Special interest group:
Animation

Convenors:  

• Carleigh Morgan (University of Birmingham)
• Sam Summers (Middlesex University)

Overview

Animation has until recently been a lacuna within film studies as a discipline, commonly excluded from a canon dominated by narrative Hollywood and world cinema. Yet the present ‘digital turn’ has brought a revised perspective, as animated qualities have come to define new media. Animation is now critical to the mainstream cinema industry, while film theorists including Suzanne Buchan, Alan Cholodenko, Andre Gaudreault, Tom Gunning, Lev Manovich, David Rodowick, and Vivian Sobchack have each in their own way situated animation as pivotal to understanding cinema, both historically and in the present day. There is now a growing community of researchers investigating animation in diverse ways. This special interest group represents and supports all researchers working on related topics, including those undertaking practice-based research. It also seeks to forge links with other related groups, both within BAFTSS (considering, for instance, the importance of connections between animation and documentary) as well as other organisations such as the Society for Animation Studies and the SCMS Animated Media SIG.

Reports on activities

• Animation Studios in Europe, Université Paris 8, 6-7 June 2024
• Doing things with anime materials: approaching Japanese animation 'away from the screen', Durham University, 21 November 2023

Founding members

• Eve Benhamou ( University of Montpellier)
• Birgit Beumers (Aberystwyth University)
• Gill Bliss (Longborough University)
• Sarah Bowen (Leeds Beckett University)
• Shaopeng Chen (University of Southampton)
• Yuanyuan Chen (University of Ulster)​
• Malcolm Cook (University of Southampton)​
• Jemma Gilboy (Nottingham Trent University)
• ​Alexia Gonzales (SAE Institute)
• Helen Haswell (Queen’s University Belfast)
• Chris Holliday (Kings College)
• Vicky Jackson (University of Bristol)
• Indre Jakucione (Kingston University)
• Alex Jukes (Edge Hill University)
• Frances Kamm (University of Kent)
• Catherine Lester (University of Birmingham)​
• Cristina Massaccesi (University College London)
• Kristian Moen (Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol)
• Aimee Mollaghan (Lecturer, Edge Hill University)
• Chris Pallant (Senior Lecturer, Canterbury Christ Church University)
• Caroline Ruddell (Lecturer, Brunel University London)
• Susan Smith (Senior Lecturer, University of Sunderland)
• Sam Summers (Doctoral Student, University of Sunderland)
• Sarah Thomas (Lecturer, Aberystwyth University)
• John Twycross (Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University)
• Victoria Grace Walden (Doctoral Student, Queen Mary University of London)
• Aylish Wood (Professor, University of Kent)
• Li Xie (Doctoral Student, University of Bristol)