Professor Kate Taylor-Jones
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Professor of Global Cinema and Media
Director of Research and Innovation, School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
Full contact details
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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My research is highly interdisciplinary and draws on a variety of fields including film studies, history, gender and sexuality studies, creative industries, media studies, visual culture and critical theory. I have a longstanding record of external engagement, working with film festivals, distributors, schools, and diverse audiences on the topics of East Asian cinema and culture. I have received funding from the Leverhulme Trust, AHRC, and European Research Council. Across several monographs and multiple edited volumes and other publications, my work spans East Asian cinema and visual culture, gender and girlhood, colonial and postcolonial film, and African screen worlds —areas in which I hold an established international profile.
- Qualifications
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PhD, University of Exeter,
MA European Cinema, University of Exeter;
BA (Hons) English and Drama; Goldsmith College, University of London
- Research interests
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I am currently the Principal Investigator on the Leverhulme-funded Women's Screen Work: Creativity, Care, and Gender in East Asian Film (website is https://womenscreenwork.com/)
Working with Dr Wikanda Promkhuntong (Mahidol University, Thailand) and Professor Louisa Wei (City University, Hong Kong), WSW seeks to chart and examine the experiences of women working in the Thai, Japanese, Hong Kong, and Taiwanese screen industries. Exploring the careers of both above-the-line (directors, producers, screenwriters, etc.) and below-the-line (sound, design, hair and make-up, etc.) workers, we explore the contemporary lives and experiences of those working in Asian screen industries and how they navigate both local and global film structures and networks. Our methodology is founded on ideas of care and non-extractive methods and approaches. With a focus on care, we draw attention to the often-unequal structures of power and practices in specific societal and historical spaces within which female film-workers and their labour are embedded. My most recent monograph, Ninagawa Mika, Miyake Kyoto and Ando Momoko: Shōjo Dreams and Unruly Idols(Edinburgh University Press, 2026) and links to my work on women directors in Japan and beyond.I have a longstanding interest in representations of East Asian girlhood in film and media. This has culminated in a series of funded events and publications including International Cinema and the Girl (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, co-edited with Fiona Handyside). I have also worked on questions of representing prostitution and sex work in visual culture. After an international conference held in collaboration with Exeter University, the edited collection Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Cinema: New Takes on Fallen Women (Palgrave Macmillan, co-edited with Danielle Hipkins) was published in 2017. My last monograph, Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and its Legacy, was published by Bloomsbury Press in 2017 and was selected for the Sheffield Authros Showcase.
I was a senior researcher on the African Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies European Research Council-funded research project led by Professor Lindiwe Dovey, which ran from June 2019 to March 2025. Through producing films, edited books, articles, and toolkits, and through curating workshops, conversations, film screenings, and panel discussions, the project explored Africans' contributions to the diverse, complex screen worlds that make up audiovisual cultures today. The project focused on putting African cinemas into conversation with other regional cinemas to theorise global screen worlds in more inclusive, nuanced ways, which has resulted in the open-access Global Screen Worlds: Conversations across Cinema Cultures (Bloomsbury Press, 2026 edited with Lindiwe Dovey and Georgia Thomas-Parr).
I am also working on another project entitled Delta Cinema. This project explores the role of the delta in global cinema. Climate change is reshaping how we understand our world, yet traditional approaches to studying global cinema remain tied to national boundaries, genres, or individual directors, creating a critical gap in how we analyze film's role in processing environmental crisis. My current research proposes Delta Cinema as a framework that examines films through delta environments—the dynamic wetlands where rivers meet seas, lakes, or other water bodies. These are among the most densely populated landscapes on Earth, hosting major film industries from Nollywood in the Niger Delta to Hong Kong cinema in the Pearl River Delta, yet facing unprecedented environmental threats from rising seas, pollution, and extreme weather.
I have supervised a diverse range of doctoral projects exploring East Asian popular culture, including research on K-pop fandom, Japanese music and fashion, shojo culture's transnational appeal, and cinematic representations of urban space and cultural identity in China, Japan, and South Korea. My students have also examined cultural theory, affect, and theatrical traditions, with several securing competitive funding from organizations such as the ESRC and the Great British Sasakawa Foundation. If you're interested in pursuing research in East Asian cultural studies, Visual Culture, transnational media, or related areas, I'd be delighted to hear from prospective students—please do get in touch to discuss potential projects
- Publications
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Books
- Ninagawa Mika, Miyake Kyoko and Ando Momoko Shōjo Dreams and Unruly Idols.
- Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and its legacy. New York: Bloomsbury Press. View this article in WRRO
- Rising Sun, Divided Land Japanese and South Korean Filmmakers. Columbia University Press.
