Professor Rob Stone BA, PhD

College of Arts and Law
Professor of Film Studies
Chair of European Film, Co-Head of Department of Film and Creative Writing
Co-director of B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies

Contact details

Telephone: +44 (0)121 41 48597
Email: r.stone@bham.ac.uk

View my research portal

Address: University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

My research and publications focus on World Cinema with particular emphasis on European and American Independent Cinema. I have also published extensively on Spanish, Basque and Cuban cinema. My interests are in the overlap of philosophy, politics and aesthetics in many areas of World Cinema. Having recently co-edited The Routledge Companion to World Cinema and written the second edition of my book on the cinema of Richard Linklater, I am currently working on a revisionist history of American Independent Cinema, representations of neurodiversity in film and television, and adaptaions of Don Quixote.

Feedback and office hours

Please e-mail for appointment.

Qualifications

BA (Film and Art)
PhD (Spanish film and literature)

Biography

After graduating in Film Studies and Art History, I worked for several years in Spain and completed my doctoral studies on flamenco in Spanish film and literature at the University of Wales. I then worked as lecturer in the University of Aberystwyth before moving to Swansea University in 2004, where I was Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Media and Communication. I was made Professor in 2007 and this was recognised by ANECA (Spanish Government) in 2010.

I became Chair of European Film at the University of Birmingham in 2012 and for 2012-14 I was awarded a Major Research Fellowship by the Leverhulme Trust that enabled me to work on a monograph on Basque cinema with a colleague from the University of Deusto in San Sebastian that was published in English and Spanish. In 2015 I was awarded the Koldo Mitxelena Chair in Basque Studies at the University of Chicago. Amongst other publications and editorial responsibilities, I am co-founder and co-editor of the Routledge series Remapping World Cinema: Regional Tensions and Global Transformations and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to World Cinema. At the University of Birmingham I co-direct B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies, supervise numerous research students, and lecture on American and European cinema. I have contributed to Time Out, Cinemascope and Sight & Sound as well as film notes and commentary to the Region 2 DVDs of the films of Julio Medem and The Criterion Collection blu-ray box-set of Richard Linklater’s The Before Trilogy.

Teaching

I lecture on World Cinema, American and European Cinema, Film Authorship, European Philosophy in relation to cinema (Bergson, Deleuze, Bakhtin, Baudrillard, Sørenson), Film Theory, Philosophy and Politics.

Postgraduate supervision

I welcome enquiries about research supervision in relevant areas of World Cinema. I have supervised and examined numerous theses and am currently supervising the following PhD theses amongst others:

Hui-Han Chen on a new theorisation of slow cinema for World Cinema.
Will McKeown on the political meanings of contemporary horror cinema.
Karolina Ginalska on ethnographic filmmaking.
Petra Olaoye on affect in American independent cinema.
Luis Freijo on de-westernising the western.
Ira Ortigosa on sub-titling and dubbing in Basque cinema

"We are having a wonderful, life-changing postgraduate experience at the University of Birmingham with its state-of-the-art campus and various academic and social events for postgraduates, which offer opportunities to meet brilliant fellow students whose friendship is enriching. The PhD course gives you the freedom to direct and refine your own research with expert guidance from academics whose supervision is helpful, rigorous and inspiring. The close interaction between students and supervisors, other academic staff, and a cohort of research students keeps our research progress on track and constantly improving. We would recommend it to anyone with a penchant for film and a curious, inquiring mind because the University of Birmingham is the perfect place to study if film is your academic interest."

- Hui-Han Chen, Luis Freijo, and Will McKeown, MA by Research and PhD in Film Studies students

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

Research

I have a wide range of research interests related to Film Studies and World Cinema and have published on Hispanic cinema (particularly, Spanish, Basque and Cuban cinema), on European cinema, and on independent American cinema. I am particularly interested in the interaction and overlap of history, politics and philsophy in film aesthetics. I am currently working on a range of projects that include a revisionist history of American independent cinema, adaptations of Don Quixote, and representations of neurodiversity in film and television. I have published in English, Spanish and Italian and have been awarded major research grants by the AHRC, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Trust and the Mellon Foundation.

Other activities

I am founder and co-director with Dr Andrew Watts of B-Film: The Birmingham Centre for Film Studies, a thriving research centre in the College of Arts and Law.

