Dr Paul Moody
Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications

Research area(s)

• British cinema history
• Hollywood and US cultural diplomacy
• Emerging digital media
• The horror film

Research Interests

Paul' research interests include British cinema history, Hollywood and US cultural diplomacy, emerging digital media, and the horror film.

British Cinema History: Paul's most recent monograph, EMI Films and the Limits of British Cinema (2018), develops the first historical analysis of the largest British film company of the 1970s, EMI Films. This is part of an ongoing project into the history of EMI Films, which has also resulted in Paul editing a special issue of the Journal of British Cinema and Television on the company, and producing a video essay on Verity Lambert, EMI Film's last Head of Production. He is currently developing a project with the British Film Institute on the career of EMI Films’ first Head of Production, Bryan Forbes, analysing his work as part of a wider examination of how polymathic artists can be interpreted by cultural historians.

Hollywood and US Cultural Diplomacy: Paul has published widely on the connections between Hollywood and the U.S. Department of State, in journals such as Media, Culture and Society and the International Journal of Communication. Currently, he is completing a monograph on this topic provisionally titled The US Embassy-Hollywood Complex. In this book, Paul employs archival records from the US State Department to question existing theories of globalization which present state sovereignty in decline vis-à-vis ‘globalizing’ media companies. 

Paul's interests in emerging digital media can be seen in his publications on 360° VR films and in work he is developing on the conections between the history of CGI and the 'deepfake'. His work on the horror film includes articles on the filmmaker David Cronenberg and work on early British horror for the BFI's Screenonline.

Grants