James S. Williams

James S. Williams is a Professor of Modern French Literature and Film at Royal Holloway, University of London, and currently serves as Director of the Centre for Visual Cultures and Director of Research for the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. He holds a PhD from Queen Mary, University of London, and has taught at institutions including Rutgers University, Fordham University, and the University of Kent. His research focuses on French/Francophone cinema, postcolonial cultures, queer theory, and the ethics/aesthetics interface in film.

Williams has authored numerous influential books, including Encounters with Godard: Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics (2016) and Ethics and Aesthetics of Contemporary African Cinema (2019, winner of the R. Gapper Prize). Upcoming publications include Archives of Resistance: Race, History and Violence (2027) and a co-edited volume on Holocaust film (2027). He frequently collaborates with institutions like the Centre Pompidou and Tate Modern, and contributes to The Guardian.

His teaching spans French language, film studies, and comparative literature, including courses on transnational cinema and postmodernism. He actively supervises postgraduate research in French Studies, emphasizing interdisciplinary and comparative approaches.