supervised the following PhDs:

  • Dr Katherine Harrison (graduated 2009: AHRC-funded), Terror/Democracy: An iconology 
  • Dr Alex Simcock (graduated 2009: AHRC-funded), Rethinking Film and Television through the made-for-TV movie
  • Dr Dominique Ying-chih Liao (graduated 2008), Film and theatre in post-martial law Taiwan

 

POSTGRADUATE (MA)

I am a supervisor on the Film Studies MA by Research, and the MA by Research in Performance Studies.

 

UNDERGRADUATE

I currently convene the following modules:

  • Film Cultures (LICA251) - second-year core course in Film Studies
  • Silent Cinema (LICA355) - third-year option on cinema from 1895-1930

I also lecture or supervise on:

  • Introduction to Film Studies (LICA150) - first-year core course in Film Studies
  • Independent Research Module (FILM312) - third-year dissertation module
  • Modernism in the Arts (LICA100) - first-year interdiscplinary core module

 

Additional Information

CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS:

  • The  normativity of 3D: cinematic journeys, 'imperial visuality' and unchained cameras. I am currently writing on the 'ethnographic gaze' of digital stereoscopic cinema, taking the action film Sanctum (Grierson, 2011) produced by James Cameron, and the documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Herzog, 2011), as key case studies. This is due for publication in the online journal, Jumpcut later this year.
  • The cinema of Michael Bay: an aesthetics of excess. I am developing a project on the Hollywood director, Michael Bay, in conjunction with Dr Bruce Isaacs (Sydney University, Aus.) and Dr Leon Gurevitch (University of Victoria, NZ). We will be presenting a panel at the London Film and Media conference in June.
  • Video game culture and cinema. I am currently developing a project on the aesthetic and technical relationship between films and video games with Dr Leon Gurevitch (University of Victoria, NZ).
  • Michael Winterbottom's Everyday. I have been asked to present a paper on British director Michael Winterbottom's latest TV film, Everyday (2012), at The Child in Time symposium at the University of Sussex, Sept. 12, 2013.
  • Costume design. I am currently working with  Dr Catherine Spooner (English and Creative Writing, Lancaster) to plan a symposium on costume design, which is scheduled to take place in Spring 2014. This is a follow-up event to the symposium on production design which was held at LICA, Lancaster University in Feb. 2013.

 

 

In Press

The Cinema of Michael Winterbottom: Borders, Intimacy, Terror

Bennett, B. expected in 01/2014 Wallflower Press, Columbia University Press. (Directors' Cuts).

Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book

The comedy of terror: 'Gary: Tank Commander' and the TV sitcom's "discourse of impropriety"

Bennett, B. expected in 2014 Representing the War on Terror. Lacey, S. & Paget, D. (eds.). Cardiff: University of Wales Press

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Loving the alien: Indigenous protest and neo-colonial violence in Avatar

Bennett, B. expected in 05/2014 Immigrant Protest: Politics, Aesthetics and Everyday Dissent. Tyler, I. & Marciniak, K. (eds.). New York: SUNY Press

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter

2013

Unexpected cinematic journeys and ethnographic spectacle in contemporary 3D films: Research provocation

Bennett, B. 2013

Research output: Other contribution

2012

Book Reviews: The Comedy of Chaplin, Dan Kamin and Disappearing Tricks, Matthew Solomon

Bennett, B. 10/2012 In: Scope: An Online Journal of Film & TV Studies. 24, p. 42-48, 7 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

Download file

"Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land”: Notes on 'Pleasureland' (2010) by Darren Andrews

Bennett, B. 2012 Blurb

Research output: Other contribution

X-Ray visions: photography, propaganda and Guantánamo Bay

Bennett, B. 2012 Controversial Images: Media Representations on the Edge. Attwood, F., Campbell, V., Hunter, I. Q. & Lockyer, S. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 67-84 18 p.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Lu Chuan

Bennett, B. 2012 Directory of World Cinema: China. Bettinson, G. (ed.). Bristol: Intellect Books, p. 69-73 5 p. (Directory of World Cinema).

