Professor Laura Hubner

Biography

Professor Laura Hubner FRSA SFHEA was awarded her BA in English Literature and MA in Literature and the Visual Arts by the University of Reading, spending one term at Ca' Foscari University of Venice, funded by the Erasmus Scheme Award. She went on to gain her PhD in Film from the University of Reading, looking at the work of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman. She teaches across the Film Studies, Media and Communication, Film Production and English Literature programmes, including modules on ‘Music and Film’, ‘Stars’, 'Advertising and Branding' and ‘Fairytale and Gothic Horror’.

Prof. Hubner is Editor of the Iconic Movie Images Series published by Winchester University Press and Co-Convener of the interdisciplinary Culture-Media-Text Research Centre. 

Areas of expertise

• Scandinavian and European film and media
• Fairytale and gothic horror
• Cult film and art cinema

Publications

Books

• Hubner, L. Fairytale and Gothic Horror: Uncanny Transformations in Film (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
• Hubner, L., Leaning, M. and Manning, P. (eds) The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
• Allen, S. and Hubner, L. (eds) Framing Film - Cinema and the Visual Arts (Intellect, 2012)
• Hubner, L. (ed.) Valuing Films: Shifting Perceptions of Worth (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
• Hubner, L. The Films of Ingmar Bergman: Illusions of Light and Darkness (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007)

Articles and chapters

• Hubner, L. 'Satire in the Time of a Pandemic: An Interview with Cold War Steve', in Welch, C. and J.H. Shadrack (eds) Religion, Death and the Senses (Equinox Press, 2024)
• Hubner, L. ‘Visionaries and Charlatans: Ingmar Bergman’s Filmmaking’, in Hedling, E. (ed.) Ingmar Bergman. An Enduring Legacy (Manchester / Lund University Press, 2021)
• Hubner, L. 'Essay on To Joy', in British Film Institute Boxset: Ingmar Bergman, Volume One (2021)
• Hubner, L. ‘Dream of Escape’, in Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema (The Criterion Collection, 2018) pp. 50-59. Winner of the best box-set award at the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna (2019).
• Hubner, L. ‘Love, Connection and Intimacy: Short Fiction’ in Bishop, K. and Tenga, A. (eds) The Written Undead Critical Anthology (McFarland & Co, 2017) pp.40-53
• Hubner, L. ‘The Fairy-Tale Film in Latin America’, in Zipes, J., Greenhill, P. and Magnus-Johnston, K. (eds) Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney: International Perspectives (Routledge, 2015). Winner of the US Children's Literature Association Honor Book Award for an edited collection (2018).
• Hubner, L. ‘Archiving Gore: Who owns Zombie Flesh Eaters?’, in Hubner, L., Leaning, M. and Manning, P. (eds) The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014)
• Hubner, L. ‘Tension, Transition and Tone in Michael Haneke’s Caché’, Studies in European Cinema 9:2+3, (September 2012) 99-108
• Hubner, L. ‘Summer with Monika: Summer Dreaming’, in The Criterion Collection DVD Booklet, 2012
• Hubner, L. 'Here's Johnny! Re-framing The Shining', in Allen, S. and Hubner, L. (eds) Framing Film - Cinema and the Visual Arts (Intellect, 2012)
• Hubner, L. 'A Taste for Flesh and Blood? Shifting Classifications of Contemporary European Cinema', in Hubner, L. (ed) Valuing Films (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
• Hubner, L. 'Shifting Perceptions of Worth', in Hubner, L. (ed.) Valuing Films (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
• Hubner, L. ‘Pan’s Labyrinth, Fear and the Fairy Tale’, in Stephen Hessel and Michèle Huppert (eds) Fear Itself. Reasoning the Unreasonable (Rodopi, 2009)
• Hübner, L. ‘The Drugs of Labour: the contested nature of popular drug use in childbirth’, in Paul Manning (ed.) Drugs and Popular Culture: Drugs, Identity, Media and Culture in the 21st Century (Willan, 2006)
• Hübner, L. ‘Her Defiant Stare: Dreams of Another World in Summer with Monika’, Studies in European Cinema 2:2, (Intellect, September 2005)103-113

Previous Projects

• Creator of online blog 'Iconic Movie Images', with quality articles written by students and staff celebrating movie images that have attained iconic status.
• Co-coordinator of three-day International ‘Framing Film’ Conference attracting over 90 speakers, from an international range of universities, including Australia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Turkey and the USA. The edited collection inspired by the event explores the intricate relationships between cinema and a variety of visual arts media, including posters, paintings, photography, comic books and production design.
• Coordinator of University Symposia, including ‘Intersections between Culture, Arts and Nature’ and ‘Identities, Borders and Communities’.

Public Talks - Keynote / Guest Speaker

Sept 2023 Guest Speaker on 1000th Edition of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, hosted by Melvyn Bragg, on Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal

June 2023 Guest Speaker, ‘“Bad” Monika: the myths and stories surrounding Summer with Monika (1953) and “the Swedish Sin”’, ‘Sin and Shame’, Bergman Week, Fårö (Sweden)

July 2021 Keynote Speaker, 'Beyond the Horror of the Ageing Female: Decay, Regeneration and Relic (Natalie Erika James, 2020)', Fear of Ageing: Old Age in Horror Fiction and Film, University of Porto, Portugal

June 2018 Keynote Speaker, and public talk, ‘Visionaries and Charlatans: Ingmar Bergman’s Filmmaking’, Ingmar Bergman 100 Years Jubilee Conference, University of Lund, Sweden

February 2018 Guest Speaker, and public talk, ‘Bergman and Religion’, Philosophical Screens: Bergman and the Cinema of Existence, Bergman Study Day, BFI Southbank, London, UK

June 2013 Guest Speaker: Screenwriting Competition, Hampshire Writers’ Society, Gala Evening 

May 2011           Host, Winchester Film Festival Launch

June 2010          Guest Speaker, public talk, The Seventh Seal, Winchester Cathedral, Winchester Film Festival

June 2007          Keynote Speaker, and public lecture: ‘Bergman A Woman’s Director/Lady's Man?’ / ‘Bergman - kvinnornas man?’, and Guest Author: Bergman Week, Fårö, Sweden

July 2007           Public talk on Summer with Monika, Göteborg International Film Festival, Sweden

Additional online articles

• Hubner, L. ‘Easy Rider’, SuperCool Cinema, June 2012