Peer-Review for Practice Research
Screenworks is a peer-reviewed open access publication of practice research in film and screen media, edited by Professor Charlotte Crofts (UWE Bristol) and Associate Editors: Will DiGravio (University of Amsterdam); Dr. Shweta Ghosh (University of Reading); Dr. Catherine Gough-Brady (Edith Cowan University, Australia); Dr Matthew Hawkins (London Southbank University); Dr Alexander Nevill (University of Edinburgh); Dr Estrella Sendra Fernandez (Kings College London). Screenworks publishes practice research in the fields of Communication, Media and Cultural Studies, Art and Design, Performing Arts and related areas. We offer a forum for the dissemination and discussion of new knoweldge that draws on practice research contexts. Creative work is published alongside a written statement, which offers a ‘route map’ of the research process, together with two anonymous reviews, which provide critical feedback on both the work itself and its research context.
We accept submissions on a rolling basis as well as for Special Issues. Please see the submissions page for further information about current calls, deadlines, the peer review process and how to submit your work. Please be aware of our accessibility policy, which applies to Vol 12 onwards. Go to our archive to explore previous volumes, including the full supporting research statements and peer reviews for each volume. If you are interested in proposing a Special Issue then please see our special issues policy.
As one of the pioneering journals in academic peer review for practice research, Screenworks provides evidence of the impact, significance, originality, and rigour of the work. We use an open single-blind review policy, publishing anonymous peer reviews alongside the research statement for transparency. Our goal is to foster a supportive yet rigorous research environment for academics in film and screen media practice while engaging wider audiences. Learn more about our evolving editorial approach in Crofts and Nevill (2018).
Screenworks was originally convened in 2006 by Professor Jon Dovey, and Associate editor, Dr Charlotte Crofts, and took the form of a DVD that was distributed with the Journal of Media Practice (JMP) through Intellect Books. Volume 1 was published with JMP (8:2) in September 2007, and Volume 2 with JMP (9:3) in December 2008. Extracts of the works in Volumes 1 & 2 were retrospectively published online when a website for the journal was launched under the banner of JMPScreenworks.com at the JMP Symposium 2011.
The first online volume of Screenworks was released in June 2012 and since then the journal has consistently pioneered new research in film and screen media. We now publish exclusively online in order to disseminate work more widely, save costs and to fulfil the current AHRC and REF research agendas of open access, impact and public engagement. Screenworks migrated to the present website in 2024. We hope that this new home will enable the journal to continue to flourish and grow as both an online publisher of academic film and as a forum for championing practice research in the academy.
References
Charlotte Crofts & Alexander Nevill (2018) Publishing screen media practice research: evolving processes of contextualisation, peer review and future proofing in Screenworks, Media Practice and Education, 19:3, 283-297, DOI: 10.1080/25741136.2018.1529478.
Editorial Team
Professor Charlotte Crofts is Professor of Cinema Arts at the University of the West of England, UWE Bristol, founding editor (with Professor Jon Dovey) and now Editor in Chief of Screenworks and on the editorial board of Open Screens. She was the first MeCCSA Practice Network chair, served on the Executive Committees of both MeCCSA and BAFTSS and co-convenes the BAFTSS Practice Research SIG. She is a filmmaker and creative producer working across film and emerging media, currently developing a feature film adaptation of Angela Carter’s Flesh and the Mirror with support of the BFI Development Fund. She developed two locative heritage apps exploring local screen history in The Curzon Memories App and the Lost Cinemas of Castle Park App and she is now working with ArcGIS StoryMaps to map Bristol’s cinema history. She is director of the Cary Comes Home Festival celebrating Cary Grant’s Bristol roots and sits on the steering committee of Bristol UNESCO City of Film. She has authored a book, Anagrams of Desire: Angela Carter’s Writing for Radio, Film and Television (MUP 2003) and published articles and practice in journals of Media Practice and Education, Moving Image, PostScript, Screenworks, Open Screens and Contempory Women’s Writing.
Will DiGravio is a writer, podcaster, and video essayist based in Brooklyn, New York. He is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Amsterdam. He hosts The Video Essay Podcast and writes the weekly newsletter Notes on Videographic Criticism. In 2020, he co-curated, with Kevin B. Lee and Cydnii Wilde Harris, the Black Lives Matter Video Essay Playlist, which was named the best video essay project of the year by the editors of Sight & Sound. His video essays have screened at academic conferences and film festivals, including most recently at the International Film Festival Rotterdam. He holds an M.Phil. from the Centre for Film & Screen at the University of Cambridge and has been on the editorial board of Screenworks since the fall of 2019. His personal website is: www.willdigravio.com.
