Dr Hamish Ford

Biography

Originally from Canberra, Hamish Ford moved to Sydney in 1989 to pursue a music career. After a period working as a musician and finally at the ABC, from 1993-96 he completed an Arts degree (First Class Hons, University Medal) at the University of Western Sydney. Maintaining a music career throughout this time, as well as making short films, in 2004 Hamish was awarded a PhD in film studies at the University of New South Wales. After a period of contract teaching at four universities across Sydney, in 2008 he was appointed Lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Newcastle.

Over more than a decade's regular publishing in prominent journals and contributing chapters to high-profile books, in addition to giving papers at international as well as local conferences, Hamish has become an increasingly well-known film scholar particularly in the areas of post-war European modernist cinema, the relationship between film and philosophy, and more recently postcolonial film studies. When it comes to teaching, course creation and coordination, he has consistently received excellent responses from students as indicated by Faculty- and student-originated feedback mechanisms across five universities (UoN, UNSW, USyD, UWS, and UTS), including being nominated in the 'best lecturer' awards every year he has been at UoN.

Hamish received a New Staff Grant in the first year of his ongoing appointment at UoN, and was subsequently awarded an Early Career Researcher Grant from a competitive internal field. Both these grants have gone towards archive and library research in Europe, leading directly into three book projects on post-war film modernism. The first of these, entitled 'Post-war Modernist Cinema and Philosophy: Confronting Negativity and Time', will be published by Palgrave Macmillan in September 2012. He is also co-authoring a book on film and architecture, to be published by Cambridge Scholars in late 2012/early 2013.

In addition to scholarly publishing, Hamish's work covering film, media, culture, and politics has appeared locally in the The Australian Book Review, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The ABC Drum, Online Opinion, and New Matilda, as well as globally in Spiked! and ZNet.

Qualifications

• PhD, University of New South Wales, 2005
• Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Western Sydney, 1997

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Research

Research keywords

• Cinema and postcolonialism
• European cinema
• Film and Philosophy
• Iranian cinema
• Post-war film modernism
• World Cinema

Research expertise

• Post-war modernist cinema (especially Antonioni, Bergman, Godard, Resnais)
• Contemporary world cinema (especially European, Iranian, East Asian)
• Cinematic time and negativity
• Affect theory
• Cinema and postcolonialism
• European philosophy and film studies (especially Frankfurt School, phenomenology, Deleuze)
• Cinema, the city and modernity

Collaboration

My current primary collaborative project is a book on the relationship between film and architecture. This is being researched and co-written together with Michael Chapman and Michael Ostwald from the University of Newcastle's School of Architecture and Design. This work is due to be published by Cambridge Scholars in 2012-2013.

Fields of Research

Code	Description	Percentage
190201	Cinema Studies	100

Memberships

Committee/Associations (relevant to research).

• Member - Cinematic Thinking Network

Editorial Board.

• Member - Journal of Humanistics and Social Science

Appointments

Conference co-cordinator, 'Imagining Iran' symposium School of Media, Film and Theatre, University of NSW, 18 November 2005. (Australia)	01/11/2005 - 01/11/2005
Invited chair, Second Annual Film and Philosophy Conference University of Dundee, Scotland, July 16-18, 2009. (Australia)	01/07/2009 - 01/07/2009
Invited chair, Philosophy and Film/Film and Philosophy: A Multidisciplinary Conference University of West England (in association with the Arnolfini Arts Centre), Bristol, 4-6 July 2008. (Australia)	01/07/2008 - 01/07/2008
Invited chair, The Art of the Real conference University of Newcastle, 16-18 May 2008. (Australia)	01/05/2008 - 01/05/2008
Invited chair, 'Ta(l)king Pleasure in German Culture' symposium University of NSW (in partnership with the Goethe Institut, Sydney), 20 October 2007. (Australia)	01/10/2007 - 01/10/2007
Invited chair, The XIIIth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association RMIT/Monash University, Melbourne, 16-19 November, 2006. (Australia)	01/11/2006 - 01/11/2006
Invited chair (two panels), Rethinking the Past: Experimental Histories in the Arts conference University of Technology, Sydney, 28-29 July 2006. (Australia)	01/07/2006 - 01/07/2006
Invited Chair, Cinema, Modernity, and Modernism: The XVth Biennial Conference of the Film and History Association UNSW, November 30-3 december, 2010 (Australia)	01/11/2010 - 01/12/2010

Invitations

Michelangelo Antonioni forum Sydney Film Festival, Australia (Invited Presenter)	2004
10 x 10 exhibition Anode festival, Sydney, Australia (Invited Presenter)	2008
Jean-Pierre Melville forum Sydney Film Festival, Australia (Invited Presenter)	2006
Dendy Short Film Awards Sydney Film festival, Australia (Distinguished Visitor)	2006
Returning Negativity: The Striking Success of Michael Haneke and 'Hidden' School of Humanities and Social Science, UoN, Australia (Invited Presenter)	2007
An Anxious Pause: Time and European Modernist Cinema of the 1960s School of Film, Theatre and Dance seminar series, UNSW, Australia (Invited Presenter)	1999
Radio interview, 06/05/08 ABC Radio, Newcastle, Australia (Invited Presenter)	2008

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Administrative

Administrative expertise

• RhD and Honours supervision
• Acting head of discipline (semester 2, 2009)
• Member, indiginous working group

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Teaching

Teaching keywords

• Cinematic authorship
• Cultural studies
• Documentary cinema
• European cinema
• Film theory
• World Cinema

Teaching expertise

• Contemporary postcolonial and world cinema
• Post-war European cinema
• Cinema and authorship
• Film and philosophy
• Cinema, the city and modernity
• Documentary film
• Cultural studies

Teaching interests

2008-2009 Teaching

Contemporary World Cinema; Documentary Cinema; Teen Films; European Cinema; Film Authorship; Global Cinematic Cultures; Introduction to Film Studies.

Other areas of scholarly and teaching interest:

Media & Cultural Studies; Politics; Philosophy; Race and Ethnicity; Music; Gender Studies.