Dr Eleftheria Rania Kosmidou
School of Arts, Media and Creative Technologies
Current positions
Lecturer in Film
Biography
My research is on Brechtian European cinema and modernist cinema, genre and gender, memory and identity construction, and ideology bridging the gap between film studies-based disciplines, gender studies, and audience engagement.
I am currently working on a monograph on the films by Yorgos Lanthimos to be published in 2024 by Palgrave and on a collection on intangible cultural heritage with a focus on media and film to be published in 2024 by Routledge. I am also co editing a special issue on “New Perspectives on Film and Realism” for the Journal New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film also to be published in 2024.
In my Ph.D. (2010) I looked at representations of genre and gender, as well as devices such as allegory and the Bakhtinian carnivalesque through a series of analyses of European films about the Spanish, Irish, and Greek Civil Wars. My detailed textual analysis and comparison of films made by the above filmmakers was informed by different critical approaches, and broke new ground by deconstructing and critically reanimating civil war cinema. I was able to demonstrate what kind of gender identities these films (an important aspect of popular culture) promote, what their relationship to their social and political contexts of production is, how they make use of romance, melodrama, tragedy and the carnivalesque, as well as what kind of cultural memories they create. This research was funded by IRCHSS and The Humanities Institute of Ireland, and it was published by Routledge in 2013 and re-printed in 2016: European Civil War Films: Memory, Conflict and Nostalgia.
A series of articles from my work on European cinema emerged in journals and edited collections. I was invited to contribute to an edited collection on Greek cinema, and I have published on animated film as well as on the cinema of Theo Angelopoulos and Brecht.
I have been invited to deliver seminars at the University of London, Leeds Metropolitan University, Panteion University of Athens (Greece), University of Central Greece, the University of Salford, University College Dublin, and the University of Zaragoza (Spain). And I have presented my research at numerous national and international conferences.
I co-edited the Special Issue of the peer-reviewed Journal of Media and Cultural Politics (Intellect) themed 'Studies in Cultural Memory', that was published in June 2016. I serve as a reviewer for the Journal of Modern Greek Studies (John Hopkins University Press), and for the Journal of Media Practice.
Publications
Forthcoming, 2024. Monograph. Framing the films by Yorgos Lanthimos. Palgrave MacMillan.
Forthcoming, 2024. Edited book. New Disciplinary Approaches to Intangible Cultural Heritage: Media, Performance and the Public Space. Routledge. With Dr Leslie Mcmurtry.
2013. Monograph: European Civil War Films: Memory, Conflict and Nostalgia. (Routledge). 196 pages. Reprinted in 2016.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications:
• October 2017. “Theo Angelopoulos’s O Thiasos/The Travelling Players (1975) and Oi Kynigoi/The Hunters (1977) and How They Affect the Brechtian Project”. Journal of Modern Greek Studies.
• April 2017. “Οι διαμάχες για τις σύγχρονες κινηματογραφικές εικόνες του ελληνικού εμφυλίου στη δημόσια σφαίρα” [The Debates on the cinematographic images of the Greek Civil War in the Public Sphere]. Ουτοπία, 120 (Ιαν – Μαρτ 2017), [Outopia, 120 (Jan – March 2017)]. In Greek.
• June 2016. Editorial/Introduction, with Christos Dermentzopoulos. Special issue: Studies in Cultural Memory. Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, 12 (1), pp. 3-6.
• June 2016. “The eye of Persepolis’ tiger: How melancholy and nostalgia resonate through Satrapi’s animated film”. Scene, 4 (1), pp. 51-61.
• October 2015. “Ο Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος Δεν Είναι Μπρεχτικός;” [Theo Angelopoulos Is Not Brechtian?]. Ουτοπία, 113 (Σεπτέμβριος – Οκτώβριος 2015), [Outopia, 113 (Sep – Oct 2015)]. In Greek.
• October 2015. “The Unbearable Lightness of Persepolis: The Allegorical Register of the Melancholy of History”. Filmicon.