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter

2011

The hurt locker: cinematic addiction, ‘critique’ and the war on terror

Bennett, B. & Diken, B. 07/2011 In: Cultural Politics. 7, 2, p. 165-188, 24 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article

2010

Framing terror: cinema, docudrama and the war on terror.

Bennett, B. 12/2010 In: Studies in Documentary Film. 4, 3, p. 209-225, 17 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article

‘Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land’: Darren Andrews’ Pleasureland (2010).

Bennett, B. 04/2010 Lancaster: Dukes Arts Centre

Research output: Other contribution

Download file

Celebrity chav: fame, femininity and social class.

Tyler, I. & Bennett, B. 08/2010 In: European Journal of Cultural Studies. 13, 3, p. 375-393, 19 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article

2008

Introduction: Cinema and Technology/Cinema as Technology

Bennett, B., Furstenau, M. & Mackenzie, A. 2008 Cinema and Technology: Cultures, Theories, Practices. Bennett, B., Furstenau, M. & Mackenzie, A. (eds.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 1-18 18 p.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Children and robots, technophobia and cinephilia

Bennett, B. 2008 Cinema and Technology: Cultures, Theories, Practices. Bennett, B., Furstenau, M. & Mackenzie, A. (eds.). London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 168-182 15 p.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Cinema and technology: cultures, theories, practices.

Bennett, B. (ed.), Furstenau, M. (ed.) & Mackenzie, A. (ed.) 2008 London: Palgrave.

Research output: Book/Report/Proceedings › Book

Download file

Cinematic perspectives on the 'war on terror': the road to Guantanamo (2006) and activist cinema.

Bennett, B. 2008 In: New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film. 6, 2, p. 111-126, 16 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article

2007

Review of Vivian Sobchack, 'Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture'

Bennett, B. 2007 In: Feminist Review. 85, p. 136-138, 3 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

Download file

Towards a General Economics of Cinema

Bennett, B. 09/2007 Fiction and Economy. Bruce, S. & Wagner, V. (eds.). London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 167-186 19 p.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Download file

'Very un-British films: Michael Winterbottom and the Cinema of Incompatibility'

Bennett, B. 2007 Re-Reading Britain Today: Essays in British Literary and Cultural Studies. Yan, L. (ed.). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, p. 285-299 15 p.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Screening unlivable lives: the cinema of borders.

Tyler, I. & Bennett, B. 2007 Transnational feminism in film and media. Marciniak, K., Imre, A. & O'Healy, Á. (eds.). New York: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 21-36 16 p. (Comparative feminist studies).

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter

2004

Mary Anne Doane, The Emergence of Cinematic Time: Modernity, Contingency, the Archive. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press, 2002, 288 pp

Bennett, B. 2004 In: Screen. 45, 4, p. 461-466, 6 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

2003

High theory: a report on the 'Figuring Addictions/Rethinking Consumption' conference, 1-5 April 2002, Lancaster University

Bennett, B. 2003 In: Scope: An Online Journal of Film & TV Studies.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

2002

How it feels

SHaH, Bennett, B., Botting, F., Palladino, P., Tyler, I. & Wilson, S. 2002 Crash cultures: modernity, mediation and the material. Arthurs, J. & Grant, I. (eds.). Bristol: Intellect Books, p. 23-35 13 p.

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Chapter

2001

semic code, discourse, 180-degree system, indirect address

Bennett, B. 2001 Critical Dictionary of Film and Television Theory. Pearson, R. & Simpson, P. (eds.). London: Routledge

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings › Other chapter contribution

2000

Misrecognizing film studies: Review of Bordwell, David, and Noel Carroll, "Post-Theory: Reconstructing Film Studies"

Bennett, B. 2000 In: Film-Philosophy. 4, 5

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

1999

Richard Dyer "White" (Book review)

Bennett, B. 1999 In: Parallax. 5, 1, p. 122

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review

Report on 1998 Screen studies conference.

Bennett, B. & Tyler, I. 1999 In: Screen. 40, 1, p. 96-100, 5 p.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Book/Film/Article review