Dr Margherita Sprio

Dr Margherita Sprio studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths (University of London) and The Slade School of Art (University College London) and then worked for a time showing her work internationally before going on to gain her PhD at Goldsmiths. She moved from making photographic and film works to writing and teaching about film and visual culture. She joined University of Westminster in 2011 and has previously taught at a number of institutions including Birkbeck College, Goldsmiths, Middlesex University, Central St Martins and most recently University of Essex.

Dr Sprio has also worked as a Script Reader (Renaissance Film &Theatre Production Company), Artist's Assistant (Luis Camitzer & Judith Barry, New York/London), Curator ( The Meyer Gallery, London), Screening and Film Programming Consultant (Firstsite Contemporary Art Gallery, Colchester), and sits on various Advisory Boards.

She has been external examiner at Chelsea School of Art, University of the Arts, London BA Fine Art (Critical Theory) (2011-14) and at Middlesex University (2008-12) for various BA Art and Design Courses. Previously she was External Examiner at Goldsmiths for MA Contemporary Art Theory, MA Aural & Visual Cultures and MA Researching Architectures (Department of Visual Cultures, 2005-09).

She has also sat on various external validation committees most recently at Plymouth University, Goldsmiths and Central St Martins - University of the Arts, London.

Dr Sprio has delivered numerous conference papers both nationally and internationally and regularly contributes to public lectures.

Selected Exhibitions

• Molteplici Culture. Museo del Folklore, Rome, Italy. (Represented UK with Willie Doherty, Damien Hirst and Liam Gillick). (1992)

Dr Margherita Sprio works on film practice and theory as well as the relationship of film theory to photography, contemporary art and philosophy. Her particular research interests relate to the politics of cinema and art, globalisation and diaspora, cultural/sexual difference and transnationalism.

Her current book project, Migrant Memories: Cultural History, Cinema and the Italian Post-War Diaspora in Britain(Peter Lang, 2013), focuses on the relationship between film, cultural memory, and migrant audience consumption. Chapters explore, for example, the 1950s popular melodramas by filmmaker Matarazzo and the impact of his work on the subsequent Diaspora Italian communities in Britain; the consumption of Italian American cinema by second and third generation British Italians, and how this impacts on their sense of place and identity.

She has also written about Iranian cinema, realism, performance, and film history.

She would welcome PhD applications that address any of the above-described areas.

Peer Reviewer - 

• Peer review/Proposal Reviewer External (Overseas) Panel Member/Expert - OPUS Funding Scheme - National Science Centre, Poland - 2018- 

• AHRC – Peer Reviewer for Small Grant Applications (2009-) 

• Routledge – peer reviewer for Visual Arts/essays and manuscripts (2010-) 

• Photography & Culture Journal (Sage Publications) – Features reader (2007-) 

• Sexualities Journal, UK (Sage Publications) - Film and Art Essays editor (2005-) 

• Crossings - Journal of Migration and Culture (Intellect Publications) – Essays (2012-) 3 

• Peer reviewer for International Association For Media and Communication Research Conference – Diasporas and the Media Working Group, Visual Culture and Gender and Communication, (2014-) 

• Peer reviewer for Bloomsbury – manuscripts (2014-) 

• Peer reviewer for Palgrave Macmillan – manuscripts (2018) 

• Journal Editorial Board – MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture (2017-) 

Professional Memberships – 

TECHNE` AHRC Doctoral Training Programme - Reviewer (2019-) 

International Association For Media and Communication Research (2012-) 

International Association of Media and History (2012-) 

European Network for Cinema and Media Studies (2010-) 

American Association of Italian Studies, (2008-) 

Association of Art Historians, (1999-) 

College Arts Association, (2004-) 

Recent Conferences/Public Lectures/Talks – 

I will give a paper, Italian Post-War Migration to Britain – Cinema and The Second Generation, on the panel Human Mobility, Connectivity and the Cultural Politics of Migration at the International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference at University of Madrid, Spain, July 2019 

Chaired a Panel with Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker at the exhibition Madam B: Explorations in Emotional Capitalism, Lethaby Gallery, Central Saint Martins, London, March, 2019 

Introduction and Q&A with the film director Jurgen Urena at Regent St Cinema for film premiere of Hold Me Like Before, which was part of the University of Westminster Difference Festival, 25th Feb-1st March, 2019 

In conversation with the artist Sunil Gupta at Life Blood Exhibition at Crypt Gallery, London as part of the Bloomsbury Festival, October 2018 