Chapters in books
Forthcoming, 2024. “Feature film as intangible cultural heritage: the safeguarding and transmission of public history and cultural memory: Grbavica: The Land of my Dreams (2006)”. In Kosmidou and Mcmurtry, (eds.), Intangible Cultural Heritage. Routledge.
October 2017. “Civil Wars and Cinematic Narrative: The Case of Psychi Vathia (Deep Soul, Pantelis Voulgaris, 2009)”. In Deslandes, Karine, Mourlon, Fabrice, Tribout, Bruno (eds), Civil War and Narrative. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Short Works and Departmental Working Papers
2014. “Stella (1955)”. In Poupou, Anna, Nikolaidou Afroditi, Eirini Sifaki (eds), World Film Locations: Athens. New York: Intellect.
Book Reviews
Forthcoming, 2024. ‘The Cinema of Yorgos Lanthimos: films, form, philosophy’ edited by Eddie Falvey. Filmicon.
2022. ‘The Cinematic Language of Theo Angelopoulos’ by Vrasidas Karalis. Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 40 (2), pp. 484-487.
2017. “Comics, Cultural History, and the World Wars”. Cultural History, 6 (1), pp. 102-107.
2015. ‘The Invention of Place: Nostalgia and Memory in the Film A Touch of Spice’ by Christos Dermentzopoulos. Filmicon.
Invited Guest Speaker
• 7 December 2017: I was invited to speak at the UCD Humanities Institute symbosium, Dublin, Ireland. Title of talk: ‘The HI: or how I learned to stop worrying and love my PhD’.
• 20 November 2017: I was invited to introduce the film Days of 36 (Theo Angelopoulos, 1972) at HOME, the centre for international contemporary art, theatre and film in Manchester.
Invited Lectures and Seminars
I was invited to deliver the following seminars at the University of London, Leeds Metropolitan University, Panteion University of Athens, University of Central Greece, the University of Salford and University College Dublin and the University of Zaragoza:
• 16 June 2015: I was invited to deliver a seminar and two workshops on the subject of ‘films and teaching: methods, strategies, materials’, part of the research project ‘Public Awareness on the Subject of Social Inclusion and Bullying’, funded by the 2nd Prefecture, County Fthiotida (Greece), University of Central Greece.
• 15-16 May 2015: I was invited to the International Conference ‘Civil War and Narrative: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Testimonies and (Hi)Stories in Intrastate Conflicts’, University of London.
• 5 May 2014: Panteion, University of Athens, Cultural Studies. Title of Seminar: ‘Civil War Films as Allegorical Cultural Postmemories: A Methodological Approach’.
• 1 June 2012: I was invited to the International Conference ‘Ideas en Armas: fascismo, guerra civil y dictadura en Europa del sur’ International Conference in Zaragoza, Spain (please see below).
• 19 May 2011: the University of Salford, Heritage Studies. Title of Seminar: ‘Cultural Memory and European Civil War Cinema’.
• 10 June 2009: Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds, UK. Title of Seminar:
‘Postmemorial Allegories in Spanish Cinema’.
• 27 April 2007: Comparative Studies Series of Seminars, University College Dublin, Ireland. Title of Seminar: ‘The Cultural Memory of Civil War in Post-1989 European Cinema: Nostalgia and Melancholy in Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom. A Case Study’.
Conference presentations
• 14-15 August 2021: The Uncanny in Language, Literature and Culture International Conference, London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research. Title of paper: ‘Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of the Sacred Deer (2017): An Exploration of the Uncanny’.
• 22 November 2019: Mining Memories Symposium University College Cork. Title of paper: ‘The Former Yugoslav Civil War on Film: Grbavica: The Land of my Dreams.’
• 13-15 September 2017: International Conference ‘Trans TV’ organised by the University of Westminster, London. Title of Paper: ‘Game of Thrones and the Unbearable Persistence of the Male Gaze’.
• 2-3 Dec 2016: The Civil War in the Public History and Memory organised by the Greek national Archives of Modern History, Athens. Title of Paper: 'Public Debates on Contemporary Cinematic Images of the Greek Civil War'.
