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Dr Irene Gonz谩lez-L贸pez

Positions held:
  • Lecturer, School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
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  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    Irene Gonz谩lez-L贸pez is Programme Director of BA Japanese Studies with International Experience.

    Irene聽 joined 糖心logo入口 in 2021 as Lecturer in Japanese Studies. Previously, she has taught and researched at SOAS, Kingston University, David Game College, Aichi Kenritsu University, and Kyoto University.

    Before pursuing her PhD at SOAS, Irene lived in Japan for over seven years. There she聽completed a BA in聽Japanese Studies and MA in Film Studies.聽During that time,聽she also learnt聽ikebana聽(flower arrangement) and聽shod艒聽(calligraphy),聽and her聽professional experience聽ranged from factory聽worker and waitress in a聽snack-bar,聽to interpreter and university lecturer. All these experiences nurtured聽her understanding of Japanese society and constitute an endless source of inspiration for聽her research.聽

    Her research spans Japanese creative industries, with a special focus on postwar cinema and issues related to gender and sexuality, both in front and behind the camera. Irene has written extensively on the representation of sex work in Japanese cinema, as well as on Japanese female directors, adaptations, and stardom.

    She is co-editor of聽Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom, and Female Subjectivity聽(Edinburgh University Press, 2018), Haneda Sumiko: Her Approaches to Gender, Culture, Society and Arts in Japanese Documentary Film (forthcoming), and has published in journals including聽Film Studies,聽Journal of Japanese and Korean聽Cinema, Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, and US-Japan Women鈥檚 Journal, of which she is a member of the Advisory Board.聽Irene was also part of聽the BFI Advisory Board for the Japan Film Season 2020-2021, and often collaborates with international film festivals (Las Palmas International Film Festival, Open City Doc, etc.), media industries (Arrow Films, Films 88), and cultural institutions (BFI, Institute of Contemporary Art London, Barbican Centre, Japan Foundation).

    Highlights

    • Monograph: Selling Sex in Japanese Cinema: The prostitute and the postwar quest for modernity (forthcoming)

      Selling Sex in Japanese Cinema explores the representation of prostitutes in Japanese postwar cinema (1945-1975) to interrogate how and why this trope remained popular across a great variety of films and how it related to broader debates concerning Japan鈥檚 reconfiguration after Second World War. Traversing across melodrama, avant-garde, and soft-porn films, the book discusses canonical films as well as films previously overlooked in academia to shed light on the meaningful variations of the trope. Under contract with Michigan University Press

    • Research Project: Japanese Documentary Filmmaker Haneda Sumiko (2019-present)

      This project explores the fascinating cinema of Haneda Sumiko, one of the most prolific Japanese documentary filmmakers. It聽seeks to analyse her recurrent themes, political choices, and heterogeneous aesthetics,聽while making聽her works accessible to a wider audience. Led in collaboration with Marcos Centeno, Alejandra Armend谩riz-Hern谩ndez and Ricardo Matos Cabo, the project includes the publication of a volume that I am co-editing (under contract with Routledge), a series of international symposia, online and in person film screenings, collaborations with film festivals (including Open City Doc [Londres]), La Inesperada [Barcelona], etc.), the commission of English subtitles and digitalisation of several films by Haneda, and the translation of selected Haneda鈥檚 writings. With the support of 糖心logo入口 School鈥檚 Strategic Research Fund, Japan Foundation, Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, and Lady Marks Charitable Trust.

    • 颁辞-别诲颈迟辞谤,听Tanaka Kinuyo: Nation, Stardom and Female Subjectivity. (Edinburgh University Press, 2018)聽

      This is the first book in English dedicated to the actor and director Tanaka Kinuyo. Bringing together a range of Japanese and Western scholars, the book offers a new perspective on the Japanese studio system and stardom, interlaced with聽the national history and the history of women in Japan.聽Co-edited with Michael Smith.

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Programme Director, Japanese Studies with International Experience
    • Academic Coordinator of Exchange Programme with Japan

    Honours and awards

    • Translation and Critical Introduction Award: "Film Director: Tanaka Kinuyo" (Murakawa Hide) , September 2021
    • Research Project and Publication: "Japanese Documentary Director Haneda Sumiko" Lady Marks Charitable Fund, September 2023
    • 糖心logo入口 School's Strategic Research Fund. Project: 鈥淛apanese Documentary Filmmaker Haneda Sumiko: Authorship and Gender Discourses鈥. Co-organised with Marcos Centeno, Alejandra Armend谩riz-Hern谩ndez and Ricardo Matos. 糖心logo入口, September 2021
    • Research Project : 鈥淛apanese Documentary Filmmaker Haneda Sumiko: Authorship and Gender Discourses鈥 Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, September 2021
    • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), September 2019

    ORCID

  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Japanese Cinema and modern and contemporary Japanese visual cultures
    • Gender and Sexuality Studies, feminist film theory
    • Representations of sex work in popular culture and media
    • Japanese female directors and female authorship
    • Adaptations and remakes
    • Stardom and Authorship
  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within 糖心logo入口:
    3

