Professor Ruth Barton

Professor Ruth Barton

Professor, Film Studies

3531896 2617

Biography

Dr Ruth Barton is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (BA Mod) and of University College Dublin (MA, Film Studies). She holds a PhD from the NUI (Thesis title: 'From History to Heritage: Representations of History and the Past in Contemporary Irish Cinema'). She is the author of several books on Irish cinema and has co-edited a volume of essays on Irish Cinema and Television as well as being the author of many articles on Irish and British cinema. Her interests include Irish cinema, the political economy of Irish film and television, stardom and diaspora studies. She is editor of a collection of essays on Irish-American film and television and on the Irish in Britain. She has also written a critical biography of the film star, Hedy Lamarr, and of the Irish silent director, Rex Ingram. She appears regularly on radio as a film historian and film critic. She joined the staff of TCD in September 2007.

Publications and Further Research Outputs

  • Irish cinema, Catherine Marshall Peter Murray, Art and Architecture of Ireland (AAI), Vol.V. Twentieth-Century Art and Artists, New Haven, London, Yale University Press, Royal Irish Academy, 2014, [Ruth Barton]Item in dictionary or encyclopaedia, etc, 2014
  • Ruth Barton, Every Plot Has a Story, Estudios Irlandeses, (10), 2015, p197 - 197Journal Article, 2015
  • Estudios Irlandeses, Spain, AEDEI, [editor review section Irish Media publications], 2015Editorial Board, 2015
  • Old Mother Riley Goes to the Pictures: Screening the Irish in Britain in, editor(s)Scott Brewster and Werner Huber , Ireland: Arrivals and Departures, Trier, WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, 2015, pp13 - 24, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2015
  • Ruth Barton, Rex Ingram, Irish pacifist film director and his brother Frank, diarist and war hero, St Luke's Symposium Heritage Centre Lectures, Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 13 October , 2015, Royal College of Physicians of IrelandInvited Talk, 2015
  • Ruth Barton, Review of the year in Irish cinema, Christmas 'Review of the Year' , The Institute of International and European Affairs, 9 December, 2015, IIEA Young Professionals' NetworkInvited Talk, 2015
  • Ruth Barton, Haunted memories: Rex Ingram, Francis Hitchcock and World War One, Offaly Heritage, 8, 2015, p139 - 144Journal Article, 2015
  • "More Sax, Less Clannad": The Road to God Knows Where in, editor(s)Lance Pettitt Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos , Alan Gilsenan: The Road to God knows Where, Florianopolis, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2015, pp145 - 164, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2015
  • Ruth Barton, Jimmy's Hall, Irish Cinema and the Telling of History, Review of Irish Studies in Europe, one, (one), 2016, p93 - 106Journal Article, 2016
  • Ruth Barton, Mary R. Desjardins, Recycled Stars: Female Film Stardom in the Age of Television and Video, Journal of American Studies, 50, (1), 2016, pE15 - E15Review Article, 2016, URL
  • The Ironic Gaze: Roots Tourism and Irish Heritage Cinema in, editor(s)Paul Cooke Rob Stone , Screening European Heritage, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp163 - 179, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2016
  • Barton, Ruth, A Female Voice in Irish Cinema: Women Filmmakers and the Creative Documentary, New Hibernia Review, 21, (2), 2017, p17 - 32Journal Article, 2017, TARA - Full Text
  • Ruth Barton, Narrating Clerical Sexual Abuse, The Journal of English Language & Literature, 63, (4), 2017, p641 - 658Journal Article, 2017
  • Francis Hitchcock's War: Stand To, A Diary of the Trenches and its legacy in, editor(s)Byrne, Michael , Offaly and the Great War, Tullamore, Esker Press, 2018, pp175 - 182, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2018
  • Behind Closed Doors: Middle-Class Suburbia and Contemporary Irish Cinema in, editor(s)Smith, Eoghan, Workman, Simon , Imagining Irish Suburbia in Literature and Culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp191-208 , [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2018
  • The Force Meets the Kittiwake: shooting Star Wars on Skellig Michael in, editor(s)Lundberg, Christine Ziakas, Vassilios , The Routledge Handbook of Popular Culture and Tourism, London and New York, Routledge, 2018, pp300-310 , [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2018, TARA - Full Text
  • Irish Cinema and Theatre: Adapting to Change in, editor(s)Jordan, Eamonn Weitz, Eric , The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Irish Theatre and Performance, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018, pp315-329 , [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2018
