Dr Guy Westwell, BA, MPhil, PhD

Profile

My research focuses on the war film genre and the antiwar film, 9/11 and film, iconic photographs and film, and peace and pacifism. I consider film in relation to cultural history, ideology and ethics. I welcome applications from students interested in pursuing doctoral research in any of these areas.

At undergraduate level I teach the compulsory first year module FLM4204 US Cinema: Concepts and History, and two final year optional modules: FLM6214 Contemporary US Cinema and FLM603 Mapping Contemporary Cinema. At postgraduate level I teach on the MA Film Studies. I was the recipient of Drapers' Award for excellence in teaching in 2009 and The QMUL Teaching Excellence Award in 2020.

I am the editor of the Mapping Contemporary Cinema website, a student writing project which publishes in-depth accounts of contemporary US, German, French, and Russian films, as well as short guides on a range of different topics.

For information about my current research project, see the Films for Peace webpage.

Teaching

Undergraduate Teaching

FLM4204 US Cinema: Key Concepts

FLM603 Mapping Contemporary Cinema

FLM6214 Contemporary US Cinema

FLM6202 UG dissertation module

See the QMUL module directory for more information on specific modules or email me for a module outline.

Postgraduate Teaching

I teach on the MA Film Studies (Theory) core course and supervise dissertation projects.

Research

Research Interests:

My research focuses on the war film genre and the antiwar film, 9/11 and film, iconic photographs and film, and peace and pacifism. I consider film in relation to cultural history, ideology and ethics.

I am also interested in pedagogy and the teaching of film and the use of film in teaching both in Film Studies as a discipline and further afield.

Publications

Books

Oxford Dictionary of Film Studies (2012, 2020)

Parallel Lines: Post-9/11 American Cinema (2016)

War Cinema: Hollywood on the Front Line (2006)

Journal articles and book chapters

with Annette Kuhn, 'What Film Studies Is: Mapping the Discipline', in Mark E. Breeze (ed.), Forms of the Cinematic (London: Bloomsbury, 2021).

‘Religious pacifism and the Hollywood war film: from Sergeant York (1941) to Hacksaw Ridge (2017)’, Negotiators of Identity: Figures of Transgression in War Representation (Edinburgh University Press, 2020).

with Julian Ingle, ‘Mapping Contemporary Cinema: blending critical pedagogy and research-based learning in undergraduate curriculum design’, Teaching in Higher Education, vol.25, no.7 (2020), pp.842-857, 10.1080/13562517.2019.1612356

‘Peace Cinema: Religious Pacifism and Anti-War Sensibility in Friendly Persuasion (1956),’ Open Screens, vol.2, no.1 (2019), DOI: http://doi.org/10.16995/os.11

‘Dossier: Rising Flags, Falling Soldiers: Film, Icons and Political Violence,’ Screen, vol.57, no.3 (2016), pp. 336-361.

'Acts of Redemption and ‘The Falling Man’ Photograph in Post-9/11 US Cinema', in American Cinema in the Shadow of 9/11 (Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 2016), pp.67-88.

'In country: narrating the Iraq War in US cinema', in A Companion to the Historical Film (Wiley-Blackwell, 2012).

'Regarding the pain of others: scenarios of obligation in post-9/11 US cinema', Journal of American Studies, vol.45, no.4 (2011), pp.815-834.

'Accidental Napalm Attack and hegemonic visions of America's war in Vietnam', Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol.28, no.5 (2011), pp.407-423.

'In country: mapping the Iraq war in recent Hollywood combat movies' in Screens of Terror: Representations of War and Terrorism in Film and Television Since 9/11 (Abramis Academic, 2011), pp.19-37.

'One image begets another: a comparative analysis of Flag-raising on Iwo Jima and Ground Zero Spirit', Journal of War and Culture Studies, vol.1, no.3 (2008), pp.325-40.

˜The domestic vision of Vietnam Home Movies" in Image as Witness: Trauma, Memory and Visual Culture (Wallflower Press, 2007), pp.143-159.

See also my Queen Mary Research publications page: References

Supervision

My research focuses on the war film genre and the antiwar film, 9/11 and film, iconic photographs and film, and peace and pacifism. I consider film in relation to cultural history, ideology and ethics. I welcome applications from students interested in pursuing doctoral research in any of these areas.

Current

Rihab Attioui: 'Space-Orientalism and the Modern American Mythos', co-supervised with Dr. Ashvin Devasundaram

Wanzhou Xiao: 'Cinema as Metaphor: Videographic Criticism as a Methodology for Studying Metaphor in American Film Before and After 9/11', co-supervised with Dr Kiki Yu

Assiya Issemberdiyeva: 'British Attitudes to Non-Russian Identities in World War Two Campaigns for British Aid to the Soviet Union', co-supervised with Prof. Jeremy Hicks

Completed

Hannah Cliff: 'Globalisation, Supranational Markets and National Cultures: How French Film and Digital Television Distribution is Changing in the On-Demand Era (2015 – present)', co-supervised with Prof. Sue Harris

Aditi Tara Verma: 'Making the Cut: A Study of Editing Practice in Contemporary Hindi Cinema', co-supervised with Dr. Ashvin Devasundaram; submitted, awaiting examination.

Dr Tim Lindemann (2022) 'New Rural Cinema: The Landscape of Rural Poverty in Recent American Indie Film', co-supervised with Dr. Alasdair King

Dr Calvin Fagan (2017) ‘An inquiry into the ways in which changing technologies of vision shape the contemporary war film’, co-supervised with Prof. Janet Harbord

Dr Simon Pate (2016) ‘The shared myth of the American and Japanese gangster film’, co-supervised with Dr Pauline Small

Dr Maren Thom (2015) ‘The representation of terrorism in contemporary cinema’, co-supervised with Dr Alasdair King

Dr Nick Jones (2014) ‘An exploration of space, place and architecture in the contemporary action movie’, co-supervised with Dr Alasdair Kin

Public Engagement

As an element of my current research project on peace cinema I volunteer for CND Peace Education. This work involves delivering workshops and assembly presentations in primary and secondary schools and working with trainee teachers on how to approach the teaching of controversial subjects.

I have published articles on cinema in The Conversation, The European, The Independent and on the Oxford University Press researchers’ blog, and I occasionally write film reviews for the British Film Institute’s monthly journal of record, Sight and Sound.

In collaboration with the BFI, I have contributed to National Film Week, the Future Film Festival and helped to facilitate the BFI Cinemateque programme (2010-2018).