Mark Done

School of English

PhD Student

Profile

The title of my thesis is 'Living Beyond the Frontier: Landscape in the Neo-Western'.

My thesis explores films set in the contemporary American West that foreground communities who have been marginalised by neoliberal policies and frequently regarded as ‘other’ within the Western genre. Following critical approaches from film geography, film philosophy and genre studies, the project explores cinematic landscapes in the Neo-Western and shows how those landscapes shape and are shaped by the people who live within them. I am interested in films by directors/writers including Kelly Reichardt, Chloé Zhao and Taylor Sheridan.

Qualifications: MA in English Literature, University of Sheffield, 2021
MA in Creative Writing, Nottingham Trent University, 2015
PGCE in English/ Drama, University of Sheffield, 1989
BA Hons in English Literature, University of Sheffield, 1986

Research group

Supervisors:

Professor Jonathan Rayner

Professor of Film Studies
School of English

Connections between cinema and landscape and the representation of navies, naval combat and naval history on film.Australasian cinema, genre films and auteur studies.

Email: j.r.rayner@sheffield.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 114 222 8457

Dr Jonathan Ellis

Reader in American Literature
School of English

Twentieth-century American and British poetry, letter writing, and contemporary cinema.

Email: j.s.ellis@sheffield.ac.uk
Telephone: +44 114 222 8465

Professional activities and memberships

Sheffield Centre for Research in Film

Conferences

''These people are part of the landscape": Re-imagining the frontier landscape in The Rider' at Chloé Zhao's Transnational Cinema: Nomads, Cowboys, Superheroes at the University of Portsmouth, November 2025.