Dr David Fleming

Senior Lecturer

Communications, Media and Culture University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr David Fleming

Contact details

About me

I joined CMC in December 2017 after serving as Associate Professor of Film Philosophy at the University of Nottingham on their Ningbo China campus. Prior to this, I'd won one of the inaugural scholarships marking the launch of the new Film Studies department at the University of St Andrews in 2006. Teaching and working towards my PhD there felt like quite an accomplishment for a lad who'd gone to what was then referred to as 'the worst school in Scotland.' In a previous strata of life I was an international water polo goalkeeper who played internationally for Scotland and Great Britain, as well as National League clubs in the UK and Australia.

I am the Film and Media BA Programme Director and a Senior Fellow of the HEA (Higher Education Academy). I am currently working on my sixth monograph and a series of films and video essays associated with with 'fractalactic' and 'gonzo' film-philosophy' methods.

I am a co-founding Series Editor of the radical and decolonising Edinburgh University Press book series Screens, Thinking, Worlds, and an Editorial Board member of the leading open access journal Film-Philosophy (Edinburgh University Press). At Stirling I co-ordinate core modules that include Reading Film & Television, and my research-led elective Global Film as/and Philosophy. I also often guest lecture on modules such as Screening Science Fiction, Key Feminist Thinkers, and Small Nations on Screen.

I would welcome MRes and PhD applications that gravitate around Film and Media Philosophy themes; including digital cinema, AI filmmaking, race and film/technology; environmental humanities; global cinemas and thought/ethics/event/time; screen and urban media (including cities and cinematicity); science fiction cinema and (the limits of) thought; non-neurotypical thought and image; cinema and ecology/ecosophy; media and animal studies; screen media and the work of landmark thinkers. I would also consider novel projects engaging with digital cinema, experiential ‘4D’ (phenomenologies), materialist/physical philosophy, the Anthropocene/Chthulucene and beyond.

Qualifications

PhD Film Studies, University of St Andrews: 2005-2009 (Full Scholarship).

MLitt (with Distinction) Visual Culture, University of Aberdeen: 2004-2005 (Full AHRB Scholarship).

Master of Arts (with Honours) English and Film Studies, University of Aberdeen [& University of New Mexico]: 2000–2004.

Teaching Qualifications and Memberships

PGCHE Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, University of Nottingham, UK: 2013-2016.

SFELTE, University of Stirling, Scotland 2019

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2019 - present, previously Fellow since 2016, and Associate Fellow since 2013).

My research and research-led filmmaking interests gravitate around the intersectionalities of global cinema, the philosophy of technology, mediating philosophy, and increasingly critical race theories. Interests which converge in my latest monographs 'Rendering Confucius Cinematically: Chinese Film Philosophy and the Efficacious Screen/Play' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025), 'Infinite Ontologies of the Chthulustream: Posthumanism and Racial Capital in Contemporary Streaming Media' (co-authored by William Brown, Edinburgh University Press, 2025), and 'Global Philosophers on Film: Conceptualising Aesthetics' (EUP forthcoming).

I also increasingly research and teach using the video-essay format and have presented my films at multiple international conferences and screening events to date. My extended video-essay on the Scottish football team Hibernian F.C. 'Hiber-nation: The Green Ray from Under the Skin' is currently available to view via the open access [In]Transition journal, and examples of my 'fractalactic film-philosophy' will be hosted on the the Screenworks platform form on September 2025 (Danse macabre: Of the Dying and Death of Philosophers on Film.'

