Jane Sillars

Programme Director

Biography

Background

Jane has spent her working life researching the moving image for both industry and academia; and teaching and writing about film.

In 2010 she was recruited to University of Edinburgh along with Susan Kemp to design and establish a new Masters programme on Film, Exhibition and Curation. Initially named Film in the Public Space the programme was one of the first university programmes to explore the ciruculation and mediation of the moving image. It offers an integrated approach to theory and applied practice, drawing on Susan's and Jane's working experiences between and across different aspects of producing, programming, studying, researching and teaching moving images.

After graduating in English Literature and Greek from Edinburgh University, Jane began working as a researcher on a series of short 16mm films for Channel 4. For several years Jane worked in the television industry, working for BBC Scotland and a number of independent television companies in Scotland and London. She worked as a researcher on arts programming and on current affairs and documentary production. She acted as development consultant on the BBC series Scottish Writing, and has undertaken industry research into the audio-visual industry, including a project mapping independent production companies in Scotland for PACT. She was commissioned by BBC Scotland to review their drama output. Jane worked as a literary editor with Polygon Books, and co-edited an anthology of new Scottish women’s writing for them.

Jane has a strong interest in festival culture and has covered the Edinburgh Festivals in print journalism and for a number of years for BBC Television, working as a researcher on Edinburgh Nights.

Jane then studied for Masters in Media and Culture at the Baird Centre in the University of Glasgow. She taught and researched there for some years before taking up a lecturing post in the University of Stirling in 1996. Her teaching interests were diverse but include developing specialist modules on gender and representation, cinema in Britain and on Scottish screen cultures; and collaborating on courses on race and ethnicity, documentary, media events, and screen drama. Jane is an experienced supervisor of Masters disserations, having worked as a supervisor on taught Masters programmes on Media Management, Public Relations and Media Research in the past in addition to her supervisory responsibilities on Film, Exhibition and Curation Final Projects.

Jane's primary responsibilities at Edinburgh are as Programme Director on the MSc Film, Exhibition and Curation with Susan Kemp, where she delivers courses on Exhibiting Film and on Mediating Film. Jane has also initiated a postgraduate option on Film and Gender which she currently teaches in collaboration with Leanne Dawson.

 

Responsibilities & affiliations

Jane has served as a committee member of the subject group representing film and media education in Scotland - the Scottish Media and Communications Association. 

 

She has worked as external examiner for  a number of universities, most recently on the MLitt in Film and Television Studies at University of Glasgow.

 

Research summary

  • film in the public space
  • landscape, space and place
  • British cinema
  • representations of Scottishness

Jane has published widely, with specific research interests relating to film in the public space - audio-visual production and public policy and institutions; the poetics and politics of landscape; nation and local identities; the gendering of social and representational spaces; and on European film, identity and postcoloniality.

Her recent publications include commissioned book chapters on film and gendered space; and developing and co-editing a dossier of responses to Michel Haneke’s Caché for the cinema journal Screen.

Jane is an experienced supervisor and welcomes enquiries from prospective postgraduate students relating to her research interests.

Current research interests

film curation and film history remediation gender and the moving image

Past research interests

Selected Publications Jane Sillars (2009) ‘Admitting the Kailyard’ in Scottish Cinema Now, Farley, Murray and Stoneman (eds), Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Sarah Neely and Jane Sillars (2009) ‘New Media / New Media Studies?’ in Media Education Journal, Spring 2009. Jane Sillars and Myra Macdonald (2008) ‘Gender, Spaces, Changes: Emergent Identities in a Scotland in Transition’ in The Media in Scotland, Blain and Hutchison (eds), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Elizabeth Ezra and Jane Sillars (2007) ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’, Screen vol 48 no 2. Elizabeth Ezra and Jane Sillars (eds) (2007) ‘The Cache Dossier’ in Screen (a series of essay responses on the film from Martine Beugnet, Max Silverman, Mark Cousins, Ranjana Khanna and Paul Gilroy initiated, edited and introduced by Ezra and Sillars) Jane Sillars (2004) ‘‘Industry in Focus: Scotland’.’ in The BFI Television Handbook, Alistair McGowan (ed), London: BFI. Martine Beugnet and Jane Sillars (2001) ‘Beau Travail: time, space and myths of identity’ in Studies in French Cinema, vol 1, no 3. Jane Sillars (1999) ‘Drama, Devolution and Dominant Representations’ in The Media in Britain, ed Stokes and Reading, Macmillan: Basingstoke.

In the press

Jane contributes widely to the dissemination of film culture.

She has chaired panels at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and the Glasgow Film Festivals and contributed to panels, Q and As and introductions across a range of film screenings for exhibitors, festivals, voluntary organisations and activist groups. She is a regular contributor to industry and to academic conferences on film. Jane has also been consulted on and contributed to a range of documentaries on cinema which include Antonia Bird: From EastEnders to Hollywood (Susan Kemp, 2016) and Lanterna Magicka: Bill Douglas and the Secret History of Cinema (Sean Martin and Louise Milne, 2009).

  • Jane Sillars (2009) ‘Admitting the Kailyard’ in Scottish Cinema Now, Farley, Murray and Stoneman (eds), Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Sarah Neely and Jane Sillars (2009) ‘New Media / New Media Studies?’ in Media Education Journal, Spring 2009.
  • Jane Sillars and Myra Macdonald (2008) ‘Gender, Spaces, Changes: Emergent Identities in a Scotland in Transition’ in The Media in Scotland, Blain and Hutchison (eds), Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  • Elizabeth Ezra and Jane Sillars (2007) ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’, Screen vol 48 no 2.
  • Elizabeth Ezra and Jane Sillars (eds) (2007) ‘The Caché Dossier’ in Screen (a series of essay responses on the film from Martine Beugnet, Max Silverman, Mark Cousins, Ranjana Khanna and Paul Gilroy initiated, edited and introduced by Ezra and Sillars)
  • Jane Sillars (2004) ‘‘Industry in Focus: Scotland’.’ in The BFI Television Handbook, Alistair McGowan (ed), London: BFI.
  • Martine Beugnet and Jane Sillars (2001) ‘Beau Travail: time, space and myths of identity’ in Studies in French Cinema, vol 1, no 3.
  • Jane Sillars (1999) ‘Drama, Devolution and Dominant Representations’ in The Media in Britain, ed Stokes and Reading, Macmillan: Basingstoke.
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