Edited books
- Global Screen Worlds Conversations across Cinema Cultures. London and New York.: Bloomsbury.
- Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Cinema: New Takes on Fallen Women. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
- International Cinema and the Girl. Palgrave Macmillan US.
- International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal articles
- The Asian-African film connection: cross-cultural imaginaries, shared sources, parallel histories. Open Screens, 4(1). View this article in WRRO
- Japan Now North festival report. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 5(2), 203-206.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 5(1), 3-5.
- Time and Place Are Nonsense: The Films of Seijun Suzuki by Tom Vick. The Journal of Japanese Studies, 45(2), 484-487.
- Girlhood, bride-kidnapping and the postsocialist moment in Mángshān (Blind Mountain) (Li, 2007) and Boz Salkyn (Pure Coolness) (Abdyjaparov, 2007). Asian Cinema, 29(2), 225-242. View this article in WRRO
- Shopping, sex, and lies: Mimong/Sweet Dreams (1936) and the disruptive process of colonial girlhood. Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, 10(2), 98-114. View this article in WRRO
- Reviews. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 3(2), 255-268.
- Book Reviews. Women's History Review, 17(5), 827-836.
- Infection, postcolonialism and somatechnics in Claire Denis's
Trouble Every Day
(2002). Studies in French Cinema, 7(1), 19-29.
Book chapters
- Life imitates Art: the intimacy of family in the work of Claire Denis and Yasujiro Ozu In Sloane P (Ed.), ReFocus: the films of Claire Denis (pp. 200-215). Scotland: Edinburgh University Press. View this article in WRRO
- The pan-Asian 'Miss Granny' phenomenon In Diffrient DS & Chan K (Ed.), East Asian Film Remakes (pp. 272-290). Edinburgh University Press View this article in WRRO
- Sex, corruption and killer heels: Footwear in the Korean corporate crime drama, Shoe Reels the History and Philosophy of Footwear in Film (pp. 213-228).
- Representing girls in cinema, Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture (pp. 351-360).
- Rhythm, texture, moods: Ozu Yasujiro, Claire Denis and a vision of a postcolonial aesthetic In Choi J (Ed.), Reorienting Ozu: A master and his influence (pp. 215-232). Oxford University Press View this article in WRRO
- Handbags, sex, and death: Prostitution in contemporary East Asian cinematic urban space In Hipkins D & Taylor-Jones KE (Ed.), Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Cinema: New Takes on Fallen Women (pp. 265-286). New York: Palgrave McMillian. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction In Hipkins DE & Taylor-Jones KE (Ed.), Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Cinema: New Takes on Fallen Women (pp. 1-15). London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. View this article in WRRO
- Empire, Language and Nationhood: Japanese colonial cinema in Korea and Manchuria In Mamula T & Patti L (Ed.), The Multilingual Screen: New Reflections on Cinema and Linguistic Difference New York: Bloomsbury Press. View this article in WRRO
- Introduction, International Cinema and the Girl (pp. 1-18). Palgrave Macmillan US
- Multilingual Screen: New Reflections on Cinema and Linguistic Difference (pp. 1-376).
- Girlhood in a Warzone: African Child Soldiers in Film In Handyside F & Taylor-Jones K (Ed.), International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts (pp. 179-194). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. View this article in WRRO
- Colonial Dreams: Landscape in Imperial Japanese Cinema In Rayner J & Harper G (Ed.), Film Landscapes Cinema, Environment and Visual Culture (pp. 4358-4358). Cambridge Scholars Publishing
- Affective passions: The dancing female body and colonial rupture in Zouzou (1934) and Karmen Geï (2001), De Westernizing Film Studies (pp. 53-66).
- The intra-East cinema: The reframing of an ‘East Asian film sphere’, De Westernizing Film Studies (pp. 127-138).
- Crises, Economy and Landscape: The Modern Film Face of New China, CINEMA AND LANDSCAPE (pp. 219-229).
- Women as duality in post-war Japan In Hipkins D & Plain G (Ed.), War-Torn Tales: Representing Gender and World War II in Literature and Film (pp. 123-143). Peter Lang
- Japan: colonization and settlement Wiley
Book reviews
- Book Reviews. Women's History Review, 18(2), 337-344.
Conference proceedings
- Global Memoryscapes and Nanjing. Contemporary East Asian Cultural Flows Seminar Series. Manchester University, 29 April 2014.
Digital content
- Cultural Translation and East Asia: Film, Literature and Religion. Retrieved from http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/jomecjournal/6-november2014/TaylorJones_Ying.pdf View this article in WRRO
Other
- General editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 10(2), 153-157.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 10(1), 3-6.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 9(2), 161-164.
