Senior Lecturer in Film & Gender Studies
Communications, Media and Culture Communications, Media & Culture | Faculty of Arts and Humanities Room A22, Pathfoot Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA
Dr. Darren Elliott-Smith is Senior Lecturer in Film and Gender at the University of Stirling. He currently teaches across all levels in film, television and gender studies, and is the Programme Director of the MLitt/MSc (Applied) in Gender Studies.
He has a BA (Hons) in Communication Studies (University of Sunderland) and completed an MA in the History of Film and Visual Media at Birkbeck College, University of London. He completed his PhD in 'New Queer Horror in Film and Television' at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2013 (Supervised by Prof. Mandy Merck).
Darren has also previously worked as a Film Curator and Programmer for the BFI (British Film Institute), Mainline Pictures (Screen Cinema chain), The Odyssey Cinema, St Albans, and was the Film Manager for the Film Education Consortium for Hertfordshire (2007-2010). He is currently also known online as the Queer Horror Doctor: https://queerhorrordoc.wixsite.com/queerhorrordoc/
His research to date is centrally focused on representations of queerness, gender, sexuality and psychoanalysis in horror film and television. It does however extend to the role of curation theory in film and visual art programming, the study of cult, trash and experimental film, adaptation from page to screen, film and gender, queer theory, and is also put into practice via several academic videographic film projects and video essays.
His first monograph Queer Horror Film and Television: Masculinity and Sexuality at the Margins is published by IB Tauris (2016). He has published journal articles on his central focus of research for SCOPE: Online Journal of Film and Television and In:Transition (Journal of Videographic Film and Screen Studies) and has contributed extensively to edited book collections for University of Georgia Press, Edinburgh University Press, Palgrave Macmillan (Melodrama in Contemporary Film and Television, Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film), Peter Lang (The Horror Companion), ECW Press (TV Goes to Hell: The Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural) and IB Tauris/Bloomsbury (Screening the Undead, True Blood: Investigating Vampires and the Southern Gothic).
He has contributed to numerous international conferences, workshops and symposia dedicated to horror, cult and LGBTQ film and television.
He is also the co-editor of an edited collection with Dr John Edgar Browning (Georgia Institute of Technology) entitled New Queer Horror Film and Television (University of Wales Press, 2020) and is currently working on future projects involving Horror, Queerness and Mental Health.
Tutor of the Year 2018
University of Hertfordshire
Awarded Tutor of the Year at the University of Hertfordshire's Annual Vice Chancellor's Awards.
PhD External Examining
University of Strathclyde
External Examiner for PhD Thesis, Sam Tabet, (Nov 2023) ‘Beyond the Lesbian Vampire: Representations of the Violent Lesbian in Queer Horror Films 2016-2019’ University of Strathclyde (passed with minor corrections).
External Examiner
Southampton Solent University
External Examiner for Southampton Solent University for their UG Film and Television Production degree pathways.
Peer Reviewing
Peer Reviewing of various book chapters, book proposals and journal articles/videographic essays for: MacFarland Press, Bloomsbury Press, University of Wales Press (Horror Studies strand), GLQ: Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies (Duke University Press), Journal of Gender Studies (Taylor and Francis), Porn Studies (Taylor and Francis), Palgrave Communications (Palgrave MacMillan), Senses of Cinema, CST: Critical Studies in Television, [in]Transition: Journal of Film and Moving Image Studies (Open Library of Humanities).
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Founding Member of BAFTSS Horror Studies (Special Interest Group)
https://www.baftss.org/copy-of-horror-studies
Since the pioneering historical research of scholars such as Peter Hutchings and Mark Jancovich in the 1990s, horror film, television and screen studies in the UK and Ireland has grown and developed rapidly. British and Irish scholars have explored both horror’s history and its contemporary development across a range of old and new media, and are increasingly employing a wide array of theoretical and methodological approaches in order to analyse and research this most enduring and culturally resonant of genres, from gender studies, transnational studies, film and television historiography, video game studies and film philosophy, to audience research, industry studies and practice-based research. The BAFTSS Horror Studies SIG aims to bring together UK and Irish researchers studying horror across this wide range of disciplines and approaches – from established scholars to the increasing number of early career researchers and doctoral students in the field – to exchange diverse ideas, to facilitate collaboration and to form a supportive and creative network.
https://www.baftss.org/copy-of-horror-studies
Video
Elliott-Smith D (2024) ‘Every creak, every groan, every tap in the wall, you'll think of me’: Spinning the Web of Trans*-Horror-Metaphors in Cobweb (2023). Monstrum [Video Essay and accompanying author notes] 12.2024. https://www.monstrum-society.ca/journal--revue.html
Conference Paper (unpublished)
Elliott-Smith D (2024) ‘Keep The Vampires From Your Door’: Collapsing the Borderlands of Queer Love/Horror in All of Us Strangers (Haigh 2024). EUPOP 2024, Tallinn, Estonia, 01.07.2024-04.09.2024.