  • Barton, Ruth Trezise, Simon, Music and Sound in Silent Film, From the Nickelodeon to The Artist, London and New York, Routledge, 2018Book, 2018
  • Barton, Ruth, Irish cinema in the twenty-first century, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2019, 1 - 248ppBook, 2019
  • Screening Irish-America in, editor(s)Hill, John , A Companion to British and Irish Cinema, Hoboken, NJ, Wiley Blackwell, 2019, pp532 - 544, [Barton, Ruth]Book Chapter, 2019
  • Ruth Barton, The end of time: Bullet in the Brain, Short Film Studies, 10, (2), 2020, p207 - 210Journal Article, 2020
  • Cinema and the Celtic Tiger in, editor(s)Lucey, Brian Maher, Eamon O'Brien, Eugene , Recalling the Celtic Tiger, Oxford, Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, New York, Wien, Peter Lang, 2019, pp65 - 67, [Barton, Ruth]Book Chapter, 2019
  • Irish Cinema and the Gendering of Space: Motherhood, domesticity and the homeplace in, editor(s)Liddy, Susan , Women in the Irish film industry, Cork, Cork University Press, 2020, pp233 - 248, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2020
  • O'Hagan, John; Murphy, Denis; Barton, Ruth, Do state funding, geographic location, and networks matter? The case of prominent Irish actors, directors and writers, Cultural Trends, 29, (2), 2020, p77 - 95Journal Article, 2020, URL
  • Barton, Ruth; , The Cinematic Informer, New Hibernia Review, 24, (2), 2020, p33 - 70Journal Article, 2020, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Avenging the Famine: Lance Daly's Black '47, Genre and History in, editor(s)Terrazas Gallego, Melania , Trauma and Identity in Contemporary Irish Culture, Oxford, Bern, Berlin etc, Peter Lang, 2020, pp59 - 79, [Barton, Ruth]Book Chapter, 2020, URL
  • Barton, Ruth, Trauma, Motive and the Post-Troubles Psychopath in The Fall, Television & New Media, 22, (1), 2021, p32 - 46Journal Article, 2021, DOI , URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Hedy Lamarr, Jennifer Sartori, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, online, Jewish Women's Archive, 2021, [Ruth Barton]Item in dictionary or encyclopaedia, etc, 2021, URL
  • Ruth Barton and Denis Murphy, Prominent careers and Irish screen policy, Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, 9, 2022, p4 - 42Journal Article, 2022, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Ruth Barton, Denis Murphy, Steven Hadley, Covid-19, cultural policy and the Irish arts sector: continuum or conjuncture?, Irish Studies Review, Irish Studies Review, 31, (2), 2023, p193 - 210Journal Article, 2023, URL
  • Ruth Barton, Memories of Home: The Belfast Films of Mark Cousins and Kenneth Branagh, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 20, (3), 2023, p329 - 344Journal Article, 2023, URL
  • Ruth Barton, Brian Desmond Hurst (author), Caitlin Smith and Stephen Wyatt (eds), Allan Esler Smith (Foreword), Hurst on Film 1928"1970; Lance Pettitt, The Last Bohemian: Brian Desmond Hurst, Irish Film, British Cinema, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 21, (1), 2024, p95 - 100Journal Article, 2024, URL
  • Ruth Barton, Bad Sisters " space, class and the reimagining of Dublin, Transnational Screens, 15, (1), 2024, p31 - 44Journal Article, 2024
  • Ruth Barton, Acting Irish in Hollywood: From Fitzgerald to Farrell, pbk; hbk, USA and Ireland, Irish Academic Press, 2006Book, 2006
  • Ruth Barton, Irish National Cinema, pbk; hbk, New York, London, Routledge, 2004Book, 2004
  • Ruth Barton, Jim Sheridan: Framing the Nation, pbk, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2002, xi-175ppBook, 2002, URL , TARA - Full Text
  • Changing Direction: Irish cinema revisits its borders in, editor(s)Marjorie Salvodon & Sandra Barriales , Zoom in, Zoom out: Crossing Borders in Contemporary European Cinema, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars' Press, 2007, pp170 - 185, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2007
  • The Ireland they dream of" - Eireville, Coolockland and the appropriation of Science Fiction and Fantasy narratives in short Irish filmmaking in, editor(s)Brian McIlroy , Irish Cinema: Genre and Transnationalism, London, New York, Routledge, 2007, pp151 - 162, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2007
  • Jim Sheridan in, editor(s)Anthony Roche , The UCD Aesthetic, Dublin, New Island, 2005, pp190 - 198, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2005
  • The Potency of Cheap Music: Exile, Ballads and Performance in Irish Cinema in, editor(s)Liam Harte, Yvonne Whelan and Patrick Crotty , Ireland: Space, Text, Time, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2005, pp199 - 208, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2005
