Katie Docwra

Current research

I am currently researching the 'lost' work of the prolific yet widely unacknowledged French female director and novelist, Paule Delsol. If the French New Wave, or Nouvelle Vague, still remains as one of the most revolutionary and exciting periods of film history to date, it is also shaped by a systemic patriarchal structure in which very few women feature behind the camera. On-screen, female protagonists are often reduced to sexualised objects existing only as romantic counterparts to male heroes, characterised through the male gaze and marked by misogynistic representations. Off-screen, women were employed in traditionally 'female' roles such as editors, make-up artists and set designers, but precious few women ascended to the elite role of director, a role occupied almost exclusively by men. My PhD offers a new appraisal of Paule Delsol's 'lost' work, primarily focussing on La Dérive (1964) as well as works by other female directors seemingly lost to the archives. My work analyses the way in which women and gender are represented on-screen using a critical framework based on established feminist film and gender theories, with an aim to bringing this 'lost' work to a contemporary audience.

Scholarships

2018-: Royal Holloway Postgraduate Research Scholarship, awarded by the School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Full fee waiver and maintenance grant.

2018-2020: AHRC TECHNE doctoral competition. Full fee waiver and living stipend. 

Undergraduate awards

2005: Royal Holloway, University of London - "Most Outstanding Second Year Student in the Modern Languages Department"

2007: Royal Holloway, University of London - "Outstanding Achievement and Performance During the Entire Degree"

2007: Final oral exam achieved with distinction