Lisa Purse

Lisa Purse is a Professor at the University of Reading specializing in Film Studies and Media, with a research focus on contemporary cinema, digital visual effects, and socio-political representations in film. Her work critically examines technological transformations in cinematic expression and their cultural implications.

Her research interests center on gender dynamics in action cinema, particularly the portrayal of female heroes and resilience in astronaut films, alongside analyses of war representation in post-9/11 cinema and the politics of erasure. She investigates digital compositing, screen violence aesthetics, and the experiential dimensions of cinematic velocity through interdisciplinary frameworks combining film theory, media studies, and gender studies.

Analysis of her publication trends reveals sustained engagement with digital technology's impact on cinematic language, especially in action genres. Her work consistently explores how visual effects shape narrative embodiment, with recent emphasis on women's representation in digital action cinema and epistemological questions in war film. The recurring themes include technological mediation of violence, gendered physicality in hero narratives, and the interplay between diegetic motion and audience affect.