Professor Robert Shail, Director of Research

Professor Robert Shail

Director of Research

Robert Shail is Director of Research in Leeds School of Arts where he leads on film, music, performing arts and creative technologies, supporting colleagues in their creative research projects and supervising doctoral students.

As an established researcher, Robert has produced internationally recognised work on British cinema history, with a focus on the 1960 and 1970s, and on masculinity and stardom. His work includes monographs on the Welsh star/producer, Stanley Baker, and director Tony Richardson.

Robert's more recent work has focussed on children's culture including comic books, films and television, and board games. His study of the Children's Film Foundation received support from the Leverhulme Trust and was published by the British Film Institute.

Current Teaching

  • Film Art
  • Critical Practice
  • Dissertation

Research Interests

Robert’s research has focused mainly on the history of post-war British cinema with a particular interest in the work of key directors and on stardom. His book on Welsh star/producer Stanley Baker was supported by an AHRC award and his book on director Tony Richardson was published by Manchester University Press. More recent work has focused on children's media including an essay on Beryl the Peril and completion of his study of the Children's Film Foundation. This work has fed into current debates on the future of children's media in the UK.

Robert is currently researching the history of Leeds-based game manufacturer, Waddingtons.

Professor Robert Shail, Director of Research

Ask Me About

  1. British cinema
  2. Film
  3. Masculinity
  4. Children's culture
  5. Stardom
  6. Film directors
  7. Culture
  8. Film
  9. Games
  10. Gender
  11. History
  12. Literature
  13. Masculinity
  14. Music
  15. Performing Arts
  16. Television

Selected Outputs

  • Shail RS (2019) Negotiating national boundaries in recent British children's cinema and television. In: Hermansson C; Zepernick J ed. The Palgrave Handbook of Children's Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 365-378.

  • Shail RS (2019) The parameters of British art cinema: a case study of John Krish. In: Newland P; Hoyle B ed. British art cinema: creativity, experimentation and innovation. Manchester: Manchester University Press,

  • Shail RS (2016) 'For the benefit of old boys, young boys, odd boys generally, and even girls': the irresistible rise of the British comic, 1884-1900. In: Storey J ed. The Making of English Popular Culture. Routledge,

  • Shail RS (2010) Stanley Baker and British Lion: A Cautionary Tale. In: Don’t Look Now: British Cinema in the 1970s. Bristol: Intellect,

  • Shail RS (2009) Historical Specificity of Stardom: Terence Stamp in the 1960s. In: Soilla T ed. Stellar Encounters: Stardom in Popular European Cinema. New Barnet: John Libbery,

  • Shail RS (2005) Officers and Gentlemen: Masculinity in Powell and Pressburger’s War Films. In: Christie I; Moore A ed. The Cinema of Michael Powell: International Perspectives on an English Film-maker. London: BFI,

  • Shail RS (2004) Masculinity, Kurt Russell and the Escape Films. In: Conrich I ed. The Technique of Terror: The Films of John Carpenter. London: Wallflower,

  • Shail RS (2004) Masculinity and Class: Michael Caine as “Working-Class Hero. In: Davies A; Babbington B; Powrie P ed. The Trouble with Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema. London: Wallflower,

  • Shail R (2022) Film in the Workplace: Exploring the Film Holdings of the Marks and Spencer Company Archive. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 19 (4), pp. 536-553.

    https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2022.0646

  • Shail RS (2016) A FILM FROM WALES: WELSH IDENTITY AND THE CHILDREN’S FILM FOUNDATION. Cylchgrawn Hanes Cymru / Welsh History Review, 28 (2), pp. 363-378.

    https://doi.org/10.16922/whr.28.2.8

  • Shail R (2014) Anarchy in the UK: Reading Beryl the Peril via historic conceptions of childhood. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, 5 (3), pp. 257-265.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2014.913645

  • Shail RS (2009) Terence Fisher and British Science Fiction Cinema. Science Fiction Film and Television

  • Shail RS (2004) Stanley Baker’s ‘Welsh western’: Masculinity and Cultural Identity in Zulu. Cyfrwng: Media Wales Journal

  • Shail RS (2003) London and the Provinces: Place and Masculinity in 1960s British Cinema. Film and Film Culture

  • Shail RS (2001) Masculinity and Visual Representation: A Butlerian Approach to Dirk Bogarde. The Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies

  • Shail R (2016) The Children's Film Foundation: History and Legacy. British Film Institute.

  • Shail R (2012) Tony Richardson. Manchester University Press.

  • Shail R (2008) Seventies British cinema. Palgrave MacMillan.

  • Shail R (2008) Stanley Baker A Life in Film.

  • Shail R (2007) British film directors: A critical guide.