Professor Kate Taylor-Jones

School of Languages, Arts and Societies

Professor of Global Cinema and Media

Head of Department

k.e.taylor-jones@sheffield.ac.uk

Jessop West

Full contact details

Professor Kate Taylor-Jones
School of Languages, Arts and Societies
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA

Profile

I have quite a varied background with a broad expertise in many forms of visual arts. My first degree was in English Literature at Goldsmith College, University of London and my MA and PhD, both from Exeter University, focused on the theoretical construction of the international film body.

My research is highly interdisciplinary and draws on a variety of fields including film studies, history, gender and sexuality studies, 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 AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, British Academy and the European Research Council.

Qualifications: PhD, University of Exeter, MA European Cinema, University of Exeter; BA (Hons) English and Drama; Goldsmith Colleage, Universirt of London.

Research interests

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 my most recent project, Ninagawa Mika, Miyake Kyoto and Ando Momoko: Shōjo Dreams and Unruly Idols, will be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2026.

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, forthcoming, edited with Lindiwe Dovey and Georgia Thomas-Parr).

I am currently the Principal Investigator on the Leverhulme-funded Women's Screen Work: Creativity, Care, and Gender in East Asian Film (WSW). 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.

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, transnational media, or related areas, I'd be delighted to hear from prospective students—please do get in touch to discuss potential projects

Publications

Books

Taylor-Jones KE (2017) Divine Work: Japanese Colonial Cinema and its legacy. New York: Bloomsbury Press. View this article in WRRO
(2016) International Cinema and the Girl. Palgrave Macmillan US.
Taylor-Jones KE (2013) Rising Sun, Divided Land Japanese and South Korean Filmmakers. Columbia University Press.

Edited books

Hipkins DE & Taylor-Jones KE (Ed.) (2017) Prostitution and Sex Work in Global Cinema: New Takes on Fallen Women. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Handyside F & Taylor-Jones K (Ed.) (2015) International Cinema and the Girl: Local Issues, Transnational Contexts. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal articles

Taylor-Jones K, Heylen A & Vickers E (2024) General editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 10(2), 153-157.
Heylen A, Vickers E & Taylor-Jones K (2024) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 10(1), 3-6.
Taylor-Jones K, Vickers E & Heylen A (2023) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 9(2), 161-164.
Heylen A, Taylor-Jones K & Vickers E (2023) Editorial EAJPC 9.1. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 9(1), 3-8.
Vickers E, Heylen A & Taylor-Jones K (2022) General editorial: EAJPC 8.2. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 8(2), 179-182.
Heylen A, Vickers E & Taylor-Jones K (2022) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 8(1), 3-7.
Dovey L & Taylor-Jones K (2021) The Asian-African film connection: cross-cultural imaginaries, shared sources, parallel histories. Open Screens, 4(1). View this article in WRRO
Vickers E, Heylen A & Taylor-Jones K (2021) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 7(1), 3-6.
Taylor-Jones K, Heylen A & Vickers E (2020) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 7(2), 163-167.
Taylor-Jones K, Heylen A & Vickers E (2020) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 6(2), 153-157.
Heylen A, Vickers E & Taylor-Jones K (2020) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 6(1), 3-7.
Taylor-Jones K, Vickers E & Heylen A (2019) East Asian Journal of Popular Culture. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 5(2), 99-100.
Taylor-Jones K (2019) Japan Now North festival report. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 5(2), 203-206.
Heylen A & Taylor-Jones K (2019) Editorial. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 5(1), 3-5.
Taylor-Jones KE (2019) Time and Place Are Nonsense: The Films of Seijun Suzuki by Tom Vick. The Journal of Japanese Studies, 45(2), 484-487.
Taylor-Jones KE (2018) 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
Taylor-Jones KE (2018) 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
Lee MJ, Massaccesi C & Taylor-Jones K (2017) Reviews. East Asian Journal of Popular Culture, 3(2), 255-268.
Ahluwalia S, Black BJ, Rowbotham S, Nair G, Staunton C, Taylor KE, Taylor B, Wallach JJ & Ward J (2008) Book Reviews. Women's History Review, 17(5), 827-836.
Taylor K (2007) Infection, postcolonialism and somatechnics in Claire Denis's Trouble Every Day (2002). Studies in French Cinema, 7(1), 19-29.

Book chapters

Taylor-Jones K (2023) 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
Coates J, Hsieh H, Lee SA & Taylor-Jones K (2023) 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
Taylor-Jones K (2020) 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).
Taylor-Jones K & Thomas-Parr G (2019) Representing girls in cinema, Routledge Companion to Gender and Japanese Culture (pp. 351-360).
Taylor-Jones K (2018) 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
Taylor-Jones KE (2017) 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
Hipkins DE & Taylor-Jones KE (2017) 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
Taylor-Jones KE (2016) 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
Handyside F & Taylor-Jones K (2016) Introduction, International Cinema and the Girl (pp. 1-18). Palgrave Macmillan US
Taylor-Jones KE (2015) 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
Taylor-Jones KE (2014) 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
Bâ SM & Taylor-Jones KE (2012) Affective passions: The dancing female body and colonial rupture in Zouzou (1934) and Karmen Geï (2001), De Westernizing Film Studies (pp. 53-66).
Taylor-Jones KE (2012) The intra-East cinema: The reframing of an ‘East Asian film sphere’, De Westernizing Film Studies (pp. 127-138).
Taylor KE (2010) Crises, Economy and Landscape: The Modern Film Face of New China, CINEMA AND LANDSCAPE (pp. 219-229).
Taylor-Jones KE (2007) 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

Book reviews

Taylor KE, Taylor B, Wallach JJ & Ward J (2009) Book Reviews. Women's History Review, 18(2), 337-344.

Conference proceedings

Taylor-Jones K () Global Memoryscapes and Nanjing. Contemporary East Asian Cultural Flows Seminar Series. Manchester University, 29 April 2014.

Digital content

Taylor-Jones K & Yan Y (2014) 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

Research group

SEAS Research Cluster

East Asian text and culture

Associated research groups, collaborators and projects

East Asian Journal of Popular Culture - Founding Editor
The Sheffield Institute of International Development (SIID) – Member
Sheffield Centre for Research into Film - Member
Centre for Modern and Contemporary History – Member, Joint Lead on the "Crossing Borders: Transnational history, migration and cultural exchange" theme.
Digital Society Network - Steering Committee Member

Research Supervision

I have previously supervised PhDs in drama, film, translation studies and visual culture. I am currently supervising PhDs on girlhood in Japanese cinema, the philosophy of tea in contemporary Chinese cinema and the kimono in contemporary Japanese visual culture.

I welcome applications to undertake Postgraduate study in any of these areas: East Asian Popular Culture, East Asian Visual Culture, East Asian Media systems, Japanese Cinema, South Korean Cinema, World Cinema, Colonial Cinema, Gender in Visual Culture, Women Directors, Prostitution, Sex Work and Sex Trafficking in Visual Culture.

Teaching interests

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

This year I am organizing and teaching on the following modules:

EAS2011 East Asian Cinema
EAS1000 Exploring East Asia

Professional activities and memberships: 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

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.