    I welcome prospective PhD applicants in these areas:

    • Japanese Cinema and visual cultures, especially聽post-1945
    • Gender and sexuality in Japan
    • Adaptations and Remakes聽
    • Female authorship and Japanese film directors
    • Stardom in Japanese cinema
    • Porn Studies

    Current doctoral researchers

    • RICARDO MESQUITA DE MATOS CABO
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
    • DONALD STRACHAN
      Nature of supervision:
      PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      Nationalism in apocalyptic fictions of the streaming era: networked meaning, mourning, and metamodern memory
    • ANDREA GUALERZI
      Nature of supervision:
      JOINT PRINCIPAL SUPERVISOR,
      Title of thesis:
      n/a

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Representations of Gender, Love and Sexuality (Level 5)
    • The Humanities and Social Sciences: Global Issues in Historical Perspective
    • Advanced Seminar in Japanese Culture and Society
    • Manga and Anime (Level 6)
    • Culture and Image
    • Rethinking Japan: Introduction to Modern Japanese Society and Culture (Level 4)
    • Theorising Japanese Cinema
    • Interrogating the Self
    • Memory and History
  • Publications

    Publications

    Article

    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2023) . JCMS: Journal of Cinema and Media Studies 62 (4), pp. 130-154. ISSN 1527-2087.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2018) . U.S.-Japan Women's Journal 54, pp. 29-51. ISSN 1059-9770.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2018) . Mirai. Estudios Japoneses 2, pp. 49-66. ISSN 2531-145X.
    • Armendariz-Hernandez, A. and Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2017) . Film Studies 16 (1), pp. 36-55. ISSN 1469-0314.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Ueda, M. (2015) . CineMagaziNet! (19),
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2014) . Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema 6 (1), pp. 39-54. ISSN 1756-4905.

    Book

    • Centeno-Martin, Marcos Pablo and Gonzalez-Lopez, Irene and Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra, eds. (2026) . Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia. London, UK: Routledge. ISBN 9781032518855.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Smith, M., eds. (2018) . Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film. Edinburgh, U.K.: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474431781.

    Book section

    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Hamid, Z. (2026) . In: Dovey, L. and Taylor-Jones, K. and Thomas-Parr, G. (eds.) Global Screen Worlds: Conversations across Cinema Cultures. London, UK: Bloomsbury. pp. 217-234. ISBN 9798765126288.
    • Gonzalez Lopez, Irene and Centeno Martin, Marcos Pablo and Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra (2026) . In: Gonzalez Lopez, Irene and Centeno Martin, Marcos Pablo and Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra (eds.) The Documentary Cinema of Haneda Sumiko Japan in Transition through Gender, Arts, Nature and Society. Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia. London, UK: Routledge. pp. 1-20. ISBN 9781003404323.
    • Gonzalez Lopez, Irene (2026) . In: Centeno Martin, Marcos Pablo and Gonzalez Lopez, Irene and Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra (eds.) The Documentary Cinema of Haneda Sumiko Japan in Transition through Gender, Arts, Nature and Society. Media, Culture and Social Change in Asia. Routledge. pp. 37-54. ISBN 9781003404323.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2023) . In: Diffrient, D.S. and Chan, K. (eds.) East Asian Film Remakes. Screen Serialities. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 27-48. ISBN 9781399508162.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Centeno Martin, Marcos Pablo and Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra (2023) . In: Chan, F. and Elliot, F. and Willis, A. (eds.) Women in East Asian Cinema. Gender Representations, Creative Labour and Global Histories. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 107-123. ISBN 9781399504928.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Armendariz-Hernandez, Alejandra (2022) . In: Desser, D. (ed.) A Companion to Japanese Cinema. Wiley Blackwell Companions to National Cinemas. Wiley-Blackwell. pp. 421-445. ISBN 9781118955345.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2022) . In: Kirsch, G. and Mithani, Forum (eds.) Handbook of Japanese Media and Popular Culture in Transition. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press. pp. 47-61. ISBN 9789048559268.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Mayu, A. (2018) . In: Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Smith, M. (eds.) Tanaka Kinuyo : nation, stardom and female subjectivity. Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474409698.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Smith, M. (2018) . In: Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene and Smith, M. (eds.) Tanaka Kinuyo: nation, stardom and female subjectivity. Edinburgh Studies in East Asian Film. Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781474431781.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2017) . In: Torres Hortelano, L.J. (ed.) Dialectics of the goddess in Japanese audiovisual culture. Lanham, U.S.: Lexington Books. pp. 27-49. ISBN 9781498570145.
    • Gonz谩lez-L贸pez, Irene (2016) . In: M茅ndez, A.L. (ed.) El Japon contemporaneo : una aproximacion desde los Estudios Culturales. Biblioteca de Japon. Barcelona, Spain: Bellaterra. pp. 105-126. ISBN 9788472907577.