Amy Harris

Amy Harris (AFHEA) is a PhD Researcher in De Montfort University's Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHi). She received her MA from the University of Southampton in 2018, which was partially funded by the Sue Wilson Scholarship. She joined the CATHi Department as a PhD student the following year after having received a full scholarship and bursary from De Montfort University.

Her research expertise is in contemporary British horror and British cultural history, focusing, in particular, upon intersecting representations of gender, class and race.

Since 2019 she has supported teaching on first-year module ‘Introduction to Global Film History and has co-supervised a dissertation alongside Justin Smith. During this time, Amy earned her AFHEA status. 

In the first year of her PhD Amy also worked as an Archiving and Digitisation intern in the Hammer Horror, SCALA and Peter Whitehead archives. Currently, she is a research assistant on a Film4 funded production, providing the production crew with archival materials from the DMU archives. 

Amy has also worked as an Event Co-ordinator and Data Collector for the 20th British Silent Film Festival, hosted at The Phoenix Cinema. She programmed the films for Leicester Horror Con 2020 including a segment titled “Women Do Horror” which featured several original short films by international filmmakers. Currently Amy works as a co-director for Cine Excess 15, alongside Professor Xavier Mendik. More information can be found here: https://www.cine-excess.co.uk/

In her spare time Amy has volunteered at Critical Studies in Television Journal as an editor's assistant, working alongside Christine Geraghty and Richard Hewett. Amy was also the co-convener of BAFTSS LGBTQIA+ special interest group, setting up the group alongside fellow colleagues from BCU and Northumbria University. More information can be found here: https://lgbtqscreenstudies.wixsite.com/website  Amy has recently stepped down from these roles to focus on new pursuits. 

Cinema and Television History Institute (CATHI), PhD Candidate, 2019- present 

Cine Excess, Co - Director, 2020 - 2023

BAFTSS LGBTQ+ SIG, Co-convener 2020 - 2021

Harris, Amy. (Upcoming) “Negotiating Motherhood in The Daisy Chain (2008 ).” In Fairies: A Companion. Eds. Simon Bacon & Lorna Piatti-Farnell. pp. TBC

Harris, Amy. (2023). “Women’s Folk Horror in Britain. History, Industry, Style.” In Folk Horror on Film: Return of the British Repressed. Eds. Louis Bayman & Kevin Donnelly. pp. 273-298

Harris, Amy. (2022). “‘They’ve Got Something You Haven’t. A Cock’: Exploring the Gendered Experience of Women Directors of Horror in Britain.” In Bloody Women. Women Directors of Horror. Eds. Victoria McCollum & Aislinn Clarke. Rowman. pp. 97-113 

Harris, Amy. (2022). “In Conversation with K. Pervaiz. Transforming the Monstrous-Feminine Archetype in Black Lake (2020)” In Evil Women: Representations Within Literature, Culture and Film. Eds, Robyn Muir; Beatrice Frasl; Christie Marie Lauder, and Elizabeth Schreiber-Byers. Brill. pp. 121-136 

Book Review: Karma Waltonen and Denise Du Vernay, The Simpsons' Beloved Springfield in Fantasy Animation blog, November 5 2021 Available Online 

Book Review: Matt Glabsy Britpop Cinema in Journal of British Cinema and Television, Volume 17 Issue 3, Page 420-423, ISSN 1743-4521 Available Online

Gender, representations of women in horror, feminist media, debates around class, race, "taste" and value, British social realism. 

Film Studies;

- FILM 1000 Introduction to Film, first year module 

- Undergraduate dissertation co-supervision, third year module

• BA in Film from the University of Southampton, 2016 (1st Class).
• MA in Film from the University of Southampton, 2018 (Distinction).
• Associate Fellowship from Higher Education Academy, 2020 
• Currently undertaking a PhD in De Montfort University's Cinema and Television History Institute (2019 - ).

'FILM 1000: Introduction to Film'

DMU Doctoral College Scholarship, awarded October 2019 for PhD funding

Sue Wilson Scholarship, awarded September 2017 for MA funding

• BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) 2017 – 
• WIFTI (Women in Film and Television International) 2017 -
• MECSSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association) 2019 –

• BAFTSS LGBTQIA+ SIG member 2021 - 
• BAFTSS LGBTQIA+ SIG founding member and co-convener 2020 - 2021
• BAFTSS Horror Studies SIG founding member 2020 - 
• BAFTSS Archives and Archival Methods SIG founding member 2020 -

Conference Papers:

- CEM PGRs Conference 2021 | DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE "Exploring the landscape of contemporary British horror via women filmmakers (VIDEO ESSAY + REFLECTION), on the Horror Studies SIG panel"

 -BAFTSS Annual Conference 2021: Time and the Body in Film, TV and Screen Studies |UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE "Exploring the landscape of contemporary British horror via women filmmakers (VIDEO ESSAY + REFLECTION), on the Horror Studies SIG panel"

 -GENRE/NOSTALGIA 2021| UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE "The problem with Wuthering Heights (Dir. by Andrea Arnold, UK, 2011)"

-  THE POLITICS OF HORROR | UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL, VIRTUAL WORKSHOP "Methodologies, Community and the Politics of PhD study: Debunking Methodology"

-CINE EXCESS 14: REPRESENTATIONS AS WEAPONS: CULT FILM AND THE POLITICS OF RESISTANCE 2020 | BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY, VIRTUAL CONFERENCE "Freehold (Dir. by Dominic Bridges, UK, 2017): In Britain you're as much an outsider as your tormentor" [funded]

 - CEM MULTIDISCIPLINARY POSTGRADUATE SEMINAR SERIES 2020 | DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY "Research Summary: When Women Do Genre: Contemporary British Horror directed by women from 2000 onward”

 - INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY SEMINAR SERIES 2020 | DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY “Celebrating British Women Filmmakers: A Case Study of British Horror”

- CINE EXCESS 13: INDEPENDENT VISIONS OF EXCESS 2019 | BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY "Grave Matters: The invisible women behind contemporary British horror cinema" [funded]

 - DIVA: HIP-HOP, FEMINISM, FIERCENESS 2019 | UNIVERSITY OF WOLVERHAMPTON “Kicking ass is literally all I care about.” The trailblazing rap of queer, feminist Bruja: Princess Nokia

 -FOLKLORE ON SCREEN 2019 | SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY "Following the Wicca Man: Addressing the Invisible Women behind Contemporary British Folk Horror Cinema”

 - CATHiCON 2019 | DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY “My Big Fat Greek Wedding meet Shaun of the Dead”: Moving beyond the monstrous-feminine in Gurinder Chadha’s gross-out horror-comedy

 - CARPE DIEM: JOURNAL IN A DAY 2019 | UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON "Understanding women’s genre films"

 - HORROR, CULT & EXPLOITATION MEDIA III 2019| NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY "Grave Matters: The invisible women behind contemporary British horror cinema" [funded]

 - GRADNET 2019 | UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON "Black Magic, White Witches: an intersectional interrogation of Anna Biller’s The Love Witch (2016)" [funded]

- CATHiCON 2018 | DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY "Re-imagining traditional familial structures in horror: The Babadook (2014) and new representations of single mothering" [funded]