Scholar - Women Also Know History

Participant Info

Keywords: Hollywood cinema history; American cinema in the 1920s; Clarence Brown; film stardom; animals & film/media representations; amateur filmmaking

About Me: My primary research area is on American cinema during the studio era, with a particular interest in the career of film director Clarence Brown at MGM (National Velvet; The Yearling etc.). My monograph on Brown, Clarence Brown: Hollywood’s Forgotten Master, is published UP of Kentucky. The book has been positively reviewed in The Wall Street Journal and Sight and Sound, among others. I have also participated in two podcasts (on SassMouthDames podcast; and Nitrateville).

Additionally, I have published articles on women comedians (Mary Pickford & Mabel Normand) in early cinema; on American cinema of the 1920s; on amateur filmmaking in Ireland during the 1950s/60s; on race in American cinema; and on stardom in cinema (especially the films of Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford). I also have an emerging research interest in representations of nonhuman animals in film and media.

I have co-edited two collections of essays: one on writer Molly Keane (Four Courts Press), and the other on Amateur Filmmaking (Bloomsbury)

In addition, I have recently completed a documentary on memories of cinema going in rural Cork, Ireland and am currently developing a research project in that area. See moviememories.ie

Recent Publications: Monograph:

Clarence Brown: Hollywood’s Forgotten Master. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 2018

Edited collections:

Rascaroli, Laura, Gwenda Young and Barry Monahan (Ed.). Amateur Filmmaking: The Home Movie, the Archive, the Web. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2014.

Young, Gwenda; Walshe, Eibhear (Ed.). Molly Keane: Essays in Contemporary Criticism. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2006

Film:

(with Dan O’Connell): Movie Memories (for trailer, see moviememories.ie)

Articles: “Family Matters: Tales of Tigers and Tapirs at Dublin Zoo” in The Zoo and Screen Media, ed. Michael Lawrence and Karen Lury (Palgrave, 2016).

‘Glimpses of a Hidden History: Exploring Irish Amateur Collections, 1930–1970’ In: Amateur Filmmaking: The Home Movie, the Archive, the Web. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014

‘1925: Movies and a Year of Change’ In: American Cinema of the 1920s: Themes and Variations (Screen Decades). New Jersey: Rutgers UP, 2009

“Funny Girls: Early American Screen Comediennes and Ethnicity’ In: Screening Irish America. Dublin: Irish Academic press, 2009

Media Coverage: Wall Street Journal (review of Clarence Brown); Sight and Sound (review of Clarence Brown)