Rob Stone

Prof

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

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.

1998 …2027

Research activity per year

Personal profile

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 (Bloomsbury, 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 refereed 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 University 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 founded and co-directed B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film and Television Studies at the University of Birmingham from 2014 to 2024.

Research interests

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.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 9 - Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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