I am also the author of other monographs including: 'Unbecoming Cinema: Unsettling Encounters with Ethical Event Films' (2017, intellect), the bio philosophical disciplinary bursting 'The Squid Cinema from Hell: Kinoteuthis Infernalis and the emergence of Chthulumedia' (2020, Edinburgh University Press) co-authored with William Brown, and the transmedial and interdisciplinary 'Chinese Urban Shi-nema: Cinematicity, Society and Millennial China' (2020, Palgrave) with Simon Harrison (City University Hong Kong). I have also published widely in interdisciplinary journals including Porn Studies, Film-Philosophy, Journal of Chinese Film Studies, SubStance, Deleuze Studies, SocialSemiotics, Transnational Screens, Journal of Chinese Cinemas, Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Celebrity Studies, International Journal of Performing Arts and Digital Media, Science Fiction Film and Television, Ecological Cognition and Metaphor, The Fibreculture Journal, and edited collections including 'From Deleuze and Guattari to Posthumanism' (Bloomsbury), 'Screening Scarlett Johansson' (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 'Deleuze and Film' (Edinburgh University Press, 2012), and 'Cinemas, Identity and Beyond' (Cambridge Scholars press, 2009).

I am variously involved with groups including Network Precarity, the Posthuman Research Institute, the Multispecies Storytelling Network, and the Cinematic Thinking Network. I am also working on on-going projects exploring the raced and gendered machines informing AI and algorithmic culture in the 'Anthropocene'. I also work on the convergence of cinema and urbanity under the influence of hyper/semio-capitalism in the People's Republic of China with Simon Harrison (City University Hong Kong), and Media Worlds and Pollution with Clifton Evers (University of Newcastle).

You can discover critical reviews of my recent monographs here:

Newman, Geneveive. 2023. ‘The Squid Cinema From Hell.’ Synoptique 10:1, 118-121. https://www.synoptique.ca/_files/ugd/811df8_9ce9e8e8cb3d4580a7300aed7cb801c7.pdf

Jenner, Joseph. 2021. ‘The Squid Cinema From Hell.’ Pulse 8:2, https://www.pulse-journal.org/_files/ugd/b096b2_dab274f4a3374fea88c2402bd0072d3e.pdf

Leyland, Meritt. 2021. ‘The Squid Cinema From Hell.’ Journal of Gods & Monsters 2:1, 61-63 https://godsandmonsters-ojs-txstate.tdl.org/godsandmonsters/index.php/godsandmonsters/issue/view/2/3

Kees, Driessen. 2021. The Squid Cinema From Hell: Cinema as octopus & Octopus as cinema. FilmKrant. N..437. https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&u=https://filmkrant.nl/rubriek/boeken-the-squid-cinema-from-hell/&prev=search&pto=aue

Belevan, Monica. 2020. Covidian Aesthetics. 008 https://covidianaesthetics.substack.com/p/film-andor-tv-yoana-pavlova

Holliday, Christopher & A Sargeant. 2020. Fantasy Animation. No.73 https://www.fantasy-animation.org/all-episodes/episode-73-arrival-denis-villeneuve-2016-with-william-brown

Sticchi, Francesco. 2019. Unbecoming Cinema. Film-Philosophy Journal. 23:1, 105-108. https://www.euppublishing.com/doi/pdfplus/10.3366/film.2019.0103

Consultancy

External Academic Specialist
University of Dundee

External Academic Specialist for University of Dundee, periodic review of UG English/Creative Writing/Film programme (2015-2020).

Education

English and Film Studies (with Honours)
University of Aberdeen

MLitt Visual Culture

Dissertation supervised by Professor Paul Coates

PhD Film Studies (Film-Philosophy)
University of St Andrews

Supervised by David Martin-Jones

PGCHE
University of Nottingham

Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education

Examining

External PhD Examiner
University of Nottingham Ningbo China

Thesis: ‘Queering the Zhiguai Tales: Kinship and eroticism in the non/human realm’ Candidate: Thomas Whyke

External PhD Examiner
Newcastle University

External PhD Examiner: University of Newcastle Candidate: Jennifer Cooke

External Examiners and Validations

External Examiner
King's College London
External Examiner for King’s College London’s Media Communications and Creative Industries BA

Other Academic Activities

SFELTE (Senior Fellowship)
University of Stirling

Senior Fellowship via The Stirling Framework for Evidencing Learning and Teaching Enhancemen

Visiting Scholar

Visiting Scholar in The Department of Theatre & Film, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (December 2025)

Short-Term Residency
University of Lisbon

Residency Location: Colégio Almada Negreiros, NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal. FILM AND DEATH project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant No. 101088956). It sets out mutual expectations and responsibilities to support a productive and respectful collaboration. 2. Duration of Residency The residency will take place from 15 June 2026 to 31 July 2026.