Panel Chair - Italian Migration to London at HOMELandS Workshop - Bridging borders, creating spaces: negotiating multicultural identities and belongings among migrant communities in global London, University of Westminster, June 2018 

Keynote lecture at Milan, La Cattolica University, Italy - Contemporary European Cinema and its Migratory Spaces, May 2018 

Introduced and did a Q&A with film director Aro Korol at Regent St Cinema for The Battle For Soho which was part of the University of Westminster Difference Festival, 27 Feb-3 March, 2018 

Keynote lecture at Milan, La Cattolica University, Italy - Contemporary European Cinema and Migration Through a Feminist Lens, March 2018 

Paper given, Contact Zone – Feminism, Migration and Cinema at the conference Contact Zones at University of Innsbruck, Austria, 2017 

Paper given, Feminist Intimacies and The Legacy of Poor Cow (Ken Loach, 1967) Revisited at the British Cinema in the 1960s: Histories and Legacies Conference at the BFI Southbank, London. 4 

I gave an Intro talk at the opening of the exhibition, Sunil Gupta: In Pursuit of Love, at the Peltz Gallery, Birkbeck College, School of Arts, London, UK 

Paper given, Migration, Memories and Home – The Post-War Italian-British Experience at Heritages of Migration: Moving Objects, Stories and Home Conference at National Museum of Immigration, at Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2017 

Paper given, Feminist Intimacies, Migration and Diaspora in Britain at the Geomedia 2017 Conference “Spaces Of the In-Between”, Karlstad University, Sweden, 2017 

Keynote Lecture, Diaspora, Devotionality and Contemporary British/Feminist Cinema, at Cinema and the Devotional Conference at School of Advanced Studies for Social Sciences, Paris, France, 2016 

Keynote Lecture, Italian Migration, Diaspora and Cinema at Italian-British Society, Oxford and Cambridge University Club, London, 2016 

Paper given, Negotiating Femininity and Feminism Through Carol Morley’s Dream of a Life (2011) at Doing Women’s Film and TV History Conference at University of Leicester, 2016 

Paper given, Cinemas Memories – Italian Migration and Diaspora in Britain, at Identities and Identifications – Politicized Uses of Collective Identities, Euro Academia International Conference, at Cultural Centre – Don Orione Artigianelli, Venice, 2016

Paper given, Silence as A Mode of Resistance - The Terrain of Subculture in Silences of the Palace(Mofida Tlatli, 1994) in Gender and Communication Panel at Annual Conference of International Association For Media and Communication Research at Universite’ du Quebec a’ Montreal, Montreal, Canada, 2015 

Paper given, Migrant Memories - Cinema and Diaspora and the conference at the Film and History Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference in association with the Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand, Queensland University, Brisbane, Australia, 2015 

Paper given, Silence and Resistance in Silences of The Palace (Mofida Tlatli, 1994) at International Association For Media and Communication Research Conference, Montreal, Canada, 2015 

Public Lecture – Laura Mulvey and her Legacies and also chairing a talk with various artists, Feminist Library, London, UK, 2015 

Public Lecture and also chaired a panel about Women and Censorship in Early Cinema at The Cob Gallery, London, UK, 2015 

Paper given, Migrant Memories – Cinema and Diaspora and chaired panel, Diasporas and the Media at International Association For Media and Communication Research Conference, Hyderabad Conference Centre, India, 2014 

Paper given, Migrant Memories – Cinema and Home at European Network for Cinema and Media Studies Conference at Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, 2014 

Paper given, Cinema and Italian Post War Migration to Britain at Materiality and Migration Workshop at University of Westminster, UK, 2014 

Public Lecture: Bed and Sofa (1927) - Women and Early Cinema and Panel Discussion with Prof. Julian Graffy (UCL) and artist Maria Kapajeva at GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design (organized by OBSKURA), London, UK, 2014 

Higher Education External Examiner – 

2015-2019 

Kingston University, BA Film and BA Photography, Critical Theory 

2010 – 2014  

Chelsea School of Art, BA Fine Art, Critical Theory 

2008 - 2012 

Middlesex University, BA Art, and Design Courses (various) 

2005-2009 

Goldsmiths College, University of London – MA Contemporary Art Theory, MA Aural & Visual Cultures and MA Researching Architectures (Department of Visual Cultures) 

2003-6 

Hillcroft College, London (Open University) – Various Media, Arts, and Humanities Courses 

1997-2003 

Birkbeck College, University of London. Internal Examiner for various Art History and Media/Film Studies Courses 

