Mary Wood, BA, PhD
Professor of European Cinema
Contact details
Department of Media and Cultural Studies
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street, Bloomsbury
London WC1E 7HX
email: m.wood@bbk.ac.uk
tel: 020 7631 6639
Employment history
Mary P Wood is Professor of European Cinema and Head of the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at Birkbeck. She was responsible for the development of the MACS Film and Media Programme. The programme is a distinctive combination of theoretical and practical course units which regularly attracts around 1,000 part-time students a year.
An Extra-Mural Diploma in Film Studies changed Mary’s life! It allowed her both to change her career direction and to channel her passion for the subject into research and into the academic development of the field. Mary has been active in a number of organisations committed to developing Film and Media Studies into the lively academic field which it is today. She is a former member of the Education Committees of the British Film Institute, the Museum of the Moving Image and the Board of the London Film and Video Development Agency.
Mary enjoys exploring new areas of research. She was recently interviewed for the DVD extras for the July 2011 re-release of Ruggero Deodato's controversial 1980 film, Cannibal Holocaust.
Mary’s PhD was on the films of the Italian film director, Francesco Rosi and her publications are mainly in the area of Italian cinema. Mary lectures on Italian cinema whenever possible, but also teaches widely on aspects of film and media theory at undergraduate and Masters level. Her most recent teaching has been on recent European cinema, the history of Italian film, and the textual analysis of film and television.
Mary is currently supervising postgraduate research on theatricality and avant-garde cinema. She is interested in supervising research topics in contemporary European cinema and Italian cinema.