I am also co-founder and editorial board member of the Remapping World Cinema: Regional Tensions and Global Transformations series from Routledge and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to World Cinema. I am editorial board member of Studies in European Cinema (Intellect) and co-editor with Dr Dunja Fehimović of the annual Screen Arts issue of the Hispanic Research Journal. I am also on the advisory board of [In]Transition, Ikusgaiak: Cuadernos de Cinematografía and Studies in Hispanic Cinemas (Intellect). I serve on the review panels of GAČR: The Czech Science Foundation, the Qatar National Research Fund, the United Kingdom Research Institute (UKRI), the Leverhulme Trust and the Review Panel of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

I am reader and reviewer for a great many journals and publishers. I have also provided consultancy, onscreen film notes and full-length feature audio commentary on the Metro-Tartan DVD release of Julio Medem’s Basque Ball (2005) and I curated a season of Basque Cinema at the National Film Theatre, London. I also appear with Dr Dave Johnson on the special feature “3x2: A Conversation” on The Criterion Collection blu-ray box-set of Richard Linklater’s The Before Trilogy. I have spoken by invitation at numerous universities , arts centres, cinemas and cultural centres in the UK, Cuba, Spain, the Basque Country, and the USA, as well as at a Cultural Committee Meeting at the House of Commons, Westminster. I have presented my own documentary on Basque Cinema at the Belfast Film Festival and have also appeared as panellist on film magazine programmes on Radio Nacional Española, Cadena Ser, Radio Madrid and Screen Brum on Brum Radio.

Publications

Books

Stone, R. (2022) American Independent Cinema and Transcendentalism: Staying Woke (Routledge). Forthcoming.
Stone, R. (2018) Walk, Don’t Run: The Cinema of Richard Linklater. Second edition, revised and extended. New York: Columbia University Press.
Stone, R. & Rodríguez, M. P. (2015) Basque Cinema: A Cultural and Political History. IB Tauris.
Stone, R. & Rodríguez, M. P. (2015) Cine Vasco. Seville and Salamanca: Comunicación Social.
Stone, R. (2013) Walk, Don’t Run: The Cinema of Richard Linklater. New York: Columbia University Press.
Stone, R. (2007) Julio Medem. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 236pp. Paperback edition published in September 2012.
Stone, R. (2004) Flamenco in the Works of Federico García Lorca and Carlos Saura: The Wounded Throat. New York and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen Press.
Stone, R. (2002) Spanish Cinema. Harlow: Longman

Edited books

Stone, R., Cooke, P., Dennison, S. & Marlow-Mann, A. (eds) (2017) The Routledge Companion to World Cinema. Routledge.
Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (eds) (2016) Screening European Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan.
Stone, R. & Gutiérrez-Albilla, J. D. (eds) (2013) A Companion to Luis Buñuel. Wiley-Blackwell.
Stone, R. & Shaw, L. (eds) (2012) Screening Songs in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Stone, R. & Harper, G. (eds) 2007) The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film. Columbia University Press.

Edited journals

Stone, R. & Fehimović, D. (2020) Hispanic Research Journal, 21.1.
Stone, R. & Fehimović, D. (2018) Hispanic Research Journal, 19.1.
Stone, R. & Fehimovic, D. (2018) Hispanic Research Journal, 18.1.
Stone, R. (2017) Hispanic Research Journal, 17.1.
Stone, R. (2016) Hispanic Research Journal, 16.1.
Stone, R. & Preece, J. (2010) Journal of European Studies, 40.3.
Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (2007) Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 15:1.
Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (2006) New Cinemas, 4: 2.
Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (2004) Studies in European Cinema, 1:2.

Reports

Stone, R., Bangert, A. & Cooke, P., (2013) Screening European Heritagewas published by the House of Lords Select Committee on 'Soft Power and the UK's Influence' and cited several times in the final report entitled ‘Persuasion and Power in the Modern World’.

Book series

Founder and co-editor of Remapping World Cinema: Regional Tensions and Global Transformations book series with Routledge

