An aerial view of Singleton Campus and the bay opposite

Dr Joanna Rydzewska

Senior Lecturer in Film Studies

Media

+44 (0) 1792 602635

j.rydzewska@swansea.ac.uk

Office - 124
First Floor
Digital Technium
Singleton Campus

Available For Postgraduate Supervision

Research Links

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9011-6378

ResearchGate

Google Scholar

Scopus

About

Joanna is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies in the Department of Media and Communication and serves as its Postgraduate Research Lead.

Joanna was an undergraduate and postgraduate student at Lodz University, Poland, where she completed a BA in English Literature and an MA in American Studies. Previously Joanna was Lecturer at Lodz University at the Department of Media and Communication and had close links with the Lodz Film School. Prior to Swansea University, Joanna was a Fulbright Fellow at the Department of Rhetoric and Film, University of California, Berkeley.

Areas Of Expertise

Film Studies
Television Studies
Transnational cinema
Migration on screen
Identity on screen
European art cinema
Eastern European cinema

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

Joanna teaches in the areas of film and television studies. Her specialist teaching focuses on European Cinema, Eastern European cinema, transnational and migration cinema, issues of identity on screen, and authorship theory.

Research Award Highlights

Publications

Research Highlights

Rydzewska, J. (2024). The Films of Paweł Pawlikowski Edinburgh University Press.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa31081
Rydzewska, J. (2023). Polish Culture? World on Fire, Transnational Coproduction and the Inscription of Cultural Specificity. In Dunleavy, Trisha and Elke Weissmann (Ed.), TV Drama in the Multiplatform Era: Transnational Coproduction and Cultural Specificity Palgrave Macmillan
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63195
Rydzewska, J. (2021). Neoliberal Authorship: Auteur Theory and European Art Cinema in 2021 — the Example of Paweł Pawlikowski. The Routledge Companion to European Cinema Routledge
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56770
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003027447-44/neoliberal-authorship-joanna-rydzewska
Rydzewska, J. & Ostrowska, E. (2018). Developments in Eastern European Cinema since 1989 (Chapter 13). The Routledge Companion to World Cinema (pp. 167-180). Routledge
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa29914
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315688251-14/developments-eastern-european-cinemas-since-1989-el%C5%BCbieta-ostrowska-joanna-rydzewska
Rydzewska, J. (2017). Transnarodowosc, postsekularyzm i tajemnica winy w Idzie Pawla Pawlikowskiego/Transnationalism, Postsecularism and the Enigma of Guilt in Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida (2013). In Sebastian Jagielski , Magdalena Podsiadło (Ed.), Kino polskie jako kino transnarodowe (pp. 23-40). Krakow: Universitas
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa29913

All Research

Journal Articles

Rydzewska, J. (2013). Masculinity, Nostalgia and Polishness in Somers Town. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 10(4), 890-908.
https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2013.0186, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12159
Rydzewska, J. (2012). Ambiguity and Change: Post-2004 Polish Migration to the UK in Contemporary British Cinema. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 20(2), 215-227.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14782804.2012.685392, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12158
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14782804.2012.685392
Rydzewska, J. (2012). ”Wielka Brytania, wielkie nadzieje”: wizerunek polskiej migracji w Londyńczykach. Images(19-20), 200-211.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa31513
Rydzewska, J. (2011). Europe is Ageing: The Oedipal Trajectory and its Social Implications in Alumbramiento. Short Film Studies, 1(2), 195-198.
https://doi.org/10.1386/sfs.1.2.195_1, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12140
Rydzewska, J. (2011). ‘Great Britain, Great Expectations’: The Representation of Polish Migration to Great Britain in Londyńczycy/Londoners. Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 6(2), 127-140.
https://doi.org/10.7227/CST.6.2.13, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11160
http://manchester.metapress.com/content/h65j6w2111143638/fulltext.pdf
Rydzewska, J. (2011). Transnational Subjectivity: Trauma and Displacement in Roman Polański'sRepulsion. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 8(3), 337-356.
https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2011.0043, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11410
Rydzewska, J. (2009). Beyond the Nation State: ‘'New Europe' and Discourses of British Identity in Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Last Resort' (2000). Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 17(1), 91-107.
https://doi.org/10.1080/14782800902844743, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11411
Rydzewska, J. (2009). Imagining Englishness: Mapping Identity in My Summer of Love (2004) by Pawel Pawlikowski. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, 7(2), 119-136.
https://doi.org/10.1386/ncin.7.2.119/1, SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa11412
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/nc/2009/00000007/00000002/art00002
Ostrowska, E. & Rydzewska, J. (2007). Gendered Discourses of Nation(hood) and the West in Polish Cinema. Studies in European Cinema, 4(3), 187-198.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17493
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/sec/2007/00000004/00000003/art00004
Rydzewska, J. (2004). The Patriarchal Unconscious: The Difficulty of Oedipal Trajectory in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo. International Studies. Interdiciplinary Political and Cultural Journal, 7(2), 69-86.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17496
Rydzewska, J. (2004). Folklor albo cień oficjalnej cywilizacji (Folklore or the Shadow of Official Civilization). Kultura Popularna, 3(9), 111-123.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63863

