LARC Student profiles

Natasha Parcei

Natasha Parcei is the recipient of the first fully funded PhD Research Studentship at the Northern Film School awarded by Leeds Beckett University. Natasha has previously completed both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the discipline of English Literature at the University of Huddersfield. Her current research investigates the representation of older women in recent British Cinema. This inter-disciplinary project combines the academic fields of critical film theory, cultural studies, and social gerontology to enable a study which acknowledges the numerous different aspects of such a topic. This will create an authoritative account of the images of this demographic appearing on our cinema screens.

By teaming these academic disciplines the study creates a multifaceted analysis of the cultural discourse surrounding the cultural construction of older women. This study is aptly timed to coincide with the socially significant ‘baby boomer’ generation reaching retirement age, and the emergence of the culture of the third age, leading to a shift in representations of people in later life and the repositioning of representations of ‘old age’ as many enjoy longer, healthier lives into retirement.

Alongside her doctoral studies she teaches undergraduate film theory at The Northern Film School, and is involved in the organisation of a number of academic conferences held at Leeds Beckett University. Natasha has delivered many conference papers, including ‘The representation of older women in British Horror’ at the annual Gothic Feminism conference at the University of Kent. She has written two up-coming chapters for edited collections: ‘Ageing Statham: Expendable Expendable’ in Crank It Up! Jason Statham – Star, and ‘The representation of older women in twenty-first century horror: An analysis of characters played by Jessica Lange in American Horror Story’ in Gender and Horror TV.