Book Series Editor: Screens, Thinking, Worlds (Edinburgh University Press)
Screens, Thinking, Worlds provides diverse, creative, interdisciplinary, eco-critical and decolonising approaches to global screen media, industries and cultures. The series comprises full monographs, shorter thought-in- process works and edited collections that advance breakthrough concepts or explore paradigm-shifting dimensions.

Film-Philosophy Editorial Board
I sit on the editorial board of the Film-Philosophy journal, an open access peer-reviewed academic journal run out of Edinburgh University Press. Film-Philosophy is a journal covering the technologies/fields/categories related to Visual Arts and Performing Arts (Q1); Philosophy (Q2); Communication (Q3). It is published by Edinburgh University Press. The overall rank of Film-Philosophy is 20817. According to SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), this journal is ranked 0.185. dedicated to the engagement between film studies and philosophy.

University Contribution

●Lead of SGSAH Discipline + Catalyst for Media, Communications, Film & TV

Leading the Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities ‘Discipline + Catalyst' required I serve all doctoral researchers working and training in Scotland. The position involved planning and implementing three annual PGR training events including at the summer school while coordinating other members drawn from sixteen Scottish HEIs, industry partners, and external stakeholders. As a member/chair of the SGSAH PhD scholarship selection panel I was tasked with annually evaluating, ranking and selecting from hundreds of applications for AHRC doctoral funding awards alongside panel representatives from other HEIs.

Outputs (76)

Conference Paper (unpublished)

Chinese Cinemas and Film-Philosophy

Fleming D (2025) Chinese Cinemas and Film-Philosophy. Film-Philosophy, Middlesex University., 04.07.2022-04.07.2022.

Presentation / Talk

Waking/Examined-After/Life

Fleming D (2025) Waking/Examined-After/Life [A Film-Philosophy Video Essay featuring Philosophers on Film]. Film-Philosophy, University of Malta (L'Università ta' Malta), 23.06.2025-25.05.2025. https://journals.ed.ac.uk/f-p-submissions/film-philosophyconference2025

Presentation / Talk

Gonzo Film-Philosophy:

Fleming D (2025) Gonzo Film-Philosophy:. Gonzo Cinema Seminar, University of British Columbia, 05.03.2025.

Exhibition

Film-Philos-Orama: A Head-Trip-Tych

Fleming D Film-Philos-Orama: A Head-Trip-Tych [Exhibition] University of Edinburgh, George Square. 07.02.2025 Available at: https://llc.ed.ac.uk/film-and-intermediality/efs-250207

Exhibition

Fractalactic-Filmosophy

Fleming D Fractalactic-Filmosophy [Exhibition] University of British Columbia, Canada. 06.12.2024 Available at: https://theatrefilm.ubc.ca/events/event/critical-thinkers-series-dr-david-h-fleming/

Exhibition

Hiber-nation: A Weird Screen Tryst

Fleming D (2024) Hiber-nation: A Weird Screen Tryst [Exhibition] Public Relations & Communications RS, University of Stirling, UK.. 08.10.2023-09.10.2023

Book Chapter

Introducing the End

Brown W & Fleming DM (2020) Introducing the End. In: The Squid Cinema From Hell: Kinoteuthis Infernalis and the Emergence of Chthulumedia. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-squid-cinema-from-hell.html

Other

8 new introductions to The Squid Cinema from Hell (extended post)

Fleming D & William B (2020) 8 new introductions to The Squid Cinema from Hell (extended post). 8 new introductions to The Squid Cinema from Hell (extended post) Edinburgh University Press. https://euppublishingblog.com/2020/08/13/8-new-introductions-to-the-squid-cinema-from-hell-extended-post/

Book Chapter

Introduction

Fleming D & Harrison S Introduction. In: Chinese Urban Shi-nema: Cinematicity, Society and Millennial China. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Book Chapter

