Dr Jodi Brooks
Senior Lecturer

Dr Jodi Brooks

PhD (UNSW), MA Research (UTS), B Media & Communication (UTS), ASCM (NSW Conservatorium of Music)

Arts,Design & Architecture
School of the Arts and Media

Dr Jodi Brooks is a film studies scholar whose research embraces film and media theory, with a particular focus and interest in evolving forms of screen culture, film feminisms, screen performance, independent cinema, and aging in, on and with cinema. Jodi has been teaching film studies and film theory for more than two decades and took up a position in Film Studies at UNSW in 1997 in what was then the School of Theatre and Film. Prior to taking up this position she had held positions at the University of Melbourne (1994-1997) and at the University of Technology (1991-1994). Jodi has also taught courses at UC Davis (in Critical Theory and in Gender Studies) and been an associate research fellow at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. 

Jodi's research has been published in numerous refereed journals and edited collections as well as catalogue essays. She has co-edited a number of special issues of journals including a special issue of Screening the Past on Untimely cinema (co-edited with Therese Davis) and one of the first Australian journal issues on queer media (Media International Australia, co-edited with Michael Hurley and Leigh Raymond). Since joining UNSW Jodi has supervised more than 30 Honours theses, 12 PhDs as primary supervisor, as well as serving as co or joint supervisor for many other PhDs.

Alongside her research and teaching Jodi has served on advisory committees and panels for various organisations including the National Library of Australia's Film and Video Collection, was one of the founding members of Queer Screen, and has been a member of Film Advisory Panel of the Sydney Film Festival since 2017. Jodi was one of the co-founders of the Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand (SSAAANZ) and served as Vice President of SSAAANZ for 3+ years. Jodi has also been involved in curating film programs, worked in community media organisations, and has convened and co-convened a number of film and screen conferences and symposia including Cinefeminisms and the Academy (co-convened  with Dr Jessica Ford, University of Newcastle), Time, Memory and the Moving Image (co-convened with Prof Paula Hamilton, University of Technology), and Cinema and the Senses (co-convened with Laleen Jayamanne and George Kouvaros), securing funding for each of these events.

Jodi is a member of the Arts and Health research group (UNSW) and is the Postgraduate Research Convenor in the School of the Arts & Media and an Academic Disability Advisor in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture.

recently published:

Jodi Brooks (2019) Olive Kitteridge (Lisa Cholodenko, 2014), quality television and difficult women: female discontent in the age of binge-viewing, Feminist Media Studies, 19:7, 944-961

 

 

Phone
+61 2 90658028
Location
231H, Level 2 Robert Webster

2021-2022: ADA Research Fellow (UNSW) $18000

2019: School Research Grant (SRG), $2028, "Cinefemininsms and the Academy." J Brooks (UNSW). J Ford (U Newcastle), J Murphet (UNSW)

1998:  Australian Film Commission (AFC), Industry and Cultural Development Grant ($10,000): International symposium, "Cinema and the Senses." Convened by J Brooks, (UNSW) L. Jayamanne (USyd) and G. Kouvaros (UNSW).  UNSW, September 1998. 

1998: FASS UNSW Humanities Research Program Conference Support ($6000): International symposium "Cinema and the Senses", UNSW, September 1998. J Brooks & G Kouvaros

Jodi's research and teaching have been recognised through the following awards:

  • Honourable Mention, ARC PGC Research Supervisor Award, Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture in recognition of their above and beyond contribution to the HDR experience at UNSW 2022
  • Dean's Learning & Teaching Award (2014) for Outstanding Track Record in Higher Degree Research Supervision.
  • ARC Postgraduate Council Excellence in Postgraduate Supervision Award (2014)
  • Screen (Oxford University Press) Award for Excellence in Screen Studies (UK, 2002) for the essay "Ghosting the Machine: the sounds of tap and the sounds of film" Screen 44.4.  
  • Humanities Research Program Dissertation Award, 1998, University of New South Wales for PhD thesis: Benjamin for Girls: Cinema, Spectatorship, Fascination

I am currently leading a project to develop resources for dementia friendly screenings for cinemas and other screening contexts. Project collaborators include Dr Fincina Hopgood, University of New England, and Karina Libbey, Manager Public Engagement, National Film and Sound Archive. Our first Dementia Friendly Screening took place in Canberra in October 2022 (the ACT's first dementia friendly screening) and received funding support from the ACT Government. Research for this project has been supported by an ADA Research Fellowship.

