Professor Helen Hanson

Helen M Hanson is Professor of Film History, and Academic Director of the Bill Douglas Cinema Museum at the University of Exeter. Her current research interests are in feminist film history and feminist archival theory. She is interested in how critical archive studies can illuminate the ways that women’s screen work in British and American cinema intersects with media industry histories, especially labour below-the-line. She has long standing interests in film sound style and craft, in adaptation and female authorship, and in suspense genres, such as film noir and the gothic. She has published widely on these areas. She is the author of Hollywood Heroines: Film Noir and the Female Gothic Film (2007), and Hollywood Soundscapes: Film Sound Style, Craft and Production in the Classical Era (2017) she is the co-editor (with Catherine O’Rawe) of The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts (2010) and co-editor (with Andrew Spicer) of The Companion to Film Noir (2013). Her research and activities have been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2005; 2006; 2024-28), the British Academy (2005; 2015-17; 2020-23) and Research England’s Higher Education Museums, Galleries and Collections funds (2024-28).