Professor David Forrest
School of English
Deputy Vice President for Education (Student Experience)
Professor in Film and Television Studies
+44 114 222 8493
Full contact details
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
91Ö±²¥
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I joined the School of English as a Lecturer in 2012, became Senior Lecturer in 2016, and was promoted to Professor in Film and Television Studies in 2021. In 2018 I was made Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching, having previously served in an interim capacity as Assistant Faculty Director of Learning and Teaching and University Director of Learning and Teaching for Student Engagement. In 2023 I became Deputy Vice President for Education (Student Experience) - I maintain teaching, research and impact activities in the School of English alongside this role.
- Research interests
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My research is concerned with questions of realism, class, region, and sport in film, television, and literature, and I am increasingly interested in the relationships between representations of place and landscape and audiences’ and readers’ lived experiences. I am also an active researcher in the areas of higher education pedagogy and student experience, with particular interests in student engagement and engaged learning.
Much of my work has been focused on the novelist and film and television writer Barry Hines, perhaps best known for the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968) and the TV play, Threads (1984). Together with my co-author Professor Sue Vice, I completed a book on Hines that was published by Manchester University Press in 2017. My next book, on , will be published as part of the Bloomsbury/BFI Film Classics series.
My third monograph, New Realisms: Contemporary British Cinema, was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2020, and concluded a decade long exploration of the evolution of contemporary realist cinema in Britain.
Between 2017 and 2021 I was co-investigator on the AHRC project working alongside colleagues from the universities of Glasgow, Liverpool and York. This work developed my interests in audiences and particularly the use of focus groups in film studies research.
I was Principal Investigator on the OFS/Research England-funded project , collaborating with colleagues from Arts and Humanities Knowledge Exchange to better understand ‘what works’ in student knowledge exchange. This two-year project funded 140 students to undertake enhanced work placements with partner organisations in 91Ö±²¥ and beyond, and built upon my long standing interests in engaged learning, employability, inclusive pedagogy, and place-based education.
My other ongoing research projects concern the histories of British realism in film and television, and the role of sports narratives in British culture. I am particularly interested in what happens when former athletes, such as David Storey and Barry Hines, become writers, and what their ‘sports stories’ have to tell us about class, mental health, education, and gender. I am also at work on various additional projects relating to David Storey.
I serve on the editorial board of The Journal of British Cinema and Television and review journal articles for Studies in European Cinema, The Sociological Review, New Cinemas, The Journal of War and Culture Studies, The Creative Industries Journal, and The European Journal of Cultural Studies, amongst others, and co-convene the .
I have also written about football and running for publications including The Guardian and Like the Wind magazine, and I have featured on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Four, amongst others.
- Publications
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Books
- Kes: BFI Film Classics. London: BFI/Bloomsbury.
- Film Audiences Personal Journeys with Film. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- New Realism: Contemporary British Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Barry Hines: Kes, Threads and Beyond. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Social Realism: Art, Nationhood and Politics. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- The Inclusive Learning and Teaching Handbook. The Inclusive Learning and Teaching Project, University of 91Ö±²¥.
Edited books
- . London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- . Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal articles
- . Journal of British Cinema and Television, 21(3), 281-285.
- . Journal of British Cinema and Television, 21(3), 337-355.
- ‘I’m no expert, but…’: everyday textual analysis with film audiences in the English regions. Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies, 19(2), 223-244.
- . Emerald Open Research, 1(1).
- . Landscape Research, 47(7), 862-872.
- . Journal of British Cinema and Television, 18(3), 259-279.
- . Studies in European Cinema.
- . Emerald Open Research, 2.
- . Journal of British Cinema and Television, 17(1), 91-111.
- . Cultural Trends, 28(2-3), 118-131.
- . Journal of Popular Television, 4(2), 199-212.
- . Journal of Popular Television, 4(2), 195-198.
- . Teaching in Higher Education.
- The films of Joanna Hogg: new British realism and class. Studies in European Cinema.
- Our Friends in the North and the Instability of the Historical Drama as Archive. The Journal of British Cinema and Television, 8(2), 218-233.
- . New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 8(1), 31-43.
- Better Things (Duane Hopkins, 2008) and new British realism. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 8(1), 31-43.
- Shane Meadows and the British New Wave: Britain’s Hidden Art Cinema. Studies in European Cinema, Six(2 & 3), 191-201.
