My primary research area is horror films for children in Hollywood cinema. This was the basis of my PhD thesis (available here) and I am developing this into a monograph, entitled Horror Films for Children: Fear and Pleasure in American Cinema, to be published by I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury. My journal article on the subject in Velvet Light Trap (2016) was awarded runner-up for Best Doctoral Student Article 2018 by the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies and was short-listed for Screen’s Annette Kuhn Essay Award 2017.
I am continuing to explore the intersections between children’s media and the horror genre with ongoing projects on children’s horror anthology programmes (e.g. Goosebumps) and the relationship between animation and horror in children’s cinema. This interest in animated horror has led to a symposium on Watership Down (1978) which explores the production, aesthetics, reception and ongoing cultural legacy of this landmark of British animation. I am also interested issues of representation in children's cinema, animation and popular culture more broadly.