Niccolò Bruna's ethical process as social engagement: upholding human stories against a backdrop of globalization

Fleming D & Gilardi F (2020) Niccolò Bruna's ethical process as social engagement: upholding human stories against a backdrop of globalization. In: Cristiano A & Coen C (eds.) Experimental and Independent Italian Cinema: Legacies and Transformations into the Twenty-First Century. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 1-280. https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-experimental-and-independent-italian-cinema-hb.html

Book Chapter

"What we do defines us": ScarJo as War Machine

Brown W & Fleming D (2019) "What we do defines us": ScarJo as War Machine. In: Loreck J, Monaghan W & Stevens K (eds.) Screening Scarlett Johansson: Gender, Genre, Stardom. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 183-202. https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030331955

Book Chapter

Becoming-Squid, Becoming-Insect and the Refrain of/from Becoming-Imperceptible in contemporary science fiction: Or ScarJo the sexed 'post human' starlet, and her all too human male counterparts

Fleming D (2018) Becoming-Squid, Becoming-Insect and the Refrain of/from Becoming-Imperceptible in contemporary science fiction: Or ScarJo the sexed 'post human' starlet, and her all too human male counterparts. In: Daigle C & McDonald T (eds.) Posthumanisms Through Deleuze. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Book Review

Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory

Fleming D (2017) Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory. Review of: 'Cinema Approaching Reality: Locating Chinese Film Theory', Fan, Victor, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press 2015, pp.296 ISBN 9780816693573. Film-Philosophy, 21 (1), pp. 146-151. http://www.euppublishing.com/doi/abs/10.3366/film.2017.0038; https://doi.org/10.3366/film.2017.0038

Book Review

The Grace of Destruction: A Vital Ethology of Extreme Cinemas

Fleming D (2017) The Grace of Destruction: A Vital Ethology of Extreme Cinemas. Review of:
by Elena Del Río, London: Bloomsbury, 2016, 267 pp. ISBN 9781501303029. Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, 21 (1). http://www.c-scp.org/2017/07/16/elena-del-rio-the-grace-of-destruction.html

Website Content

Are the Chinese "Losing Their Gestures?"

Fleming D & Harrison S (2016) Are the Chinese "Losing Their Gestures?". Blog posts from Contemporary Chinese Studies at University of Nottingham Ningbo China, 09.12.2016. https://blogs.nottingham.ac.uk/chinesestudies/2016/12/09/chinese-losing-gestures/

Book Review

Flusser, Vilém. On Doubt

Fleming D (2015) Flusser, Vilém. On Doubt. Review of: FLUSSER, VILÉM.On Doubt. Ed. Siegfried Zielinski. Trans. Rodrigo Maltez Novaes. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press (Flusser Archive Collection), 2014. 105 pp. ISBN 978–1–937561–24–6. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 51 (4), pp. 499-499. https://academic-oup-com.ezproxy.stir.ac.uk/fmls/article/51/4/499/2367564; https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqv064

Book Review

Murray, Ros. Antonin Artaud. The Scum of the Soul

Fleming D (2015) Murray, Ros. Antonin Artaud. The Scum of the Soul. Review of: Murray, Ros. Antonin Artaud: The Scum of the Soul. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. 190 pp. ISBN 9781137310576. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 51 (4), pp. 503-503. https://academic-oup-com.ezproxy.stir.ac.uk/fmls/article/51/4/503/2367578; https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqv074

Book Review

Badiou's Cinema and Badiou and Cinema

Fleming D (2013) Badiou's Cinema and Badiou and Cinema. Review of: Cinema, Alain Badiou, Cambridge: Polity Press, 2013, pp. 320, ISBN 9780745670027 Badiou and Cinema, Alex Ling, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2010, pp. 224, ISBN 9780748644483. Film-Philosophy, 17 (1), pp. 467-479. http://www.film-philosophy.com/index.php/f-p/article/view/917/886

Book Review

Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema, and the Enigmatic Signifier

Fleming D (2012) Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema, and the Enigmatic Signifier. Review of: Lost in Translation: Orientalism, Cinema and the Enigmatic Signifier, Homay King, Durham: Duke University Press 2010, pp. 205, ISBN 9780822392927. Film-Philosophy, 16 (1), pp. 251-255. http://www.film-philosophy.com/index.php/f-p/article/view/887/839

Conference Paper (published)

The Bicycle Thieves of Rome and Beijing: Deleuze and (Si)neo-Realist Time-images?

