Dr. Emma Widdis

Biography

Professor Emma Widdis has an extensive academic background, having engaged in film studies through a diverse journey that involved traditional language and literature studies, emphasizing the relationship between text and image in 19th and 20th-century literature and visual art. Widdis holds an MPhil in Social Political Theory, which provided her the opportunity to explore the interaction of culture, society, and ideology. She has focused her research and teaching on early Soviet cinema and the cultural geography shaped by film. Widdis began her PhD at Cambridge University and spent a significant time as a Visiting Fellow at Harvard University and in Moscow. Her monograph, 'Visions New Land', emerged from her research and examines the role of cinema in constructing a new imaginary geography in the young Soviet Union. Widdis also teaches 20th-century Russian Soviet literature and cinema, emphasizing theoretical frameworks, particularly the relationship between film and urban space. Her research interests include the interplay between political avant-garde and mainstream cinema, as well as the innovative role cinema plays in shaping new forms of subjectivity within Soviet culture. Recent publications include contributions to 'Slavic Review' and 'Sound, Speech, Music in Soviet and Post-Soviet Cinema', and she is a co-editor of the forthcoming 'New Cambridge History of Russian Literature'.

Research Interests

Courses