Alison Butler
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+44 (0) 118 378 4083
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Associate Professor
- Department Director of Postgraduate Research
- Co-Investigator on AHRC-funded project The Legacies of Stephen Dwoskin (2018–2021)
- Co-Investigator on AHRC/FAPESP-funded project IntermIdia: Towards an Intermedial history of Brazilian Cinema (2016–19).
Areas of interest
My research interests are in two fields: women's cinema and artists' film and video. My research on women's cinema is concerned with the relationships between feminist theory and the practices and aesthetics of women filmmakers, conceptualised as a "minor cinema" in the Deleuzian sense of the term, as an inflection of dominant forms.My interests in artists' film and video include the aesthetics of multi-screen installation, the meanings and functions of projected public art and ways of thinking about cinematic time and space, especially when these are transposed into non-theatrical locations. I am an editor of the journal Screen.
Postgraduate supervision
I welcome enquiries from prospective postgraduate students on any topic relating to alternative and artists' film, theories of cinematic time and space, and women's cinema. I am currently supervising doctoral students working on DIY cinemas; constructions of gendered space in film; the work of Stephen Dwoskin; politics and realism in the work of Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami.Teaching
- Film Forms and Cultures (BA Year 2)
- Women's Cinema (BA Year 3)
- Film Aesthetics (MA)
- Practical project supervision (BA and MA).
Professional bodies/affiliations
- Editor of Screen
- Member of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS)
- Member of the Executive Committee of the Centre for Film Aesthetics and Cultures (CFAC).
Publications
- Butler, A. (2020) Objects in time: artefacts in artists’ moving image. In: Murphy, J. and Rascaroli, L. (eds.) Theorizing Film Through Contemporary Art: Expanding Cinema. Film Culture in Transition Amsterdam University Press ISBN: 9789462989467
- Butler, A. (2019) Displacements: reading space and time in moving image installations. Close Readings Palgrave Macmillan , London. pp 178. ISBN: 9783030304607
- Butler, A. (2019) Devouring images: Hélio Oiticica’s anthropophagic quasi-cinema. Screen , 60 (1). pp. 128-136. ISSN: 1460-2474 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjy060
- Butler, A. (2017) 13 ways of looking at a lake. In: Gibbs, J. and Pye, D. (eds.) The Long Take: Critical Approaches. Critical Approaches to the Long Take pp. 177-191. ISBN: 9781137585721 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58573-8_12
- Butler, A. (2013) Spiral jetty, thirty seven years later: the cinematic time of James Benning. MIRAJ: Moving Image Review & Art Journal , 2 (2). pp. 174-186. ISSN: 2045-6298 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/miraj.2.2.174_1
- Butler, A. (2012) Eija-Liisa Ahtila's Cinematic Worlds. Eija-Liisa Ahtila: Parallel Worlds. Steidl/Moderna Museet/Kiasma , Gottingen. pp. 173-189.
- Butler, A. (2011) Sleepwalking from New York to Miami. In: Penz, F. and Lu, A. (eds.) Urban Cinematics: Understanding Urban Phenomena Through the Moving Image. Intellect , Bristol. pp. 183-195. ISBN: 9781841504285
- Butler, A. (2010) Must this be the place?. In: De Weck, Z. (eds.) Eija-Liisa Ahtila: where is where?. Walther Konig , Koln, Germany. pp. 88-92. ISBN: 9783865607591
- Butler, A. (2010) Éloge de l'amour (2001): moments in time. In: Brown, T. and Walters, J. (eds.) Film moments: criticism, history, theory . British Film Institute and Palgrave , London, UK. pp. 130-134. ISBN: 9781844573363
- Butler, A. (2010) A deictic turn: space and location in contemporary gallery film and video installation. Screen , 51 (4). pp. 305-323. ISSN: 1460-2474 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjq031
- Butler, A. (2009) Yesterday girls: Prinzessin. Rouge , 13
- Butler, A. (2008) Feminist perspectives in film studies. In: Donald , J. and Renov , M. (eds.) The Sage Handbook of Film Studies. Sage , London. pp. 391-407. ISBN: 9780761943266
- Butler, A. (2007) 'Motor-driven metaphysics': movement, time and action in the films of Maya Deren. Screen , 48 (1). pp. 1-23. ISSN: 1460-2474 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjm001
- Butler, A. (2006) Gender. In: Grant, B. (eds.) Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. Schirmer/Gale , New York. ISBN: 9780028657912
- Butler, A. (2005) Feminist film in the gallery: 'If 6 was 9'. Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies , 20 (1 58). pp. 1-31. ISSN: 1529-1510 | doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/02705346-20-1_58-1