Authored Books

Rydzewska, J. (2024). The Films of Paweł Pawlikowski Edinburgh University Press.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa31081

Book Chapters

Rydzewska, J. (2023). Polish Culture? World on Fire, Transnational Coproduction and the Inscription of Cultural Specificity. In Dunleavy, Trisha and Elke Weissmann (Ed.), TV Drama in the Multiplatform Era: Transnational Coproduction and Cultural Specificity Palgrave Macmillan
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63195
Rydzewska, J. (2021). Neoliberal Authorship: Auteur Theory and European Art Cinema in 2021 — the Example of Paweł Pawlikowski. The Routledge Companion to European Cinema Routledge
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa56770
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003027447-44/neoliberal-authorship-joanna-rydzewska
Rydzewska, J. & Ostrowska, E. (2018). Developments in Eastern European Cinema since 1989 (Chapter 13). The Routledge Companion to World Cinema (pp. 167-180). Routledge
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa29914
https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315688251-14/developments-eastern-european-cinemas-since-1989-el%C5%BCbieta-ostrowska-joanna-rydzewska
Rydzewska, J. (2017). Transnarodowosc, postsekularyzm i tajemnica winy w Idzie Pawla Pawlikowskiego/Transnationalism, Postsecularism and the Enigma of Guilt in Pawel Pawlikowski's Ida (2013). In Sebastian Jagielski , Magdalena Podsiadło (Ed.), Kino polskie jako kino transnarodowe (pp. 23-40). Krakow: Universitas
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa29913
Rydzewska, J. (2011). Krzysztof Kieslowski TV series Decalogue. The Directory of World Cinema: Eastern European Cinema
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12142
Rydzewska, J. (2011). Krzysztof Kieslowski's Blind Chance (1981). The Directory of World Cinema: Eastern European Cinema
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12143
Rydzewska, J. (2011). Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac (1966). The Directory of World Cinema: Eastern European Cinema
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12144
Rydzewska, J. (2011). Zbigniew Cybulski. The Directory of World Cinema: Eastern European Cinema
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12145
Rydzewska, J. (2009). Re-Visioning Feminism: Progressive Text, Genre and Female Experience in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. Teaching Visual Culture in an Interdisciplinary Classroom -54). Utrecht: ATHENA
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12141
Rydzewska, J. (2006). Poland: Gender Relations in the 'New Europe'. Men and Masculinities in Europe (pp. 189-211). Whiting and Birch
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17494
Rydzewska, J. (2004). Erin Brockovich and Female Subjectivity. Representing Gender in Cultures (pp. 215-228). Peter Lang
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17495

Edited Books

Rydzewska, J., Pringle, K., Hearn, J., Ferguson, H., Kambourov, D., Kolga, V., Lattu, E., Müller, U., Nordberg, M., Novikova, I., Oleksy, E., Smídová, I., Tallberg, T., & Niemi, H. (Eds.). (2006). Men and Masculinities in Europe. Whiting & Birch.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63860
Oleksy, E. & Rydzewska, J. (Eds.). (2004). Representing Gender in Cultures. Peter Lang.
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa17603

Other Research Outputs

Rydzewska, J. (2015). Representing Neighbours in Eastern European Cinema/Postcolonial Approaches to Eastern European Cinema: Portraying Neighbours On-Screen, edited by Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen and Eva Näripea,
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63861
Rydzewska, J. (2014). Anna, Ida et Wanda en Pologne (Ida de Pawel Pawlikowski) (Review of Ida (2013) by Pawel Pawlikowski)
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa18083
http://www.contreligne.eu/2014/06/anna-ida-et-wanda-en-pologne-ida-de-pawel-pawlikowski/
Rydzewska, J. (2009). Crossing Cultures
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63862
Rydzewska, J. (2004). The Women's Study Centre at the University of Lodz
SU Repository: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa63864