  • Ruth Barton, Harvey O'Brien, Keeping it Real: Irish Film and Television, pbk, New York and London, Wallflower Press, 2004Book, 2004
  • Ruth Barton, Maureen O'Hara: Pirate Queen, Feminist Icon?, Éire-Ireland, 41, (1/2), 2006, p142 - 168Journal Article, 2006
  • Ruth Barton, "The Ireland they dream of" - Eireville, Coolockland and the appropriation of Science Fiction and Fantasy narratives in short Irish filmmaking, Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 29, (2), 2004, p41 - 45Journal Article, 2004
  • Ruth Barton, Kitsch as authenticity, Irish Studies Review, 9, (2), 2001, p193 - 202Journal Article, 2001
  • Ruth Barton, The Ballykissangelisation of Ireland, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 20, (3), 2000, p413 - 426Journal Article, 2000
  • Ruth Barton, Feisty Colleens and Faithful Sons, Gender in Irish Cinema, Cineaste, xxiv, (2/3), 1999, p40 - 45Journal Article, 1999
  • Ruth Barton, Irish Cinema - From History to Heritage, The Irish Review, 21, 1997, p41 - 56Journal Article, 1997
  • When the Chickens Came Home to Roost: British Thrillers of the 1970s in, editor(s)Robert Shail , Seventies British Cinema, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, pp46 - 55, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2008
  • The Bums on The Seats: Irish Films and The Overseas Market in, editor(s)Isabelle le Corff and Estelle Epinoux , Cinemas of Ireland, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009, pp66 - 85, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2009
  • Ruth Barton (ed.), Screening Irish-America, Dublin and Portland, Or., Irish Academic Press, 2009Book, 2009
  • The Voice of Pierce Brosnan in, editor(s)James P. Byrne, Padraig Kirwan, Michael O'Sullivan , Affecting Irishness, Oxford, Bern,Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Wien, Peter Lang, 2009, pp259 - 274, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2009
  • Before She was Mary Kate: Maureen O'Hara's Contradictory Career in, editor(s)Seån Crosson and Rod Stoneman , The Quiet Man ... And Beyond, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2009, pp214 - 223, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2009
  • Ruth Barton, Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in FIlm, 1st, Lexington, University of Kentucky Press, 2010, 1 - 281ppBook, 2010
  • Rocket Scientist! The Posthumous Celebrity of Hedy Lamarr in, editor(s)Su Holmes Diane Negra , In the Limelight and Under the Microscope, New York, London, Continuum, 2011, pp82 - 102, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2011
  • Ruth Barton, Tuning in to Sunday, Short Film Studies, 1, (2), 2011, p311 - 314Journal Article, 2011
  • Irish Studies Review, 19, 1, (2011), Ruth Barton, [eds.], special issueJournal, 2011
  • Neil Jordan: Superstition and Religion in, editor(s)Werner Huber Seån Crosson , Contemporary Irish Film, Vienna, Braumuller, 2011, pp105 - 114, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2011
  • The Ghost of the Celtic Tiger in, editor(s)Marisol Morales Ladron Juan F Elices Agudo , Glocal Ireland, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011, pp26 - 39, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2011
  • Ruth Barton, Silent Ritual: Marcell Ivany's Wind, Short Film Studies, 2, (2), 2012, p193 - 196Journal Article, 2012
  • Ruth Barton, The O'Kalem Collection on DVD: Implications for future research, New Hibernia Review, 16, (2), 2012, p137 - 142Review Article, 2012
  • Drinking with McNulty: Irish American Identity and Spaces in The Wire in, editor(s)Kennedy, Liam Shapiro, Stephen , The Wire: Race, Class, and Genre, Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 2012, pp215 - 238, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2012
  • Ruth Barton, Cultural Baggage - Pirjo Hokkanen's Matka, Short Film Studies, 4, (1), 2013, p35 - 38Journal Article, 2013
  • Barton, Ruth, Into What Future?, Short Film Studies, 4, (2), 2014, p153 - 156Journal Article, 2014
  • From Symbol to Symptom - Changing Representations of Fatherhood in Recent Irish Cinema in, editor(s)Holohan, Conn Tracy, Tony , Masculinity and Irish Popular Culture, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, pp183 - 194, [Barton, Ruth]Book Chapter, 2014
  • Between Modernity and Marginality: Celtic Tiger cinema in, editor(s)Maher, Eamon O'Brien, Eugene , From Prosperity to Austerity, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2014, pp218 - 229, [Ruth Barton]Book Chapter, 2014
  • Barton, Ruth, Rex Ingram, Visionary Director of the Silent Screen, Lexington, Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 2014, ix - 262ppBook, 2014