• (Invited) 15-16 May 2015: International Conference ‘Civil War and Narrative: an Interdisciplinary Approach to Testimonies and (Hi)Stories in Intrastate Conflicts’. Title of Paper: ‘Civil Wars and Cinematic Narrative: Psychi Vathia (Deep Soul, Pantelis Voulgaris, 2009).
• 30 April – 2 May 2015: World Cinema and the Essay Film International Conference, University of Reading. Title of Paper: ‘Civil War, Cultural Memory and the Essay Film: The Case of Theo Angelopoulos’.
• 21-22 February 2014: The Second Global Forum of Critical Studies: Asking Big Questions Again, organised by Euroacademia in Prague. Title of Paper: ‘The Unbearable Lightness of Persepolis: The Allegorical Register of Melancholy and Nostalgia’. Co-researched and co-presented with a colleague from the University of Salford.
• (Invited) 1 June 2012: ‘Ideas en Armas: fascismo, guerra civil y dictadura en Europa del sur’ International Conference in Zaragoza, Spain. Title of Paper: ‘Late Twentieth-Century Greek and Spanish Civil War Films. Cultural Memory, Melancholy and Nostalgia’.
• 2 – 3 June 2011: The 5th International Comedy Conference at the University of Salford, UK. Chair.
• 10 -13 Feb 2010: Annual Southwest/Texas Popular and American Culture Association Conference in New Mexico, USA. Title of Paper: ‘The Melancholy of History: Theo Angelopoulos’s The Travelling Players and the Uses of Intertextuality’.
• 30 Oct-2 Nov 2008: Biennial Film and History Conference in Chicago, USA. Title of Paper: ‘Pan’s Labyrinth and Magic Realism’.
• 11-12 Sep 2008: ‘Popular Culture and (World) Politics’ Conference in Bristol, UK. Title of Paper: ‘Postmemorial Allegories? Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins and Ken Loach’s The Wind That Shakes The Barley’.
• 18 -21 July 2007: ‘War and our World’ International Conference in Manchester, UK. Title of Paper: ‘Visual Postmemory? The Carnivalesque and the Allegorical Impulse in Fernando Trueba's Belle Epoque'.
• 27 April 2007: ‘Upheavals of Memory: Defining, Imagining, Creating, Contesting’ International Conference, UCD Humanities Institute of Ireland. Title of Paper: ‘Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom and The Wind That Shakes The Barley: Two Allegories for Post-1989 ‘Apolitical’ European Reality?’.
• 14-17 Feb 2007: Annual SW/TX PCA/ACA Conference in New Mexico, USA. Title of Paper: ‘Visual Postmemory? Nostalgia and Melancholy in Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom’.
Approach to Teaching
I have extensive knowledge of teaching film at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I have delivered courses in popular European cinema, film theory, film genre, global cinema, film and ideology, the documentary film, classical Hollywood cinema, British TV drama, and the essay film. My teaching and my modules combine theory and practice. I believe in research led teaching, and my own research underpins much of the curriculum of my modules.
PhD supervision
Completed (viva with minor corrections): Equity on Demand: The impacts of the rise of Subscription Video on Demand on women writers for scripted series television.
I currently supervise the following PhD projects:
-A Culture of Silence: An Exploration into Expression of Mental Health Through the use of Silent Film and Film Movements. (Practice based PhD).
-Alethic: An Exploration of the Relationship between Fake News and Ancient Myth, and their Shared Mechanisms of Behavioural Manipulation. (Practice based PhD).
-What’s on her mind? What do Nigerian female directors have to say about the experiences of women in Nigerian society.
Areas of Research
My current research and supervisory interests lie primarily in the fields of Brechtian European cinema, modernist cinema, the Greek weird wave, European civil war film (form and style, gender and genre), film and history, film and cultural memory, critical theory (with emphasis on popular culture).
Other research interests include Animated film, and Latin America Cinema.
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the above areas.
• global cinema
• the essay film
• film and ideology
• final dissertation
• global cinema 1
• global cinema 2
• introduction to film analysis
• introduction to film theory
• popular European cinema
• culture and society
• critical approaches to film
• genre and beyond
• film histories film movements
• British TV drama
• classical Hollywood cinema
I have extensive experience in supervising UG Dissertations and final year films.