Conference Paper (unpublished)
Queer Appropriations: The Ethics of Queer Use as Reuse
Elliott-Smith D & Seager R (2024) Queer Appropriations: The Ethics of Queer Use as Reuse. Queer Appropriations, Creative Stirling, University of Stirling, 24.04.2024-24.04.2024.
Book Chapter
"Same Thing Really": Queer Love and Horror as "Gothicky" in Ratched and The Haunting of Bly Manor
Elliott-Smith D (2024) "Same Thing Really": Queer Love and Horror as "Gothicky" in Ratched and The Haunting of Bly Manor. In: Marini AM & Fuchs M (eds.) The Gothic and Twenty-First-Century American Popular Culture. European Perspectives on the United States, 9. Netherlands: Brill Publishing. https://brill.com/display/title/70297?language=en
Other
Elliott-Smith D (2023) Scary Stuff is Academic [Horror Studies, a book series distributed by the University of Chicago Press, presents academic takes on horror’s many facets.]. [https://chicagoreader.com/arts-culture/lit-feature/scary-stuff-is-academic-books-horror/?fbclid=IwAR0CJjQjvTCClqLC5vrqEwnAbSlyUA-DImcL2Spv2voUjJty6SctKTLS3cc]. Chicago, IL: Chicago Reader.com.
Audio
Queer Horror, Marxism and Hollywood
(2023) Queer Horror, Marxism and Hollywood [Arts Express Radio Interview with Dr Darren Elliott-Smith]. [Radio Show/Podcast] 06.09.2023. https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-t57pu-149b833
Keynote
The Struggle is Real: Queer Horror, Pathology and Mental Illness
Elliott-Smith D (2023) The Struggle is Real: Queer Horror, Pathology and Mental Illness. Fear 2000. Fear 2000, Sheffield Hallam, 27.07.2023-29.07.2023.
Book Chapter
Elliott-Smith D (2023) ‘Queer-Wolves and Wolf-Boyz and Were-Bears, Oh My!’: Queering the Wolf in New Queer Horror Film and TV. In: Queer Gothic: An Edinburgh Companion. Edinburgh Companions to the Gothic. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-queer-gothic.html
Presentation / Talk
Introduction to Video Essays Workshop
Elliott-Smith D (2022) Introduction to Video Essays Workshop. 'Watch Me' Women's International Film Festival, 12.11.2022-12.11.2022. https://stirling.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=7ec8ceb6-2e2a-46a5-b724-af4d00baf682
Other
Elliott-Smith D (2022) Spencer, Samuel interview in ‘How Wreck is Breaking New Ground for LGBT Representation in Horror’ BBC Website, 10 October 2022:. Spencer, Samuel interview in ‘How Wreck is Breaking New Ground for LGBT Representation in Horror’ BBC Website, 10 October 2022: [https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/c47aae31-6297-4245-af08-67a0c22d0c03]. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/c47aae31-6297-4245-af08-67a0c22d0c03: BBC Online. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/c47aae31-6297-4245-af08-67a0c22d0c03
Newspaper Article
‘How Wreck is Breaking New Ground for LGBT Representation in Horror’
Elliott-Smith D (2022) ‘How Wreck is Breaking New Ground for LGBT Representation in Horror’. 10.10.2022.
Newspaper Article
Taboos & Transgressions: In Conversation with Darren Elliott-Smith
Lipsett J & Elliott-Smith D (2021) Taboos & Transgressions: In Conversation with Darren Elliott-Smith. Grim Magazine. 04.06.2021, pp. 17-20.
Keynote
Elliott-Smith D (2021) ‘Queer-Wolves and Wolf-Girlz and Were-Bears, Oh My!’: Queering the Wolf in New Queer Horror Film and TV. Politics and Horror, University of Stirling, 07.05.2021-08.05.2021.