  • Loss of Innocents: the Irish child and cinema in, editor(s)Luddy, Maria Smith, James M. , Children, Childhood and Irish Society, Dublin and Portland Or.,, Four CourtsPress, 2014, pp378 - 388, [Barton, Ruth]Book Chapter, 2014
  • Ruth Barton, Rex Ingram: The Magician of Nice, ACIS/CAIS, UCD, June , 2014Conference Paper
  • Ruth Barton, Jimmy's Hall, Whose Story is it?, SOFEIR, Paris, March, 2015Conference Paper
  • Ruth Barton, City Break Cinema, European Heritage Cinema, University of Leeds, September , 2013Conference Paper
  • Ruth Barton, Retrieving Rex Ingram, Irish Cinema, UCC, April, 2013Invited Talk
  • Ruth Barton, Repair it - or replace it entirely? Fatherhood and contemporary Irish cinema, Masculinities in Irish Popular Culture, NUI Galway, 2011Conference Paper
  • Ruth Barton, Old Mother Riley Goes to the Pictures, EFACIS, University of Salford, September, 2011Invited Talk
  • Ruth Barton, Rethinking heritage cinema: how tourism has inflected the national visual imaginary., AEDEI 2015, Granada, Spain, May 2015, 2015Conference Paper
  • Ruth Barton, "'Ireland of the Horrors': genre cinema and the boundaries of the national", THE CIRCULATION OF POPULAR CULTURE BETWEEN IRELAND AND THE USA (18TH-21ST CENTURIES), Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, June 16-17-18, 2016Invited Talk
  • Ruth Barton, "Ireland and Irishness as a Post-Traumatic Discursive Space: the Case of Cinema", Rethinking Cultural Rethinking Cultural Trauma from Transnational Perspectives, Sao Paulo, 22-25 August , 2017, SPECTRESSInvited Talk
  • Ruth Barton, A Liminal Genre: Defining the Contemporary Irish Horror Film, Protean Spaces in Irish Literature, Theatre and Film, USFC, Florianopolis, 7 November , 2017, Nucleo de estudios irlandeses da UFSCInvited Talk
  • Ruth Barton, Screening 1916, 2017, - 14-15Miscellaneous
  • Ruth Barton, 'Come Live With Me', Hedy Lamar - Fremder Star, Berlin Zeughaus Kino, 17 August, 2019, Deutsches Historisches MuseumInvited Talk
  • Ruth Barton, Women in Irish Cinema, San Patricio 2019 | La mujer en la cultura irlandesa, Universidad de La Rioja , 13 March, 2019, Melania Terrazas GallegoInvited Talk
  • Barton, Ruth; Murphy, Denis, Ecologies of Cultural Production, Dublin, February , 2020, p1 - 99Report, URL
  • Barton, Ruth, New Dublin on screen - a place of freedom and choice, The Conversation, 2019Journal Article, URL
  • Ruth Barton, The War on Film, Irish Times, (25 May), 2021, p12 - 13Journal Article
  • Ruth Barton, Is Chariots of Fire still the best Olympics' film ever?, 2021, -Miscellaneous, URL
  • Ruth Barton, Contemporary Irish Cinema, NEI Digital Roundtable, online, 29 June 2021, edited by Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos , 2021Conference Paper
  • Barton, Ruth, Spicy tales of Beatty behind the screen, Review of Star, The Life and Wild Times of Warren Beatty , by Beatty, Warren , Irish Times, 2010Review
  • Barton, Ruth, Method man with the blues, Review of Paul Newman, by Daniel O'Brien , Irish Times, (27 November), 2004Review
  • Barton, Ruth, Guide to 'Psycho' and our love of the thriller, Review of The Moment of Psychosis, by David Thompson , Irish Times, (17 February), 2010Review
  • Barton, Ruth, Master of suspense revisited ; The strange mind that produced masterworks of cinematic daring, Review of Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, by Patrick McGilligan , Irish Times, (10 January), 2004Review
  • Barton, Ruth, A life caught in pictures, Review of Everything is Cinema: The working life of Jean-Luc Godard, by Richard Brody , Irish Times, (21 June), 2008Review
  • Barton, Ruth, What Katy really did, Review of Kate: the woman who was Katherine Hepburn, by William J Mann , Irish Times, (11 November), 2006Review
  • Barton, Ruth, Not a lot of people know that . . ., Review of Michael Caine: A Class Act, by Christopher Bray , Irish Times, (8 October), 2005Review
  • Barton, Ruth, War waif, screen icon, Review of Enchantment: the life of Audrey Hepburn, by Donald Spoto , Irish Times, (15 July), 2006Review
  • Barton, Ruth, Brothers in arms: the soldier and the director: , Irish Times, (8 November), 2014, p9 - 9Journal Article
  • Ruth Barton, Why are so many Irish films and filmmakers nominated for Oscars?, 2023, 461 - 469Miscellaneous, URL
  • Ruth Barton, Harvey O'Brien, Keeping it Real, April , 2002, University College DublinMeetings /Conferences Organised
  • Ruth Barton, Screening Irish-America, April , 2007, University College DublinMeetings /Conferences Organised
  • Ruth Barton, Screening the Irish in Britain, 26 September , 2009, Arts Technology Research Laboratory, TCDMeetings /Conferences Organised
  • Ruth Barton, Screening Irish-America III, 30 March , 2012Meetings /Conferences Organised