- Editorial EAJPC 9.1. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 9(1), 3-8.
- General editorial: EAJPC 8.2. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 8(2), 179-182.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 8(1), 3-7.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 7(1), 3-6.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 7(2), 163-167.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 6(2), 153-157.
- Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 6(1), 3-7.
- East Asian Journal of Popular Culture. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 5(2), 99-100.
- Ninagawa Mika, Miyake Kyoko and Ando Momoko Shōjo Dreams and Unruly Idols.
- Research group
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- Neuroscience Institute: Co-lead (with Prof. Nathan Hughes and Prof. Shelia Francis), Neuroscience in Society
- Sheffield Centre for Research into Film - Member
- Center for Korean Studies - Member
Current PhD Supervisions
- Kunhang Lyu – Intersecting Identities: Comparative Representations of Disabled Women in Chinese and American Cinema Ongoing (Sep 2026 –) | First Supervisor
- Protima Chatterjee – Women in Indian Cinema (Funded Leverhulme Project Grant, practice-led) Ongoing (Jan 2025 –) | First Supervisor
- Wang, Ziyi – Gender/Sexual Synchronicity between Contents and Subjects: Chinese Lesbians Subjectivity Emerging from Online Baihe Works Ongoing (Sep 2024 –) | Second Supervisor
- Ziman Li – Transnational Communication in Adversity: K-pop and the Making of a Chinese Youth Culture during the Korean Restriction Order (2016–2022) Ongoing (Sep 2024 –) | Second Supervisor
- Mia Xinrui Liu – Transnational K-pop Fandom in China – Nationalism, Activism and Identities Ongoing (Jan 2021 –) | First Supervisor
Completed PhD Supervisions
- Shiqin Zhang – Ragpicking Through Time: Waste, Gender, and Modernity in China from the Early Twentieth Century to Today Ongoing | Second Supervisor
- Xie Liu – Yijing Film Theory and Affect Theory: Schizoanalysis of Tea in Chinese Cinema Completed 2025 | First Supervisor
- Georgia Thomas Parr – Feminine Phenomenon: The Impact and Appeal of Japanese Shojo Culture on British Female Adolescents (ESRC funded, practice-led) Completed 2020 | First Supervisor
- Carolin Beck – National Identity, Popular Culture and the Role of National Dress in Contemporary Japanese Society (Sasakawa funded) Completed 2021 | First Supervisor
- Gemma Ballard – Space and the South Korean City-scape on Film Completed 2021 | FSecond Supervisor
- Dorothy Finan – Popular Music and the Japanese 'Lost Decades' (Sasakawa funded) Completed 2021 | Second Supervisor
- Teri Howson – Labyrinth Theatre and Welsh Dramatic Traditions (practice-led) Completed 2022 |
- Teaching interests
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I have long believed that the way to succeed in teaching is to ensure that you are enthusiastic about your own subject area. It is only by been inspired yourself can you inspire students in your classroom. My overall teaching experience in Higher Education spans nearly 20 years and during this time I have taught full time at a variety of levels including EFL teacher, teaching fellow, lecturer and senior lecturer.
My aims are to educate others to become motivated and independent learners and therefore to contribute in a much more sustained and positive way to the wider academic community.
My classroom focus is on helping to cultivate students who are global citizens and capable of developing their own learning strategies and approaches to any topic. I am passionate about inclusivity and work to ensure that everyone in my classes can engage equally in the activities and discussions. My modules include a range of teaching methods and formats including lectures, seminars, practical classes, workshops and individual supervision.I am Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
- Teaching activities
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- LAS413: Introduction to Critical Theories and Concepts in the Creative and Cultural Industries
- LAS423: Digital Cultural and Creative Industries
- Professional activities and memberships
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Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Executive Member British Association of Film and Television Studies (BAFTSS) 4-year tenure.
Principal Co-Editor of the East Asian Journal of Popular Culture (2013-2024)
Member QAA Communication, Media, Film and Cultural Studies Benchmark advisory group. Lead for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion sub-group.
Creative Arts Panel Member. The White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities
Teaching Excellent in the Social Sciences: Award for Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching, 2019, University of Sheffield.
University of Sheffield SuperVisionaries: recognition for outstanding PhD supervision.
Monograph Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and its Legacy (2017) Featured Author in Sheffield Authors Showcase.
- Professional Activities and Recognition
- Teaching Excellent in the Social Sciences: Award for Outstanding Practice in Learning and Teaching, 2019, University of Sheffield.
- University of Sheffield SuperVisionaries: recognition for outstanding PhD supervision.
- Monograph Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and its Legacy (2017) Featured Author in Sheffield Authors Showcase.