Dr Jennie Carlsten

Overview

Life Before Ulster

Dr Jennie Carlsten has worked as a lecturer and researcher for the last seven years. Before coming to Ulster, she was employed at the arts organisation Film Hub NI, where she continues to work part-time conducting research into the UK's community cinemas. She taught Film Studies at Queen's University, Belfast, from which she received her PhD ('Stress Fractures: Loss and Emotion in the Recent Irish Cinema').

Jennie was previously employed on the Prisons Memory Archive and the Documentary Film, Public History and Education research projects. Before beginning her academic career, Jennie worked in homeless advocacy, and was a cinema protectionist.

Teaching

Jennie teaches in the areas of Irish and Northern Irish cinema; documentary cinema; photography, and film history. Her teaching emphasises critical theory and the importance of placing images and narratives within their wider social and historical context.

She believes that the ability to view images critically is essential not just to our appreciation of culture, but to our ability to participate as engaged and informed citizens, and in her teaching seeks to help students connect their love of screen media to other disciplines.

Research

Jennie’s primary area of research is screen emotion: how do films and tv express emotion, how do they represent the emotions of historical events, and how do audiences engage emotionally with films and tv?

Her research uses emotion theories (drawing on cognitive, anthropology, psychology and communication studies) in conjunction with formal analysis. She proposes a model of 'emotional reading' that puts viewers' feelings and responses at the heart of screen analysis.

Civic Roles

Jennie sits on the Board of the Irish Screen Studies association. She has organised many academic, audience and industry-facing events including conferences, training sessions and exhibitions.