Articles in journals

Stone, R. & Rodríguez, M. P. (2017) ‘Contemporary Basque Cinema: Online, Elsewhere and Otherwise Engaged’, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (Liverpool), 1103–1122.
Stone, R. (2015) ‘The Disintegration of Spanish Cinema’, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, XCII: 3, 423–438.
Stone, R. (2015) Tag (12 mins), [in]Transition: Media Commons Cinema Journal. Online: (peer-reviewed online journal).
Stone, R. (2015) ‘About Time: Before “Boyhood”’, Film Quarterly, 68: 3, 67–72.
Stone, R. & Fehimović, D. (2014) ‘Cuba’s Cinematic Élan Vital: Cubanidad and cubanía as Citizenship and Sentiment’, The Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 23.3, 289–303.
Stone, R., Bangert, A. & Cooke, P. (2013) ‘Screening European Heritage: History on Film, the Heritage Sector and Cultural Policy’, Viewfinder.
Stone, R. (2011) ‘Time of Death’, Short Film Studies, Intellect, 1.2, 183–86.
Stone, R. & Jones, H. (2004) ‘Mapping the Gendered Space of the Basque Country’, Studies in European Cinema, Intellect, 1.1, 43–55.
Stone, R. (2004) ‘Julio Medem's Basque Balls: "La Pelota Vasca"’, Vertigo, 2.6, Spring 2004, 46–48.
Stone, R. (2003) ‘Breaking the Spell: Carlos Saura's “El amor brujo” and el desencanto’, Bulletin of Spanish Studies, LXXX, 5, 573–92.
Stone, R. (2002) ‘No Sólo Hable, Sino Escuche: Pedro Almodóvar’s Hable con ella’, Academia: Revista de la Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España, 32, 46–54.
Stone, R. (2001) 'Through a Glass Darkly: Ritual and Transition in Carlos Saura's “Bodas de sangre”', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies (Liverpool), LXXVIII, 199–215.
Stone, R. (2000) 'Quiero llorar: Lorca and the Flamenco Tradition in “Poeta en Nueva York”', Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, (Glasgow), LXXVII, 83–100.
Stone, R. (2000) 'El camino de los ayes: The Concept of Pilgrimage in “Romancero gitano”', Neophilologus, LXXXIV, pp. 225–40.
Stone, R. (1999) 'Misticismo y lujuria: The Sacred and the Profane in “Poema del cante jondo”', Anales de la literatura española contemporánea, XXIV, 213–26.
Stone, R. (1998) 'Designing Women: “Vertigo”, “Carmen” and “La ardilla roja”', Tesserae, IV, 173–82.
Stone, R. (2010) ‘The Coding of Aesthetic & Thematic Discourse in a Cinematic Mnemonic: The Case of “Ama Lur” (1968)’, Journal of European Studies, Sage, 40.3, 230–42.
Stone, R. (2010) ‘Ambition’s Debt: Richard Linklater’, Sight & Sound, 20.1, 34–6.
Stone, R. (2007) ‘Notes from Region 2: The State of European Cinema’, Journal of Contemporary European Studies, Taylor and Francis, 15.1, 5–14. Stone, R. (2004) ‘Animals Were Harmed During the Making of this Film: A Cruel Reality in Hispanic Cinema’, Studies in Hispanic Cinemas, Intellect, 1.2, 75–84.

