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Dr Pansy Duncan

Senior Lecturer

Doctoral Supervisor
School of Humanities Media and Creative Comm

My work broadly concerns the politics of film and media aesthetics. My essays have been published in a number of venues, including ScreenJCMS, PMLA, Feminist Media Studies and Cultural Critique, and my 2018 essay in Screen, “Exploded Views,” won the 2020 Katherine Singer Kovács Essay Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies. I am the author of three books: The Emotional Life of Postmodern Film (Routledge, 2016); Screening the Posthuman, co-written with Missy Molloy and Claire Henry (OUP, 2023); and The Natural History of Film Form (Edinburgh University Press, 2025 - forthcoming), for which I received Marsden funding from the Royal Society Te Aparangi New Zealand. My current work focuses on the aesthetic categories - the sultry, smart, dainty and charming - that shaped the construction and reception of women film stars in studio-era Hollywood. I serve on the editorial board of Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism and as Vice-President (Aotearoa) of the Screen Studies Association of Australia and New Zealand (SSAAANZ).

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Research Expertise

Research Interests

Modern visual cultures; film and media history; the political aesthetics of cinema; eco-materialist approaches to film and media; the politics of affect; political economy of the media

Area of Expertise

Field of research codes
Art Theory (190103): Art Theory and Criticism (190100): Cinema Studies (190201): Electronic Media Art (190203): Film, Television and Digital Media (190200): Studies In Creative Arts And Writing (190000): Visual Cultures (190104)

Research Projects

Completed Projects

Project Title: The natural history of Film Form: Film Aesthetics through animal, vegetable and mineral matter

Date Range: 2019 - 2023

Funding Body: Royal Society of New Zealand

Project Team:

Research Outputs

Journal

Duncan, P. (2025). The Glowy: the aesthetics of transparency in postfeminist "wellness" culture (forthcoming). Feminist Media Studies.
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2024). The Labor of Spectarship. In Media Res.
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2023). COVID Formalism: arrows and the “dis-affordances” of form. ASAP Journal. (Graphic Formalism) Retrieved from https://asapjournal.com/node/graphic-formalism-covid-19-arrows-and-the-dis-affordances-of-form-pansy-duncan/
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2023). "‘Anybody May Look Smart!’: The Smart Aesthetic and Women Film Stars in 1930s Hollywood. Feminist Media Studies. 24(2), 275-291 Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2023.2195591
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2022). The dainty: the aesthetics of female film stardom in the transitional period. Early Popular Visual Culture. 19(4), 324-341 Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17460654.2021.2074945
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2022). Towards a natural history of film form: silver salts and the aesthetics of early studio-era Hollywood cinema. Screen (Oxford). 64(3), 411-426 Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/screen/article/63/4/411/6880136
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2020). Celluloid TM: Cecil M. Hepworth, Trick Film and the Material Pre-History of the Plastic Image. Film History: an international journal. 31(4), 92-111 Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/748823
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2020). 'Journeys of Adventure Among its Far-Flung Debris': Three Theories of the Blockbuster Explosion Spectacle. Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. 59(2), 1-22 Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/746998
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P., & Holm, N. (2018). Cultural Studies, Marxism and the Exile of Aesthetics. Open Cultural Studies. 2(1), 746-757 Retrieved from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/culture-2018-0067/html
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P., Holm, N.
Duncan, PK. (2018). Exploded Views: Early Cinema and the Spectacular Logic of the Explosion. Screen. 59(4), 401-419 Retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/screen/article/59/4/401/5253340
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2018). Lights, camera, lumino-politics: Lighting the searchers, from paraffin to LED. Film-Philosophy. 22(2), 184-202 Retrieved from https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/10.3366/film.2018.0072
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2017). The uses of hate: On hate as a political category. M/C Journal. 20(1)
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2017). I drink liberal tears: Genre, desire and the leaky liberal body. Feminist Media Studies. 17(3), 516-520 Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1304718
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2017). Joke work: Comic labour and the aesthetics of the awkward. Comedy Studies. 8(1), 1-21 Retrieved from http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rcos20
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2017). Once more, with Fredric Jameson. Cultural Critique. 97, 1-23
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2016). Stuck on you. Feminist Formations. 28(2), 112-118 Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/35481
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2015). Bored and Boringer: Avant-garde and trash in Harmony Korine's Gummo. Textual Practice. 29(4), 717-743
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2014). The cinematic life of the implosion. Film Quarterly. 68(2), 37-47
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2014). Cute studies. Cultural Studies Review. 20(1), 327-334
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2014). Taking the smooth with the rough: Texture, emotion and the other postmodernism. PMLA. 129(2), 204-222
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2013). Corey Haim and the 'Homeless Celebrity': Rock Bottom on Rodeo Drive. Celebrity Studies. 4(2), 241-244
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2011). Tears, Melodrama and 'Heterosensibility' in Letter from an Unknown Woman. Screen. 52(2), 173-192
[Journal article]Authored by: Duncan, P.

