My research interests include gender and representation in film both on and off screen, film adaptation, transnational cinemas with a focus on Iran and other Middle Eastern cinemas, and film industries and practices in general.
I am happy to discuss PhD proposals on any aspect of transnational cinemas and Middle Eastern Cinemas as well as gender and representation in film and TV. I am also interested to receive creative and practice based PhD proposals intersecting practice with any of the above topics.
Maryam Ghorbankarimi is a filmmaker and film scholar. Her research is focused on representation women both in front of and behind the camera. Her first book entitled A Colourful Presence; The Evolution of Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema (2015) was published in 2015. Her current research is on transnational cinemas and cultures, specifically the representation of gender and sexuality in Iranian cinema. Her second book, the edited volume on seminal Iranian female filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad, ReFocus: The Works of Rakhshan Banietemad (2021) was published in spring 2021 (Edinburgh University Press).
Maryam is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has developed a number of new practice based modules in film at Lancaster University.
UNDERGRADUATE
I am the current Director of Film Studies.
I convene and teach the second-year optional module: Short Film Production (LICA259), the third-year optional module: Experimental Cinema: Theory and Practice (LICA 359)
I also contribute lectures on the 1st-year Film Studies core module, Introduction to Film Studies (LICA150), on the 2nd-year core Film Studies module, Hollywood and Beyond: Global Cinema (LICA251) and I supervise a number of undergraduate dissertations.
POSTGRADUATE
I am the course leader of MA in Film Studies.
I convene the core MA modules LICA441: Transnanational Cinemas and LICA442: Major Research Project: Film Dissertation.
I am currently co-supervising the following PhD projects:
- Areej Alghamdi, Saudi Women's Incorporeal Heritage, practice-based
- Ian Hunt, Cinema and memory, practice-based
- Tom Carter, Trancultural screenwriting, practice-based
- Kingsley Akam, Women filmmakers in Nollywood Cinema
- Raha Athari, Alienated Memories: Reconstructing the Self in Autobiographical Writings of Diasporic Iranian Women
- Zoe Crombie, A Transnational Study of Studio Ghibli's Adaptations of European Texts
- Fraser Cornall, 'Fusing the new waves: The Lonely Woman', practice-based