Dr Shweta Ghosh is a National Award winning documentary filmmaker and researcher from India. She is Lecturer in Screen Practices and industries and a PhD candidate at the Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading, UK. Her work explores filmmaking processes, onscreen representation, identity and creative practice in India and the global South. Shweta’s ongoing PhD practice research explores disability and film/video expression, and the socio-cultural contexts of accessibility and equity that circumscribe filmmaking by people with disabilities in contemporary urban India. A key outcome of the project is a feature documentary titled We Make Film (80 mins, HDV) to be released in early 2021. Shweta has previously explored a range of subjects through her documentaries and written work, such as disability and sexuality (Accsex), culinary culture, identity and memory (Chatkorichya Athavni/A Slice of Memory) and tea consumption cultures in India (Steeped and Stirred). Her debut film Accsex was awarded the President of India’s National Film Award. As a part-time member of staff at FTT, Shweta teaches on and convenes a range of practical modules on film production, creative industries and pathways, along with critical modules based on her specialisms in disability and Indian cinemas. www.shwetaghosh.com
Dr Catherine Gough-Brady is an award-winning documentary producer and director who publishes on the emergent use of video as a method of academic discourse, and the relational nature of documentary production processes in journals including Media Practice and Education, Screenworks, [In}transition, The International Journal of Creative Media Research, and Cultural Geographies. She is currently co-editing an edited book of essays on the intersection between creative practice and theory. Catherine produced and directed six ABC TV documentary series, including Legal Briefs (2016) and Ethics Matters (2017). Catherine created 11 radio features for ABC Radio National. Catherine is currently in post-production on a TV half-hour for ABC TV called The Communicator. Catherine is Head of Postgraduate Studies at JMC Academy in Australia. www.catherinegough-brady.com
Dr Matthew Hawkins is a Senior Lecturer in Film Practice, London South Bank University. Matthew specialises in film practice as research working across fiction film, documentary, ethnography and experimental film. His work engages with grassroot communities, belonging, migration, and the everyday. His PhD, entitled The Concept of Affective Tonality and the Role of the Senses in Producing a Cinematic Narrative, is focused on the concept of affective tonality and the potential of using affect as a tool to produce and conceptualise narrative (in) film practice. His theoretical work draws on the empiricism of Gilles Deleuze, and the wider field of film-philosophy. Matthew’s practice has received funding from the National Lottery and Channel 4, The Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Leverhulme Trust, Team London GLA (Mayor of London), and The Capital Foundation Trust: Grassroots Fund.
Dr Alex Nevill is a cinematographer, filmmaker and lecturer at Edinburgh College of Art, The University of Edinburgh. He has photographed several independent feature films as well as award-winning short projects. In conjunction with his practice, Alex is the author of a short book Towards a Philosophy of Cinematography (Palgrave, 2021) and has published work in the Journal of Artistic Research, the Journal of Media Practice and Alphaville Journal of Film and Screen Media. Alex studied filmmaking at the Screen Academy Scotland and completed a PhD in the Digital Cultures Research Centre at UWE Bristol with a scholarship through the AHRC 3d3 Centre for Doctoral Training. Before joining Edinburgh, Alex taught at Kingston University, the Arts University Bournemouth and San Francisco State University. He joined the Screenworks team in 2016. www.alexnevill.com
Dr Estrella Sendra Fernandez is a researcher, filmmaker, festival curator and journalist. She is currently working as Senior Teaching Fellow in Film and Screen Studies at SOAS, University of London and Teaching Fellow in Global Media Industries in Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton. Estrella has been developing a regional area of expertise in Senegal, with a PhD thesis on ‘two-tier festivals’ in the country, funded by the Department of African Languages at SOAS, University of London. Her research interests include festival studies, global screen media, African cinema, audiovisual representations of migration, gender, youth and digital media. She engages with artistic research and pedagogy, notably through the implementation of video essays as creative assessment methods. She has been involved in numerous festivals in Spain, Senegal, South Africa and the United Kingdom. For more information about her work, please visit her personal website: www.estrellasendra.com