Other
‘Unbury Your Gays’: Queer Zombies in Film and TV
Elliott-Smith D (2021) ‘Unbury Your Gays’: Queer Zombies in Film and TV [Public Lecture: Glasgow Film Festival, Industry Talks @ Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow. 2nd March 2020]. Public Lecture: Glasgow Film Festival, Industry Talks @ Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow. 2nd March 2020, Royal Conservatoire, Glasgow, 02.03.2021-02.03.2021.
Edited Book
Elliott-Smith D & Browning JE (eds.) (2020) New Queer Horror Film and TV. Horror Studies. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press. https://www.uwp.co.uk/book/new-queer-horror-film-and-television/
Book Chapter
Castrating the Queer Vampire in Let the Right One In (2008) and Let Me In (2010)
Elliott-Smith D (2020) Castrating the Queer Vampire in Let the Right One In (2008) and Let Me In (2010). In: Elliott-Smith D & Browning JE (eds.) New Queer Horror Film and Television. Horror Studies. Cardiff, Wales: University of Wales Press, pp. 45-64. https://www.gwasgprifysgolcymru.org/book/new-queer-horror-film-and-television/
Review
Elliott-Smith D (2019) The Technicolor Legacy, Color Consciousness and Hammer Horror by Paul Frith University of East Anglia, UK. [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies, 6 (3). http://mediacommons.org/intransition/technicolor-legacy-color-consciousness-and-hammer-horror
Book Chapter
Brad Falchuk's American Horror Story (2011-present) - Queer Horror and Performative Pleasure
Elliott-Smith D (2019) Brad Falchuk's American Horror Story (2011-present) - Queer Horror and Performative Pleasure. In: Bacon S (ed.) Horror: A Companion. Genre Fiction and Film Companions. Oxford: Peter Lang, pp. 35-42. https://doi.org/10.3726/b11662
Keynote
'Unbury Your Gays': Queer Zombies, Assimilation Anxieties and Mental Illness
Elliott-Smith D (2019) 'Unbury Your Gays': Queer Zombies, Assimilation Anxieties and Mental Illness. Queer Fears: A Symposium on Queer Horror Film and TV @ University of Hertfordshire/The Odyssey Cinema, Herts., Hertfordshire, UK, 28.06.2019-28.06.2019.
Book Chapter
Revolting Queers: The Southern Gothic in Queer Horror Film and Television
Elliott-Smith D (2018) Revolting Queers: The Southern Gothic in Queer Horror Film and Television. In: Pugh T (ed.) Queering the South on Screen. The South on Screen Series. Athens, GA, USA: University of Georgia Press. https://ugapress.org/book/9780820356723/queering-the-south-on-screen/
Conference Paper (unpublished)
‘Revolting Queers: Performative Pleasures and Queer Becomings in Southern Queer Horror Film’
Elliott-Smith D (2018) ‘Revolting Queers: Performative Pleasures and Queer Becomings in Southern Queer Horror Film’. Literature/Film Association Annual Conference “Space, Place & Adaptation”, New Orleans, USA., 29.11.2018-01.12.2018. https://cstonline.net/cfp-literature-film-association-annual-conference-space-place-adaptation-nov-29-dec-01-2018-new-orleans-usa-deadline-july-15-2018/
Website Content
'Hollow Halloween Hokum': Are American Horror Story: Apocalypse's (2018) Scares Falling Flat?
