Katie Crosson

I am a Postdoc on the AHRC-funded project ‘Women’s Screen Work in the Archives Made Visible’ at the University of Exeter.

My AHRC-funded PhD 'Replay for Today: Revisiting Play for Today (1970-1984) at Fifty' was completed in 2024 at Royal Holloway, University of London and the British Film Institute. The thesis re-conceptualises BBC1's Play for Today as a strand rather than a canon of plays, paying attention to its overlooked aspects, including uses of the sentimental mode; depictions of sexual violence against women; and the construction of a kind of 'negative joy' that fuses form and content to reframe injustice. The thesis explores aesthetic and personified exclusions of the canon from a feminist perspective.

Between my PhD and my Postdoc, I worked at Royal Holloway as a Visiting Lecturer, creating, convening and teaching modules in film, television and media studies. I have also worked at the University of Warwick as a Research Assistant on the 'Ghost Town' project within the Film and Television Department. I hold an MA in Film and Screen Studies from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA in Film Studies from Warwick.

My research explores critical approaches to curation, including practices of decanonisation; feminist screen theory; realism(s) and emotion; film and television histories, especially in relation to marginalisation; representations of violence against women on-screen; and the relationship between aesthetics and ideology.

In 2020, I guest curated the collaborative exhibition 'Play for Today at 50' with the BFI and the BBC, and co-programmed the Southbank season of the same name. In 2022 I was on the AHRC & Television Network’s ‘TV PhD’ Scheme and a BBC New Generation Thinker Finalist. I have also contributed expertise as an informal adviser on 2 BBC documentaries. My work has been published by BFI Features, BFI Publications, BBC Histories and the peer-reviewed journal Critical Studies in Television.