The New American War Film

A look at how post-9/11 cinema captures the new face of war in the twenty-first century
While the war film has carved out a prominent space within the history of cinema, the twenty-first century has seen a significant shift in the characteristics that define it. Serving as a roadmap to the genre’s contemporary modes of expression, The New American War Film explores how, in the wake of 9/11, both the nature of military conflict and the symbolic frameworks that surround it have been dramatically reshaped.
The New American War Film (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2023).
“The afterlife of stereotype: Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, DJ Spooky and The Birth of a Nation.” In DW Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation: Art, Culture and Ethics in Black and White. Ed., Barrett, Jenny, Douglas Field, Ian Scott (Manchester University Press, December, 2022). [Download Publication]
“Remediation, Trauma, and ‘Preposterous History’ in Documentary Film.” In The Routledge Companion to History and the Moving Image. Eds., Marnie Hughes-Warrington, Kim Nelson, Mia EM Treacey (London and New York: Routledge, 2024). [Download Publication]
“Dunkirk and the Battlefield Gothic.” Mediaesthetics – Journal of Poetics of Audiovisual Images, no. 3 (December, 2019). [Download Publication]






References for the above book covers (clockwise from top left):
Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at U.S. History: Revised Edition (Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2010). (First edition published in 1997.)
The Hollywood Historical Film (London and Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, March, 2008).
New Vocabularies in Film Semiotics: Structuralism, Poststructuralism, and Beyond. (Co-authored with Robert Stam and Sandy Flitterman-Lewis.) (London: Routledge, Chapman and Hall 1992).
Refugees and Migrants in Contemporary Film, Art and Media. Co-edited with Deniz Bayrakdar. (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022).
Bertolucci’s 1900: A Narrative and Historical Analysis (Detroit: Wayne State University Press 1991).
The Epic Film in World Culture, ed., AFI Film Readers Series. (New York and London: Routledge, 2011).