Professor Helen M Hanson (she/her/hers)
Professor
Film
Bluesky: @helenexeter.bsky.social
Helen M Hanson is Professor of Film History at the University of Exeter, and Academic Director of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum.
She is the author of Hollywood Soundscapes: Film Sound Style, Craft and Production in the Classical Era (2017), Hollywood Heroines: Women in Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film (2007) and co-editor (with Catherine O’Rawe) of The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts (2010) and (with Andrew Spicer) of A Companion to Film Noir (2013).
Professor Hanson is Project Lead (aka Principal Investigator) for the AHRC-funded Project: 'Women's Screen Work in the Archives Made Visible' 2024-2028 The project aims to transform the understanding of women's creative contributions to the history of British filmmaking, demonstrating what can be learned by making their work easier to find in film-related archives, and more visible in film museums.
During the project, the team of 8 researchers will work with major film-related collections in the UK to develop new ways of archiving, curating and exhibiting the screen work of women, making their contributions to British filmmaking more discoverable and more visible. The team comprise Wendy Russell (Project Co-Lead, British Film Institute Special Collections), Dr Phil Wickham (Project Curatorial Adviser, Bill Douglas Cinema Museum), Professor Linda Ruth Williams (Project Co-Lead, University of Exeter) Professor Shelley Cobb (Project Co-Lead, University of Southampton), Dr Lisa Smithstead (Project Co-Lead, Swansea University), Dr Jessica Boyall (Postdoctoral Researcher, Archives Strand) and Dr Katie Crosson (Postdoctoral Research, Curation Strand).
The project work includes applying archival theory to the cataloguing of the collections of Tina Gharavi and Gurinder Chadha at the British Film Institute Special Collections and curatorial work with the collections at the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum, at the University of Exeter. The team will also undertake a series of interviews with women filmmakers, and with professional archivists and curators in the screen heritage sector. Overall the team aim to find new ways to bring women filmmakers, and their rich contribution to British film history, to a wider public.
Professor Hanson’s research interests and expertise range across women's screen work in US and UK film industries, feminist film history and archives, cultural and screen heritage and historiography, film adaptation, film sound and music theory and history, and she has a longstanding interest in suspense genres, such as film noir and the gothic film.
Her recent research projects and publications have focused on women's work in filmmaking, particularly work behind the scenes in film history. She is interested in exploring how women's expertise intersect with the production cultures and contexts of major film industries, and how gender has shaped women's creative careers and, consequently, how that creativity is frequently absent or untold in existing film histories. This is illustrated in research funded by the British Academy, in which Hanson traces an 'invisible tradition' in women's work in film sound in American cinema, and aims to spotlight the contribution of women sound and music editors to some of Hollywood's best known films. Her approach to this research is showcased in her article 'Looking for Lela Simone', which traces the work of music co-ordinator Lela Simone, who worked on Singin' in the Rain. This work won 'Best Journal Article' in the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies publication awards, 2022.
She is an experienced PhD supervisor and examiner. She has supervised PhDs to successful completion in film sound design, female film culture in British silent cinema, male characterisation in Brönte adaptations, sonic immersion in sound art and new media, widescreen innovations in the 1950s, mid-life female stars in contemporary cinema, filmmaker Bill Douglas, and girlhood in the contemporary fairytale film cycle. All of her former supervisees now either have academic posts, or are working in creative industries.
Helen has discussed her research on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, and her public appearances include talks given at the BFI’s Gothic season, and on adaptation at the Page to Screen Festival, Bridport. She has collaborated and innovatated on a number of public engagement initiatives, she set up ‘Screen Talks’, a partnership between the University and Exeter Picturehouse in which academics present films for public discussion. And recently she worked on the Object Stories Project, a collaboration with Dr Lisa Stead , Dr Joe Kember and the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum to make short research films.
You can keep up with Helen’s activities here: @helenexeter.bsky.social
Research supervision:
I am open to discussing research proposals on any relevant subject given my research expertise (see overview section).
I am especially happy to consider working with candidates with interests in the following areas:
- Hollywood cinema - its history, industry, creative figures, stars, or institutions
- Film technologies - invention, innovation, change
- Feminist approaches to film - feminist film theory and historiography
- Adaptation theory and practice
- Any area of film sound and music
