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Dr Mike Allen

Positions held:
  • Senior Lecturer, Department of Film, Media & Cultural Studies
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Mike Allen became part of the teaching team on the British Film Institute/Birkbeck College MA in Film and Television programme when he became Research Officer at the BFI in 1996.

    His research for the BFI involved the development of interactive multimedia programmes to aid the study of film and television.

    Subsequently, in 1999, when the MA programme moved fully to Birkbeck to help form the School of History of Art, Film and Visual Media, he was appointed as Lecturer in Film, Television and Electronic Media.

    Prior to this, he had also taught Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia, Royal Holloway College and University of North London. In a previous incarnation in the 1980s, he was a manager at Rank Video, Europe's largest video production and duplication company.

    Mike's PhD was an examination of the narrative and formal structures of the feature films of the great early American film director D.W. Griffith. In recent years, however, his research focus has been on the history and cultural impact of media technologies.

    Mike is also a member of the Editorial Board for SCOPE online journal of film studies and has been a contributor to BBC Radio programmes on film

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Programme Director, MA in Film and Screen Media

    ORCID

    0000-0002-3029-0809
  • Research

    Research

    Research overview

    The History of Media Technologies,

    Early American and British Cinema, Modern American Cinema


    Post-WWII British Film and Television

    Contemporary American Film and Television

    Digital Culture and Interactive Media

    Representations of the Cold War and the Space Age.

    Early Modern Media in India

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    5

    I welcome enquiries from prospective PhD students who are interested in undertaking research in any of my areas of research interest

    Current doctoral researchers

    • NOEL HESS
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor, onwards
      Title of thesis:
      Exploring the Origins of New Hollywood in the American Cinema of the early 1960¿s
      Description:

      An examination of innovations in the areas of acting, editing, writing and directing in mainstream American cinema in the period 1958-1966 which can be seen to have made possible the major creative developments known as New Hollywood (1969-1975)

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • KELLI WESTON
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor
      Title of thesis:
      The Other Women: Black Women as the Double in Female Gothic Cinema
      Awarded:
      2022
    • DAVID COTTIS
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor,
      Title of thesis:
      The Well-Made Screenplay: A Study of the Screenwriting of British Stage Playwrights, 1930-1956, with special reference to the work of R.C. Sherriff
      Awarded:
      2020
    • MARA ARTS
      Nature of supervision:
      Principal Supervisor
      Title of thesis:
      The Representation of London Nights in British Popular Press and Film, 1919-1939
      Awarded:
      2020

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • British Cinema and Television 1960-85 (AHVM008S7)
    • Contemporary American Cinema (AHVM015S7)
    • Dissertation MA Film and Screen Media (AHVM020D7)
    • Screen Media: History, Technology and Culture (AHVM031S7)
    • Research/Placement Project and Report MA Film and Screen Media (AHVM043S7)