Elliott-Smith D (2018) 'Hollow Halloween Hokum': Are American Horror Story: Apocalypse's (2018) Scares Falling Flat?. CST Online [Blog Post] 31.10.2018. https://cstonline.net/hollow-halloween-hokum-are-american-horror-story-apocalypses-fx-2018-self-referential-scares-falling-flat-by-darren-elliott-smith/
Other
Elliott-Smith D (2017) Flow/Job [Audiovisual Essay] [A Video Essay on the Pornographic Facial Portraiture of Joey Stefano]. [in]Transition, 4 (4). http://mediacommons.org/intransition/2018/01/10/flowjob
Review
Elliott-Smith D (2017) The Sexuality of Space: St Mary Magdalen’s Home Movies by William Brown, University of Roehampton, London. Review of: The Sexuality of Space: St Mary Magdalen’s Home Movies by William Brown University of Roehampton, London. [in]Transition: Journal of Videographic Film and Moving Image Studies, 4 (4). http://mediacommons.org/intransition/2018/01/10/sexuality-space-st-mary-magdalen-s-home-movies
Monograph
Queer Horror Film and Television: Masculinity and Sexuality at the Margins
Elliott-Smith D (2016) Queer Horror Film and Television: Masculinity and Sexuality at the Margins. London: I.B. Tauris. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/queer-horror-film-and-television-9781786731371/
Other
Elliott-Smith D (2016) ‘The Golden Age of TV Horror’, Cine Excess X, Birmingham City University November 2016. Panel with Dr Stacey Abbott (Reader in Film and Television Studies) and Dr Lorna Jowett (Reader in Film and TV, University of Northampton). [Roundtable Panel Discussion on TV Horror's Golden Age]. Cine Excess X: Cult Genres, Traditions and Bodies: A Decade of Excess,, Birmingham City University, 10.11.2016-12.11.2016.
Other
BODIES IN TRANSFORMATION: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Representations of Bodies on Screen
Elliott-Smith D (2016) BODIES IN TRANSFORMATION: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Representations of Bodies on Screen. Bodies in Transformation, University of Hertfordshire, 06.05.2016-06.05.2016. https://bodiesintransformation.wordpress.com/programme/
Book Chapter
Elliott-Smith D (2015) 'Come on Boy – Bring it!': Embracing Queer Aesthetics in Marcus Nispel's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003). In: Clayton W (ed.) Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 180-194. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9781137496461
Book Chapter
Elliott-Smith D (2014) 'Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik': Unearthing Gay Male Anxieties in Queer Gothic Soaps Dante’s Cove (2005-2007) and The Lair (2007-2009)’. In: Stewart M (ed.) Melodrama in Contemporary Film and Television. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 96-113. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137319852_6
Book Chapter
Elliott-Smith D (2014) Gay Zombies: Consuming Masculinity and Community in La Bruce's Otto; or Up With Dead People and LA Zombie. In: McGlotten S & Jones S (eds.) Zombies and Sexuality: Essays on Desire and the Living Dead. Contributions to Zombie Studies. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co Press, pp. 140-158. https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/zombies-and-sexuality/
Book Chapter
Elliott-Smith D (2013) ‘Death is the New Pornography!’: Gay Zombies and Hypermasculine Cannibalism in Queer Horror in Screening the Undead: Vampires and Zombies in Film and TV.. In: Screening the Undead: Vampires and Zombies in Film and Television. London, pp. 148-173. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/screening-the-undead-9781848859241/
Book Chapter
Elliott-Smith D (2012) 'Homosexual vampires as metaphors for…homosexual vampires? – True Blood, Homonormativity and Vampiric Assimilation’. In: True Blood: Investigating Vampires and the Southern Gothic. London/NY: IB Tauris/Bloomsbury, pp. 139-154. https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/true-blood-9781848859401/
Book Chapter
"Go be gay for that poor, dead intern": Conversion Fantasies and Gay Anxieties in Supernatural
Elliott-Smith D (2011) "Go be gay for that poor, dead intern": Conversion Fantasies and Gay Anxieties in Supernatural. In: TV Goes to Hell: An Unofficial Road Map of Supernatural, Abbott, Stacey and Lavery, David (Eds). Canada: ECW Press, pp. 105-118. https://ecwpress.com/products/tv-goes-to-hell?_pos=1&_sid=45e317005&_ss=r
Book Chapter
Queering the cult of Carrie: Appropriations of a horror icon in Charles Lum’s Indelible
Elliott-Smith D (2010) Queering the cult of Carrie: Appropriations of a horror icon in Charles Lum’s Indelible. In: Smith IR (ed.) Cultural Borrowings: Appropriation, Reworking, Transformation. e-book: Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies, pp. 138-156. https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/documents/2009/culturalborrowingsebook.pdf
Representations of Gender in Film an TV. Queer and Gender Theory in Film, Horror Film and Television, Psychoanalysis and Feminist Film Theory, Film Appropriation and Adaptation, Film and Melodrama, Cult Film and TV, Film Festivals, Screen Curation and Programming, Experimental Film and the Avant-Garde, Videographic Film Studies and Essay Film Forms.
External Examiner Southampton Solent University
