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.
At the moment I am not accepting applications for new PhD students.
Maryam Ghorbankarimi is a filmmaker and film scholar. Her research focuses on the representation of women both in front of and behind the camera. Her first monograph, A Colourful Presence: The Evolution of Women’s Representation in Iranian Cinema (2015), was published in 2015. Her current research explores transnational cinemas and cultures, particularly the representation of gender and sexuality in Middle Eastern cinemas. Her second book, an edited volume on seminal Iranian female filmmaker Rakhshan Banietemad, ReFocus: The Works of Rakhshan Banietemad (2021), was published in spring 2021 by Edinburgh University Press. Most recently, she co-edited the I.B. Tauris Handbook of Iranian Cinema with Michelle Langford and Zahra Khosroshahi, which was published in October 2024.
Maryam is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has developed and led the MA in Film studies as well as a number of new practice based modules in film at Lancaster University.
UNDERGRADUATE
I convene and teach the second-year optional module: Short Film Production, the third-year optional module: Experimental Cinema: Theory and Practice
I also contribute lectures on the 1st-year Film Studies core module, Introduction to Film Studies, on the 2nd-year core Film Studies module, Global Cinema 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 Transnanational Cinemas and Major Research Project: Film Dissertation.
I am currently co-supervising the following PhD projects:
- Damla Champion, Queerness and Drag within within horror, science-fiction and fantasy texts
- Abdulrahman Alomar, Behind the Lens of Suspense: Crafting the Transcendental Thriller, practice-based
- Bode Asiyanbi, Nigerian adaptation of Netflix’s Colombian telenovela Palpit, practice-based
- Michaël Boucherie, Towards a new methodology of directing intimacy in film, practice-based
- Ian Hunt, Cinema and memory, practice-based - Writing-up
- Raha Athhari, Alienated Memories: Reconstructing the Self in Autobiographical Writings of Diasporic Iranian Women - Writing-up
- Fraser Cornall, 'Fusing the new waves: The Lonely Woman', practice-based - Writing-up
previous PhD students:
- Areej Alghamdi, Saudi Women's Incorporeal Heritage, practice-based - Viva date set
- Kingsley Akam, Women filmmakers in Nollywood Cinema - Viva Date Set
- Zoe Crombie, A Transnational Study of Studio Ghibli's Adaptations of European Texts - PhD Awarded in 2025
- Tom Carter, Trancultural screenwriting, practice-based - PhD Awarded in 2024