1995-2003 

Birkbeck College, University of London. Internal Moderator for various Art History and Film courses leading to the Preparation For Higher Education Certificate & Diploma 

1996-2000 

Birkbeck College, University of London. Internal Examiner for Foundation in the History of Art Course (BA Art History) 

External Assessor for Validation and Re-validations – 

BA Film and TV, Plymouth University, 2014 

MA Global Arts, Goldsmiths College, 2012 

BA Fine Art, Central St Martins & Byam Shaw School of Art, 2010 

BA Film Theory and Practice at Falmouth University, 2007 

UK Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) Subject Specialist – 

I am an invited member of the Review Panel, for History of Art, Architecture and Design – 2009 and 2015 

Completed PhD Students - 

Dr John Fox (AHRC, University of Essex), Profane Illuminations: Creolisation and Disenchantment in the Work of Andy Warhol - 2011 

Dr Matthew Hughes, Kenneth Anger and the Sixties Politics of Consciousness - 2012 

Dr Elzbieta Buslowska, Reclaiming the Image. Béla Tarr's World of 'Inhuman' Becoming. An Artistic and Philosophical Enquiry - 2013 

Dr Kevin Carter, Expanding Community Art Practice: An Analysis of New Forms of Productive Site Within Community Art Practice - 2013 

Dr Sarah Pucill (PhD by Publication), Asserting the Feminine: The Female Body, the Female Gaze and Female or Lesbian Sexuality - 2014 

David Bovey (MPhil), The Artist Biopic: A Historical Analysis of Narrative Cinema, 1934-2010 (part-time) - 2014 

Dr Francis Joe Palmer, The Work of Art in Walter Benjamin’s Die Aufgabe Des Übersetzers - 2016 

Dr Silvia Angeli, Catholicism and Italian Cinema in the Age of “the New Secularisation” (1958–1978) - 2016 

Dr Manuela Granziol-Fornera, The Body in Pieces and the Work of Berlinde de Bruyckere - 2016 

Dr Valentina Signorelli, The Presence of Dante’s Inferno in Film Adaptations Across Old and New Technologies - 2017 

Dr Nina Danino (PhD by Publication), Experimental Film - Catholic and Feminist Readings of my Films (2010-2016) – 2017 

Dr Sunil Gupta (PhD by Publication), Queer Migrations – 2018 6 

Cassie Yishu Lin, Feminism, Fandom and Slash Fiction – 2019 (submitted thesis) 

Current PhD Students - 

Alexandra Jonsson (AHRC), Body Politic of Data - 2015 

Monika Ursula Jaeckel, Performativity and Motion Embedded Agency – 2017 

Camille Waring, Images of Sex Workers, Politics and Migration – 2018 

Marine Hugonnier, PhD by Publication - 2019 

Veronica Posada, Latin Americans in London, Migration and Diaspora - 2019

Current PhD Students as Second Supervisor - 

Francesco Arese Visconti, Italian Migration to Switzerland – A Photographic Journey - 2016 

Debi Hall, Artists’ TV from the 1970s to 2000s: Broadcast experiment and interventions into British television by women artists, producers and commissioners based in the UK - 2015 

Federica Chiocchetti, Photography and Fiction – 2013 

Jing Wang, Boat People and Politics - 2019 

Barbara Matas, PhD by Publication - 2019 

Swati Bakshi, Touched with Humour: Reading Space, Agency and Social Text in Sai Paranjpye’ cinema (1980-2010) – 2019 

Completed PhD Students as Second Supervisor - 

Dr Cinzia Cremona, Intimations: Relationality in Videoperformance - 2014 

Dr Saskia Huc-Hepher, Constructing a Digital Home for the French Community in London: Cultural Dynamics in Action - 2017 

Dr Layal Fatoui, Dismantling or Reproducing the Orientalist Canon? Neo-Orientalism in the Visual Arts – 2017 

Dr Deniz Sozen, The Art of (Un)belonging – 2019 Ana Janeiro, Feminism, Memory, and the Portuguese Diaspora – 2015 (pending) 

Post Doctoral Students - 

Dr Sara Marino - Digital Data and Contemporary Italian Migration to London (2012-2015) 

Dr Mattia Lento - Cinema, Italian-Swiss Migration and Diaspora (2016-2017) 

Most recent Media – 

Interviewed for The Guardian/The Observer – A Woman’s Place? How Hollywood Learned to Love Superheroines, 27 December 2015

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.