Supervision

From Pinup to Warrior: The Evolution of Female Characterisation in Mainstream American Episodic Animation, 2000 - 2022. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Elain Price
A screenplay exploring masculine identity in contemporary Wales and a supporting exegesis which will investigate the ways in which the cinema of Wales constructs culturally and nationally specific forms of masculine identity. (current)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Elain Price

Other supervisor: Dr Elain Price

Other supervisor: Prof David Britton
Migrants in Cyberspace: Exploring the Role of Online Media in Migration Networks The Case of Poles in the UK (awarded 2023)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Leighton Evans
Becoming Woman in Vargas Llosa's Fiction: Blazing a Trail from La ciudad y los perros to Tiempos recios (awarded 2023)

PhD

Other supervisor: Dr Lloyd Davies
The Forging of a Brand Presidency: An Analysis of Oratories by Donald Trump that Disrupted the Picture of Politics (awarded 2024)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Sian Rees
An Exploration of The Use of Social Media (Websites/ Twitter) As A Public Relations Communication Technique by Saudi Charities for Relationship Building (awarded 2023)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Sian Rees
The Use Of Strategic Public Relations Communication Techniques In Campaigns To Rais Awareness Of Breast Cancer: A Case Study Of Breast Cancer Campaigns In Saudi Arabian Charities (awarded 2023)

PhD

Other supervisor: Prof Sian Rees
Non-binary aliens or blue sex dolls? Queer identities in mainsteam video games (current)

MA

Other supervisor: Dr Leighton Evans
How women in subcultures are represented in British film between 1965-1985 (awarded 2024)

MA

Other supervisor: Dr Lisa Smithstead

Taught Modules

MS-103 Introduction to Film Studies

Introduction to Film Studies provides students with the critical awareness and theories that will equip them to analyse films and film movements from a wide variety of angles. Students will examine key, representative films from several angles and learn to present their own analyses and findings in cogent, eloquent manner in seminars and in written work.
MS-M10 Dissertation or Project

An innovative practice-based alternative to a Masters dissertation. Students are encouraged to develop projects across more than one area of media practice and to do so with dual supervision that embraces both theory and practice. Work produced should be at a professional level, accompanied by a reflective essay and presentation exploring the contextual, theoretical and practical issues raised by the project.
MSS217 Approaches to Film Analysis

This module assesses how various kind of screens function as media of representation, expression, communication and, increasingly of interactive contact. The general organising principle of this module is the use and abuse of different screens, with particular emphasis on cinematic screen. The module runs a blackboard where you can find all the relevant information, some reading and additional materials. We shall consider the general question of what is the relationship between the screen and the spectators, that is what does the screen `say¿ to the spectator, and what the spectator `read¿ from the screen. The module first analyses the notion of Ideology, ideas and hegemony within popular films to understand the film text, not as mere entertainment, but as the site where images are conveyed, and naturalized, to be ideological assumption of the world. Furthermore, the aim is to strengthen the affiliation between `us¿ and what we watch, considering the articulated relationship in the production of, seeing, hearing and sensually experiencing of the screen medium. The course will explore areas such as: ideological assumption of gender and sexuality, race, audience, sensation and new media, as ways of elaborating on the relationship between screens and spectator. A series of contemporary case studies will be used for close textual analysis and theoretical elaboration and testing across film, television and new media.
MSS311 Contemporary Film and Television

Contemporary Film and Television provides a contextual, theoretical, geo-political and socio-historical analysis of film and television since 1995. The module examines prevailing trends, emerging film-makers, new technologies, dominant themes, key figures and stars against a background of the evolution of the EU and its relationship with member countries and those beyond its borders. The module incorporates contextual analysis of the film industry that includes analyses of festivals, marketing, distribution and reception. This module is structured to apportion sufficient emphasis on the various strands of film theory and criticism, with special emphasis on concepts of European cinema and representative works and figures but also extends it to World Cinema. Subjects studied will include such themes as displacement, migration, globalization as well as an emphasis on film form that includes analysis of fractal narratives, aesthetics, subversion of genre and technological innovation. The module assumes that students will be prepared to watch a substantial number of films.

