British cinema; women and cinema; film history

Melanie Williams is a film historian specialising in the study of British cinema with a particular emphasis on issues of gender. Her key publications in this area include the monographs David Lean (2014), Female Stars of British Cinema: The Women in Question (2017), and A Taste of Honey (2023), and co-edited books British Women’s Cinema (2009) and Ealing Revisited (2012). She was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded project 'Transformation and Tradition in British Cinema of the 1960s', resulting in the co-authored book Transformation and Tradition in 1960s British Cinema (2019) and edited collection Sixties British Cinema Reconsidered (2020). She is also Principal Editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television as well as a frequent contributor to the media and to film-related documentaries for Bluray and DVD releases (short excerpt here).

Her specialism in British cinema began with her PhD at the University of Hull on representations of women in the 1950s, awarded in 2003. She worked at the University of Hull for several years and played a key role in setting up their Film Studies degree programmes before moving to UEA’s School of Film and Television Studies in 2009. Since then, she has held the position of School Director of Postgraduate Research from 2009 to 2012, Head of the Department of Film, Television and Media Studies 2014-2016, Athena Swan Gender Equality Lead 2016-2019, and since 2019 has been Research Director for UEA's Interdisciplinary Institute for the Humanities. She was made Professor in 2020: you can see her inaugural lecture here.

British cinema (especially in terms of gender)

authorship and creative labour in cinema

film stardom

film aesthetics and mise-en-scene analysis

postwar British popular culture

• Since 2011, have convened: foundation year module ‘Introduction to Visual Cultures’, 1^st year core modules ‘Film History’, ‘Analysing Film and Television’, ‘Studies in Film History’, 'Wolrd Cinemas' and 2^nd year core module ‘Film Theory’, and 2^nd and 3^rd year options ‘British Cinema and the Past’, ‘Film and Authorship’, ‘Gender and British Cinema’, ‘Hollywood Studio System’ as well as UG dissertations and MA module ‘Film Studies: History, Theory, Criticism’.
• Led on creation of new joint degree History and Film, first intake 2013.
• Senior Fellowship, Advance HE