Book

Duncan, P.(2025). The Natural History of Film Form. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
[Authored Book]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P.J. Lewis (Ed.)JulyJulyOctoberDuncan, P.J. Lewis (Ed.)October
[Reference Book]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Molloy, M., Duncan, P., & Henry, C.(2023). Screening the Posthuman. Oxford: Oxford University Press
[Authored Book]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2022). A Theory of the Medium Shot: Affective Mapping and the Logic of the Encounter in Fredric Jameson’s The Geopolitical Aesthetic. In KB. Wagner, J. Szaniawski, & M. Cramer (Eds.) Fredric Jameson and Film Theory: Space, Representation and Allegory in a Globalizing Age. New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America: Rutgers University Press
[Chapter]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, P. (2020). Fade to Crude: Petro-Horror in The Shining. In J. Szaniawski (Ed.) After Kubrick: A Filmmaker's Legacy. (pp. 179 - 194). London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury Publishing
[Chapter]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2016). Shrubs and the city: Urban plant life in rear window. In P. Viera, M. Gagliano, & J. Ryan (Eds.) The Green Thread: Dialogues with the Vegetal World. (pp. 219 - 232). Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield
[Chapter]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK.(2015). The emotional life of postmodern film: Affect theory's other. : Routledge
[Authored Book]Authored by: Duncan, P.

Creative Work

Duncan, PK. (2014) Regret. [Exhibition] Avidly
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2014) Regret. [Exhibition] Sport
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2010). B-A-C. [online]. Window gallery.
[Exhibition]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2008) Soap. [Exhibition] Prix Choc
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2008) On Canine Humour. [Exhibition] Hue and Cry
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2008) Natural, Disaster. [Exhibition] Hue and Cry
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2007). A Tension Spanned. [Print/online]. Artspace.
[Exhibition]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2007) Love Poem. [Exhibition] Hue and Cry
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2005). The Copy Cats. [print]. Window Gallery.
[Exhibition]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2004). Game, Set and Match. [print]. Gus Fisher Gallery.
[Exhibition]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2004). Mise-en-Abyme. [Print]. Gus Fisher Gallery.
[Exhibition]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2003) The Apartment. [Exhibition] Sport
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2003) Soundings. [Exhibition] Sport
[Artwork]Authored by: Duncan, P.

Thesis

Duncan, PK. (2012). Feeling Postmodern: Emotion in Postmodern Film Aesthetics and Theory. (Doctoral Thesis)
[Doctoral Thesis]Authored by: Duncan, P.

Conference

Henry, C., Molloy, M., & Duncan, P.Contemporary Screen Culture’s Fascination with the Posthuman. . online
[Conference Paper]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Taffel, SA., Holm, N., Duncan, P., Veale, K., Huffer, I., & Randell-Moon, H.(2017, December). Cultures of Capitalism: CSAA 2017. .
[Conference]Authored by: Duncan, P., Holm, N., Huffer, I., Taffel, S., Veale, K.
Duncan, PK. (2017, July). Fractal fallout: The digital effects explosion spectacle. Presented at Film-Philosophy. Lancaster, England.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2017, June). Exploded views: Early cinema and the spectacular logic of the explosion. Presented at Screen Studies Conference 2017. Glasgow, Scotland.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2015, June). Urban Plant Life in Cinematic New York. Presented at Screen Studies 2015: Screening Animals and the Inhuman
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2013, September). Affect Theory’s Face. Presented at On Violence: Rethinking Humanities and Social Sciences Conference. University of Zadar, Croatia.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2012, June). Bored and Boringer: Avant-Garde and Trash in Gummo. Presented at Popular Culture Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference 2012 (POPCAANZ),. Melbourne, Australia.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2010, June). The Spectator Who Knew Too Much: Knowledge and Knowingness in Rushmore. Presented at Visual Literacies. Oxford, UK.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.
Duncan, PK. (2005, November). Old Wounds. Presented at The Bone People After Twenty Years. Victoria University, Wellington.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Duncan, P.

Other

Duncan, PK. (2015). Book Review: Love story. Michel Faber, the book of strange new things (London: Hogarth, 2014).
[Other]Authored by: Duncan, P.

Teaching and Supervision

Summary of Doctoral Supervision

Position Current Completed
Main Supervisor 2 0
Co-supervisor 3 2

Current Doctoral Supervision

Main Supervisor of:

  • Navid Masoudnia - Doctor of Philosophy
    Anthropocene Feminism and the Cinema of James Cameron
  • Shuo Zhang - Doctor of Philosophy
    Make it Real? Digital Technology and Aesthetics in the Transition from Disney 2D-Animated Features to their “Live Action” Remakes

Co-supervisor of:

  • Nipuni Ranaweera - Doctor of Philosophy
    Women, Happiness and the Domestic sphere- Focus on poetry by South Asian (and other) women dealing with Home
  • Zhenxing Jiang - Doctor of Philosophy
    Re-mediated Utopia: Exploring The Dynamics of Chinese Dance Drama and the Audience
  • Nikite Krishnamurthy - Doctor of Philosophy
    The Nation Imagined: A Critical Study of Nationhood and Identity through the Cover Art of Indian Speculative Literature.

Completed Doctoral Supervision

Co-supervisor of:

  • 2023 - April-Rose Geers - Doctor of Philosophy
    Transnational Creative Activism: Writing Activism Poetry in Response to an International Human Rights Crisis
  • 2019 - Bridget Herlihy - Doctor of Philosophy
    Re-Tuning the mind's ear: An anonymous history of acoustic prosthetic technologies for the ear