Invited Lectures and Appearances

Invited to the Roundtable ‘Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War: “Set in Poland, that is to say Nowwhere?”’ at the 51^st Annual Association for Slavic, East European and Euroasian Studies (ASEEES), San Francisco, Nov 2019.
Invited Panel Presentation Art and the Musical in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War (2018), 51^st Annual Association for Slavic, East European and Euroasian Studies (ASEEES), San Francisco, Nov 2019.
Invited presentation ‘A Nation of Twenty Million Heroes’: The Representation of Poles as Valiant Warriors of World War II in British Cinema, Symposium: Poles in Britain: History, Culture and Literature, Portsmouth University, July 2019.
Invited talk ‘Strategies for Successful PhD Supervision and Viva Preparation’, Beijing Union University, June 2019.
Invited talk ‘The Consequences of Love: Art, Emigration and the Musical in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War (2018)’, Southampton University, March 2019.
Invited to Workshop on Contemporary Poland, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, UCL. Presentation: ‘Did You Know that Ernst Stavro Blofeld was Polish?: On the Persistence of Eastern European Stereotypes; Or, What James Bond Has got to Do With It?’, May 2018.
2017 – Conducted exclusive interview with an Oscar-winning director Pawel Pawlikowski.
2017 – I have been invited for an exclusive preview screening of Pawel Pawlikowski’s new film, Cold War, at British Film Institute (BFI) and a discussion with the producer, Tanya Seghatchian, OCTOBER 2017.
Invited to a round table at the VI World Congress of Polonists, “Polish Film, Theatre and Performance in Transnational and International Perspective’, with Allen Kuharski, Swarthmore College, Krytyna Illakowicz, Yale University and Barbara Kita, Silesia University, University of Silesia, Katowice, June 2016.
Invited to a panel ‘Film, Religion, Identity: The Cinema of (and in) Poland’ with Mikołaj Kunicki, Oxford University and Matilda Mróz, Sussex University at the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies Conference (BASEES), Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. Presentation: ‘History, Memory, Ethics: Collective Responsibility and Guilt in Pawlikowski’s Ida’, April 2016.
Keynote Lecture ‘Sculpting Stories: The Cinema of Pawel Pawlikowski’, Wydział Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej, Jagiellonian University, Poland, November 2015.
In conversation with author Helen Cross on the film adaptation of her book My Summer of Love by Pawel Pawlikowski and film producer Roger Shannon, Birmingham University, B-Film: Birmingham Centre for Film Studies, December 2015.
‘Introduction to Film Analysis’, University of Deusto, Spain, April 2013.
‘Ambiguity and Change: Transnational Encounters with Polishness in Contemporary British Cinema’, [Trans]National Subjects: Framing Post-1989 Migration on the European Screen, Katholike Universiteit Leuven, December 2011.

Centre for Wolrd CInemas and Digital Cultures, Presentation: ‘Between Eastern Europe, Art House and Hollywood: The Transnational Journey of Roman Polanski’, Leeds University, 2009.

'Beyond the Nation State: British Identity in European Cinema, Salford University, NEESUK, March 2009.
‘Imagining Britishness: The Cinema of Pawel Pawlikowski,’ University of Central Lancashire, February 2008

Dr Joanna Rydzewska

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Research Links

About

Areas Of Expertise

Career Highlights

Research Highlights

All Research

From Pinup to Warrior: The Evolution of Female Characterisation in Mainstream American Episodic Animation, 2000 - 2022. (current)

A screenplay exploring masculine identity in contemporary Wales and a supporting exegesis which will investigate the ways in which the cinema of Wales constructs culturally and nationally specific forms of masculine identity. (current)

Migrants in Cyberspace: Exploring the Role of Online Media in Migration Networks The Case of Poles in the UK (awarded 2023)

Becoming Woman in Vargas Llosa's Fiction: Blazing a Trail from La ciudad y los perros to Tiempos recios (awarded 2023)

The Forging of a Brand Presidency: An Analysis of Oratories by Donald Trump that Disrupted the Picture of Politics (awarded 2024)

An Exploration of The Use of Social Media (Websites/ Twitter) As A Public Relations Communication Technique by Saudi Charities for Relationship Building (awarded 2023)

The Use Of Strategic Public Relations Communication Techniques In Campaigns To Rais Awareness Of Breast Cancer: A Case Study Of Breast Cancer Campaigns In Saudi Arabian Charities (awarded 2023)

Non-binary aliens or blue sex dolls? Queer identities in mainsteam video games (current)

How women in subcultures are represented in British film between 1965-1985 (awarded 2024)

MS-103 Introduction to Film Studies

MS-M10 Dissertation or Project

MSS217 Approaches to Film Analysis

MSS311 Contemporary Film and Television