- These Sporting Lives: David Storey, Barry Hines, and the case of the author-athlete. Sport in Society.
- Where Place, Lived Experience and Disciplinary Knowledge Converge: engaging students through knowledge exchange. RAISE Student Engagement in Higher Education Journal.
Chapters
- The View From the North: Yorkshire, Black Arsenal and Class Identity In Chijioke Nwonka C & Harle M (Ed.), Black Arsenal: Club, Culture and Identity (pp. 169-174). Hachette UK
- , Audience Data and Research (pp. 38-51). Routledge
- Landscapes of resistance in the english north: The poetics of freedom in Kes (1969) and The Selfish Giant (2013), Scotland and Arbroath 1320 - 2020: 700 Years of Fighting for Freedom, Sovereignty, and Independence (pp. 405-422).
- Kes: from page to screen In Mayne L, Petrie D & Williams M (Ed.), Sixties British Cinema Reconsidered Edinburgh University Press
- Art cinema and the British poetic realist tradition In Newland P & Hoyle B (Ed.), British Art Cinema: Creativity, Experimentation and Innovation Manchester University Press
- (pp. 171-186). Bristol University Press
- , Youth Subcultures in Fiction, Film and Other Media (pp. 91-107). Springer International Publishing
- In Forrest D, Harper G & Rayner J (Ed.), Filmurbia: Screening the Suburbs (pp. 49-63). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- , Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain (pp. 29-43). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- In Mazierska E (Ed.), Heading North: The North of England in Film and Television (pp. 113-132). Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
- , Filmurbia (pp. 1-10). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- , Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain (pp. 1-9). Palgrave Macmillan UK
- Archival Traces of the North in Barry Hines' Looks and Smiles (1981) and Threads (1984) In Dobson J & Rayner J (Ed.), Mapping Cinematic Norths (pp. 17-45). Oxford: Peter Lang.
- A Poetics of the North: Visual and Literary Geographies In Chignell H, Franklin I & Skoog K (Ed.), Regional Aesthetics Mapping UK Media Cultures (pp. 55-70). Palgrave Macmillan
- 21st Century Social Realism: Shane Meadows and New British Realism In Bell M & Fradley M (Ed.) Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Twenty-first-century social realism: Shane meadows and new British realism, Shane Meadows: Critical Essays (pp. 35-49).
- 91Ö±²¥ Film Studies and 91Ö±²¥ Studies Film In Harper G & Rayner J (Ed.), Film Landscapes: Cinema, Environment and Visual Culture Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Threads (1984) and the Gothic In Hubner L & Whittall A (Ed.), Atomic Horror: Fears of Nuclear Power in Gothic Literature, Film and Media Palgrave Macmillan
- Moving beyond ‘That Hill’: Shelagh Delaney, David Storey, and a new class topography of the British New Wave David Forrest and Melanie Williams In O'Neill D & Flint-Nicol K (Ed.), Beyond the Council Estate Cinematic Space(s) of the Working Class
- ‘He’s not what people expect a working-class writer to be’: Class, Region and Realism in the work of David Storey and Lindsay Anderson In Kitchen W (Ed.), ReFocus: The Films of Lindsay Anderson Edinburgh University Press
Book reviews
- . Studies in European Cinema, 19(2), 179-181.
Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
- David Lean. In Directory of World Cinema: Britain. Britstol: Intellect.
Presentations
- Through falling in love it’s like he’s seeing this landscape, seeing that beauty. University of Birmingham.
Other
- English Filming, English Writing by Jefferson Hunter. Journal of Screenwriting, 3(1), 119-121.
- Straight Outta Uttoxeter: Studying Shane Meadows, University of East Anglia, 15-16 April 2010. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 8(2), 137-140.
- Kes: BFI Film Classics. London: BFI/Bloomsbury.
- Research group
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I currently supervise and co-supervise PhD students working on a range of projects, including research on contemporary British realist cinema, cultural representations of the North of England and an archival study of British television drama. Previous student projects have included work on contemporary British realist cinema, the lost works of Barry Hines, and heritage television. I welcome applications from students wishing to work on most areas of British cinema, European cinema, television drama, and on literary, film and television narratives of region, sport and social class.
- Teaching activities
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I convene the following modules: EGH 244: Screening Britain, and EGH 351: Imagining the North.
In 2014 I was awarded a University of 91Ö±²¥ Senate Award for excellence in Learning and Teaching, and in 2016 I was made a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.