Professor Rob Stone BA, PhD

Professor Rob Stone

Department of Film and Creative Writing
Professor of Film Studies
Co-director of B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies

Contact details

Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Rob Stone’s research and writing focuses on independence and empathy in relation to the dynamics of World Cinema, American independent cinema and Hispanic cinemas. His work draws on modernism, philosophy and feminism and he has also published on genre and gender in television series. He is also a filmmaker and videographic essayist.

Qualifications

  • BA (Film and Art)
  • PhD (Film and Literature)

Biography

Independence and empathy are central to Professor Stone’s understanding of the dynamics of global, national and regional film movements and their evolution. He has published in English, Spanish and Italian.

Professor Stone's publications on Spanish literature, film, surrealism and flamenco include Spanish Cinema (Longman, 2002), Flamenco in the Works of Federico García Lorca and Carlos Saura (2004), The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film (Columbia University Press, 2007), Julio Medem (Manchester University Press, 2007), Screening songs in Hispanic and Lusophone cinema (Manchester University Press, 2012), A Companion to Luis Buñuel (Blackwell, 2013), Basque Cinema: A Cultural and Political History (Blommsbury, 2015] and Cine Vasco (Comunicación Social, 2015). 

On American independent cinema, his publications include Walk, Don’t Run: The Cinema of Richard Linklater (Columbia University Press, 2013; second edition 2018), Lady Bird: Self-determination for a New Century (Routledge, 2022) and the forthcoming Imagined Life: American Independent Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2027).

Recent writing that theorises new frameworks for understanding the dynamics of World Cinema include The Routledge Companion to World Cinema (with Paul Cooke, Stephanie Dennison and Alex Marlow-Mann, 2018; second edition 2027), ‘World Cinema in Flux: Cinemas of Citizens, Cinemas of Sentiment’ (2018) and, with Luis Freijo, ‘World Cinema Between the Rock of the Unknowable and the Hard Place of the As Yet Unknown’ (2021).

His co-edited works with Professor Deborah Shaw on genre and gender in television include Sense8: Transcending Television (Bloomsbury, 2021) and Sex Education: School’s Out for Netflix (Bloomsbury, 2024) and several related articles.

Professor Stone is also a filmmaker and video essayist. His films include the documentary Some Stories (2018). His works of videographic criticism have been published in [In]Transition, Tecmerin and the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies and they have been recognised by Sight & Sound as amongst the best of 2021 and 2022 with ‘Before The End’ having also gone viral.

Professor Stone has also contributed to special editions for Metro-Tartan (the films of Julio Medem), Criterion (The Before Trilogy) and Arrow (Boyhood). He has also written for Sight & Sound, Cinemascope, Time Out and many other magazines and journals.

Professor Stone has delivered numerous keynotes and invited lectures and has published many chapters in edited works and articles in referreed journals. He has also supervised more than 20 research theses to completion. He is a member of the UKRI Strategic Review and the editorial boards of the Bulletin of Spanish Studies and the Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies. He has been awarded research grants by the AHRC, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the Mellon Foundation. He has been Associate Research Professor at the Universty of Deusto in Spain and in 2015 he was awarded the Chair of Basque Studies at the University of Chicago and in 2024 he was invited to take up a Visiting Professorship at Brandeis University in the US.

He co-directs B-Film: The birmingham Centre for Film and Television Studies at the University of Birmingham.

Teaching

I lecture on World Cinema, American and European Cinema, Film Authorship, and European and American Philosophy in relation to the politics and aesthetics of World Cinema.

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome enquiries about research supervision at MA and PhD level in relevant areas of World Cinema, American independent cinema, European cinema and genre and gender.

Find out more - our PhD/MA Film Studies page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.



Find out more - our PhD Film Studies  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

Research

Professor Rob Stone researches on the dynamics of World Cinema, American independent cinema, Hispanic cinemas, Genre and Gender. In addition to the publications listed below, he produces works of videographic criticism.

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Stone, R 2022, Lady Bird: Self-determination for a New Century. Cinema and Youth Cultures, 1st edn, Routledge, London. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003240907

Article

Stone, R 2024, 'The Hunt for the Wild Bunch: Simultaneous Multiplicity and Alternative Genealogies in World Cinema', Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 149-159. https://doi.org/10.1080/24741604.2024.2313878

Stone, R 2022, 'Philosophical Frameworks and Feminist Praxes in Lady Bird (Gerwig, 2017)', Tecmerin. Journal of Audiovisual Essays, vol. 10, no. 2022 (2). <https://tecmerin.uc3m.es/project/deconstructing-the-construction-the-female-images-in-chinese-detective-films-2010-2020-2/?lang=en>

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Stone, R 2024, Complex Female Characters: The Makings of Maeve. in R Stone & D Shaw (eds), Sex Education: School's Out for Netflix. Bloomsbury Academic.

Stone, R, Shaw, D & Walters, J 2024, Genre and Gender: Sex Education in Theory and Practice. in Sex Education: School's Out for Netflix. Bloomsbury.

Stone, R & Shaw, D 2024, Utopian Tropes and Troubled Teens. in Sex Education: School's Out for Netflix. Bloomsbury.

Anthology

Stone, R & Shaw, D (eds) 2024, Sex Education: School's Out for Netflix. Bloomsbury.

Digital or Visual Products

Stone, R, Before and After Boyhood, 2023, Digital or Visual Products, Arrow Films. <https://www.arrowfilms.com/4k/boyhood-limited-edition-4k-ultra-hd/14218423.html?autocomplete=productsuggestion>

Stone, R, The Hunt for The Wild Bunch: Simultaneous Multiplicity and Alternative Genealogies in World Cinema, 2023, Digital or Visual Products, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies, Online - Vimeo. <https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/853400379/0b08a8f649>

Stone, R, The Lady Bird Book of Derrida, 2022, Digital or Visual Products, Routledge. <http://vimeo.com/741410157>

Stone, R, The Lady Bird Book of Irigaray, 2022, Digital or Visual Products, Routledge. <https://vimeo.com/751183043>

Stone, R, The Lady Bird Book of Kant, 2022, Digital or Visual Products, Routledge. <http://vimeo.com/743882955>

Other

Stone, R 2023, 'The Evolution of the Scholarly Video Essay', Moving Geographies, 10/05/23 - 11/05/23. <https://vimeo.com/stonerob/videoessay-grantstone?share=copy>

Other contribution

Stone, R 2023, The Constant Moments. Arrow Films. <https://www.arrowfilms.com/4k/boyhood-limited-edition-4k-ultra-hd/14218423.html?autocomplete=productsuggestion>

Paper

Stone, R 2023, 'The Andalusian Dog', Paper presented at Spanish Visual Culture and Beyond, London, United Kingdom, 7/12/23 - 7/12/23. <https://vimeo.com/stonerob/andalusiandog?share=copy>

View all publications in research portal