Chapters in edited books

Stone, R., Cooke, P., Dennison, S. & Marlow-Mann, A. (2016) ‘The Latitude and Longitude of World Cinema’ in Stone, R., Cooke, P., Dennison, S. & Marlow-Mann, A. (eds), The Routledge Companion to World Cinema. Routledge. Forthcoming.
Stone, R. (2016) ‘Cinemas of Citizenship and Cinemas of Sentiment’ in Stone, R., Cooke, P., Dennison, S. & Marlow-Mann, A. (eds), The Routledge Companion to World Cinema. Routledge. Forthcoming.
Stone, R. (2016) ‘Martyrdom, Trauma and the Unsexing of the Basque National Imaginary’ in Fouz-Hernández, S. (ed.) Erotic Spanish Cinema. Edinburgh University Press. Forthcoming.
Stone, R., Cooke, P. & Bangert, A. (2015) ‘Introduction: Screening European Heritage’ in Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (eds) Screening European Heritage. Palgrave. In press.
Stone, R. (2015) ‘Cinematic Pilgrimages: Postmodern Heritage Cinema’ in Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (eds) Screening European Heritage. Palgrave. In press.
Stone, R., Cooke, P. & Bangert, A. (2015) ‘Screening European Heritage: Negotiating Europe’s Past Via The ‘Heritage Film’’ in Carlesten, J. & McGarry, F. (eds) Film, History and Memory, Palgrave MacMillan, 32-47.
Stone, R. (2015) ‘Puppy Love: The Reincarnation of Bilbao’ in O’Rawe, D. & Phelan, M. (eds) Post-Conflict Performance, Film and Visual Arts: Cities of Memory. Palgrave Macmillan. In press.
Stone, R. (2015) ‘Cubist Cuba: Miguel Coyula and Memories of Overdevelopment’, in Baron, G., Stock, A.M. & Pitaluga, A. (eds) Cuban Cinema Inside Out: New Perspectives on Contemporary Production. IB Tauris. In Press.
Stone, R. (2015) ‘Body Doubles: The Performance of Basqueness by Carmelo Gómez and Silvia Munt’ in Albritton, D., Melero Salvador, A. & Whittaker, T. (eds) Performance and Spanish Film. Manchester University Press. In press.
Stone, R. (2014) ‘Imitations of Cuba’, ‘The Godfather Part 2’, ‘The Five Obstructions’, ‘Chico & Rita’, ‘Buena Vista Social Club’, ‘Die Another Day’ and ‘Havana Nights: Dirty Dancing 2’ in Stock, A. M. (ed.), World Film Locations: Havana. Intellect.
Stone, R. & Cooke, P. (2014) ‘Crystalising the Past: Slow Heritage Cinema’ in Barradas Jorge, N. and de Luca, T. (eds) Slow Cinema. Edinburgh University Press. In press.
Stone, R. and P. Cooke (2013) ‘Transatlantic Drift: Hobos, Slackers, Flâneurs, Idiots and Edukators’ in Nagib, L. and A. Jersley (eds),Impure Cinema: Intermedial and Intercultural Approaches to Film. London / New York: I.B. Tauris.
Stone, R. (2013) ‘Interview with Juan Luis Buñuel’ in Stone, R. and J. D. Gutiérrez-Albilla (eds), The Companion to Luis Buñuel. Wiley-Blackwell.
Stone, R. and J. D. Gutiérrez-Albilla (2013) ‘The Criminal Life of Luis Buñuel ’ in Stone, R. and J. D. Gutiérrez-Albilla (eds), The Companion to Luis Buñuel. Blackwell. In press.
Stone, R. (2012) ‘1961: Las otras’ in Martínez Herranz, A. (ed.) La España de ‘Viridiana’. University of Zaragoza Press / Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza.
Stone, R. and M. P. Rodríguez (2012) ‘Sex and Violence: Cinematic Representations of Gender and ETA’ in Peretti, L and V. Roghi (eds), Immagini di piombo: Cinema, storia e terrorismi in Europa. Milan: Bevivino.
Stone, R. (2012) ‘Song-Shaped Cinema: The Performance of Gypsy and Basque Songs in Relation to Film Form’ in Stone, R. and L. Shaw (eds), Screening Songs in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Stone, R. and L. Shaw (2012) ‘Introduction’ in Stone, R. and L. Shaw (eds), Screening Songs in Hispanic and Lusophone Cinema. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Stone, R. (2012) ‘En la ciudad de Sylvia and the durée of a derivé’ in Delgado, M. and R. Fiddian (eds), Spanish Cinema 1973-2010: Auteurism, Politics, Landscape and Memory. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Stone, R. (2011) ‘Bits and Bytes: Film Studies through New Technologies’ in Pando Canteli, M. J. (ed.) Conjunctions and Disruptions: Communication, Information and Media Studies in Europe. University of Deusto, 163-76.
Stone, R. (2011) ‘Compás y la reterritorialización del tiempo’ in Lefere, R. (ed.), Carlos Saura: una trayectoria ejemplar. Madrid: Visor Press, 95-111.
Stone, R. (2011) ‘Al mal tiempo, buena cara: Spanish Slackers, Time-Images, New Media and the New Spanish Cinema Law’ in Davies, A. (ed.), Spain on Screen: Developments in Contemporary Spanish Cinema. Palgrave Macmillan, 41-59.
Stone, R. (2009) ‘Remaining Bodies; The Time-Image as Terrorist Act’ in Rodríguez, M. P. (ed.), Cultural and Media Studies: Basque / European Perspectives.Reno: University of Nevada Press, Center for Basque Studies, 81-99.
Stone, R. (2007) ‘Between Sunrise and Sunset: An Elliptical Dialogue between European and American Cinema’ in Cooke, P. (ed.), Dialogues with Hollywood: World Cinema’s Relationship with American Film Culture. Palgrave, 218-37.
Stone, R. (2007) ‘Killing Time In Cuba: Juan Carlos Tabío’s “Lista de espera” (2000)’ in Shaw, D. (ed.), Contemporary Latin American Cinema. Rowan and Littlefield, 135-52.
Stone, R. (2007) 'Spanish Film Noir’ in Spicer, A. (ed.), European Film Noir. Manchester University Press, 185-209.
Stone, R. (2007) ‘Eye To Eye: The Persistence of Surrealism in Spanish Cinema’ in Harper, G. & R. Stone (eds), The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism on Film. Wallflower Press, 23-37.
Stone, R. (2006) ‘Mother Lands, Sister Nations: The Epic, Poetic, Propaganda Films of Cuba and the Basque Country’ in Dennison, S. & Song Hwee Lim (eds), Remapping World Cinema: Identity, Culture and Politics in Film. London and New York: Wallflower Press, 65-72.
Stone, R. (2004) ‘¡Victoria?: A Modern Magdalene’ in Marsh, S. & P. Nair (eds), Gender in Spanish Cinema. Berg Publishers, 165-82.