I am also currently researching the ways that the shift to online screenings in film and screen studies courses shapes curriculum, film engagement, and student experience.

Engagement

Film Advisory Panel member, Sydney International Film Festival, 2016 - present

Vice-President (Australia), Screen Studies Association of Australian and New Zealand (SSAAANZ) 2015-2018

Member of National Film and Video Lending Collection Advisory Committee, National Library of Australia, 2002-2003

Professional memberships

Screen Studies Association of Australian and New Zealand (SSAAANZ)

My Research Supervision

Current PhD supervisions (primary supervisor)

  • Caroline Grose, "Scripting and performing innocence: Child/adult relationships on Australian & New Zealand screens."
  • Luke Robinson, "The Disappearing Faces of Hollywood Crime Films." -- successfully completed awaiting graduation
  • Pearl Tan, "Developing intersectional characters for Australian screen audiences."

Current PhD supervisions (joint supervision

  • Kyla Allison (joint supervision with Dr Michael Richardson), "An affective examination of the impasses around the #MeToo movement."

Higher Degree Research completions (Primary supervisor)

  • Dr Phoebe Macrossan, "The Utopian Modalities of Contemporary American Screensong" (PhD 2018).
  • Dr Jessica Ford, "American Feminist Sensibility Television in the Post-Network Era" (PhD 2017). 
  • Dr Rodney Wallis "The Arab-Israeli Conflict in Hollywood Cinema: The Middle East, the Cold War, and the construction of United States political identity" (2016). Published as monograph.
  • Dr Annette Barnes, "The Soundtracks of Australian Transcultural Cinema: re-sounding the past" (2014)
  • Dr Megan Carrigy, "Performing History, troubling reference: tracking the screen re-enactment" (2011). Awarded the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences PhD prize. Published as monograph.
  • Dr Caroline Wake, "Performing Witness: Testimonial Theatre in the Age of Asylum, Australia 2000-2005" (2010), joint supervised with Dr Meg Mumford.
  • Dr Effie Rassos “Questions of temporal presence and absence in contemporary film and video” (2006) 
  • Dr Teresa Rizzo “From the cinematic apparatus to cinematic assemblages: a feminist intervention” (PhD, 2005). Published as monograph.
  • Dr Erin Brannigan “A cinema of movement: Dance and the moving image” (PhD, 2004). Published as monograph.
  • Dr Tara Forrest “The politics of imagination in Benjamin, Kracauer, and Kluge” (PhD, 2005, awarded the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences PhD prize). Published as monograph.
  • Dr Deborah Staines “Representations of Auschwitz” (PhD, 2002).
  • Tara Forrest “Habitual Perception and Film” (MA, 2000)

HDR completions (co supervisor)

  • Dr Emily Chandler "The girl typing discourse in North American children's television animation, 1990-2010" Primary supervisor A/Prof Jane Mills (PhD, 2017).
  • Dr Richard Smith "The traffic in images: Deleuze and the action film" Primary supervisor Dr Lisa Trahair (PhD, 2002)

My Teaching

I regularly convene and teach the following courses in the Film Studies major:

  • Contemporary Approaches to Cinema (ARTS2061)
  • Screen Emotions (ARTS3065)
  • Australian Cinema (ARTS2062)

I have also taught and/or convened the following courses in our program:

  • Hollywood Film: industry, technology, aesthetics (ARTS1062)
  • Film Genre (ARTS2064)
  • Film Studies Capstone (ARTS3065)