Martin Fradley - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

I completed my Ph.D. in Film Studies at the University of East Anglia in 2003 and have taught Film, Literature, Media and Cultural Studies widely across the UK's H.E. sector, including full-time positions at the University of Aberdeen and Manchester University.

Much of my teaching and published research engages with the cultural politics of contemporary US cinema. This includes work on significant directors (Todd Solondz, Oliver Stone, David Lynch, David Gordon Green, David Cronenberg, Christopher Nolan), star personae (Johnny Depp, Jennifer Lopez, Russell Crowe, Keira Knightley), blockbuster franchises (The 'Dark Knight' trilogy; the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' series), genre filmmaking (horror, romantic comedy, action films) and numerous interventions on the sexual/gender politics of North American film.

My most recent research focuses upon contemporary U.S. television. This includes an essay on neoliberal femininity and millennial ontology in "The Girlfriend Experience" (Starz, 2016-) and "Girlboss" (Netflix, 2017) published in the "Journal of Popular Television" (2022). With co-author John A. Riley, I have also completed two essays on David Lynch/Mark Frost's "Twin Peaks: The Return" (Showtime, 2017). The first of these - on the politics of Lynchian comedy - was published in the anthology 'The Politics of Twin Peaks' (Lexington Books, 2019). The second appeared in 'Make America Hate Again: Trump-Era Horror and the Politics of Fear' (Routledge, 2019). We are currently finalising a third "Twin Peaks" essay scheduled to appear in a collection entitled "Haunted Histories and Troubled Pasts: 21st Century Horror and the Historical Imagination" (Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming 2024).

I am currently developing a monograph about acclaimed British filmmaker Shane Meadows for Auteur Publishing. This book builds upon and expands my previous work on the director, including the anthology "Shane Meadows: Critical Essays" (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) co-edited with Sarah Godfrey (UEA) and Melanie Williams (UEA). This long-term project emanated from a conference on Meadows held at the University of East Anglia in April 2010, an event which also produced our co-edited special issue of the 'Journal of British Cinema and Television' (10:4) on Meadows' work in 2013.

I was a regular contributor to 'Film Quarterly' between 2008-2014, and have also written for 'Screen', 'Journal of American Studies', 'Film Criticism', 'Journal of Popular Television', 'Canadian Journal of Film Studies', 'Journal of British Cinema & Television', 'Film Studies', 'The Popular Culture Studies Journal', 'Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies', 'Transformative Works and Cultures', 'Journal of American Studies of Turkey', 'Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies' and 'Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media'. I have peer-reviewed articles for (amongst others) "Quarterly Review of Film &Video", "Journal of American Studies" and "New Review of Film & Television Studies", and I also contribute to the 'Screening Sex' blog, based at Southampton Solent University.

I was briefly employed as an "actor" in the BAFTA-winning motion picture, "Control" (2007). They blew my ugly mush up six feet tall on a multiplex screen. No, really.
Supervisors: Professor Yvonne Tasker (Leeds) and Peter Kramer (UEA)
Address: martinjohnfradley@hotmail.co.uk

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