Fleming D (2012) The Bicycle Thieves of Rome and Beijing: Deleuze and (Si)neo-Realist Time-images?. In: Jihai G & Patton P (eds.) Deleuze in China: Proceedings of the 2012 Kaifeng International Deleuze Conference. Kaifeng International Deleuze Conference, Henan University. Henan: Henan University Press, pp. 136-149.

Book Review

Elena del Rio, Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance: Powers of Affection

Fleming D (2010) Elena del Rio, Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance: Powers of Affection. Review of: Deleuze and the Cinemas of Performance: Powers of Affection, Elena del Rio, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008, vi + 240 pp. ISBN 978–0–7486–3525–2. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 46 (1), pp. 111-112. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqp147

Edited Book

Cinema, Identities and Beyond

Cheung R & Fleming D (eds.) (2009) Cinema, Identities and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. http://www.cambridgescholars.com/download/sample/58208

Book Review

Review: Patricia Pisters (2003) The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory

Fleming D (2009) Review: Patricia Pisters (2003) The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory. Review of: The Matrix of Visual Culture: Working with Deleuze in Film Theory, Patricia Pisters, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003, 303 pp. ISBN 0 8047 4028 3.. Film-Philosophy, 13 (1), pp. 145-155. http://www.film-philosophy.com/index.php/f-p/issue/view/9

Book Review

Powell & Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces

Fleming D (2007) Powell & Pressburger: A Cinema of Magic Spaces. Review of:
Andrew Moore, London, I.B Tauris & Co Ltd, 2005, 272pp. ISBN 978-1780763774. Journal of Popular Film and Television, 34 (4), pp. 189-190. https://doi.org/10.3200/JPFT.34.4.188-191

Book Review

Filmosophy

Fleming D (2007) Filmosophy. Review of:
Daniel Frampton, London: Wallflower Press, 2006. 254 pp. ISBN 1–904–76485–1/76484–3. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 43 (4), pp. 473-473. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cqm083

Book Review

Shohini Chaudhuri, Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia

Fleming D (2007) Shohini Chaudhuri, Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia. Review of: Contemporary World Cinema: Europe, the Middle East, East Asia and South Asia, Shohini Chaudhuri, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005. vii + 199 pp. ISBN 0–748–61798–1/61799–X. Forum for Modern Language Studies, 43 (1), pp. 95-95. https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cql126

Teaching

I am a Senior Fellow of the HEA, the Film and Media BA Programme Director, and the Division's Advisor of Studies

My teaching practice and philosophy acknowledge and cater to different styles and types of learner. Over and above earning grants, awards, and peer reviewed publications for my inclusive teaching work, I have been commended more recently by Stirling's External Examiners for broadening the range of assessment methods encountered across the Film & Media programme. I advocate strongly for the video-essay and videographic coursework across the Faculty.

I currently co-ordinate BA modules that include ‘Reading Film & Television,’ ‘Global Film and/as Philosophy’ and ‘East and Southeast Asian Cinemas.’ I also deliver guest lectures on various modules including 'Screening Science Fiction,' 'Cinemas of Small Nations' and 'Key Feminist Thinkers.'

With both my Programme Director and module coordinator hats on I advocate broadening and decolonising our curriculum and critically querying the foundations of Eurocentric concepts and perspectives. In my role as lead of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Discipline + Catalyst I promoted these ideals across the sector. In November 2020, for example, I hosted the Doctoral Training workshop on decolonising research and the curriculum entitled 'Towards a Holistic Humanities: Sense and Sensibilities of Dewesternisation.'

Research themes