Research Expertise

My main research area is Irish cinema, in which I am a global expert and for which I was recently elected to the Royal Irish Academy. My reputation has been achieved via the publication of several influential monographs, notably Irish National Cinema (Routledge, 2004) and Irish cinema in the twenty-first century (Manchester University Press, 2019). Other significant work focuses on diasporic filmmaking and filmmakers: Screening Irish-America (Irish Academic Press, 2009); Acting Irish in Hollywood (IAP, 2006); Rex Ingram: Visionary Director of the Silent Screen (University of Kentucky Press, 2014). My critical biography, Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in Film (UKP 2010) was a personal project and departure from my initial research area that saw me explore the life of a key female pioneer (credited with the invention of Wi-Fi) and émigré star. This book was very favourably reviewed in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the London Review of Books, convincing me that there was a space for exploring academic ideas within the wider public arena, something that remains very important to me. It also spoke to my lifelong interest in writing on gender. I have recently branched out into cultural policy. This came about as a result of being awarded funding under the Creative Ireland Programme to complete the study, Ecologies of Cultural Production (report published 2019), on career construction in Film, Television and Theatre. As well as academic publication in this field, I currently sit on the editorial board of the Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy as well as being an invited member of the Regional Screen Production Network. I continue my public outreach through regular radio appearances and writing for mainstream publications such as The Irish Times and the Conversation.

  • Title
    Screening the Irish in Britian
    Summary
    This projects complements the 'Screening Irish-America' network. Outcomes to date include an international one-day seminar entitled 'Screening the Irish in Britain' held at TCD in September 2009.
    Funding Agency
    TCD Long Room Hub
    Date From
    2009
  • Title
    Screening Irish-America
    Summary
    This is a historical and analytical study of the representation of the Irish in America on film, television the internet and other media.
    Date From
    Sept 2005
  • Title
    Ecologies of cultural production
    Summary
    The Ecologies of Cultural Production Project has thrown a new light on the career paths of some of Ireland's most successful theatre, television and film actors and directors. It focused on how people entered the fields of filmmaking, television drama and theatre-making and how do they then went on to build and develop their careers, informing public policy on arts funding and how to establish a methodology that might be applied to all sectors of cultural production. Ecologies of Cultural Production was the first survey of its kind in Ireland, taking a ground-breaking approach to analysing the long-term effects of arts policy.
    Funding Agency
    The Creative Ireland Programme
    Date From
    1/10/2018
    Date To
    31/12/2019
  • Title
    Women's Film and Television History Network - UK/Ireland
    Summary
    WFTHN focuses on British and Irish women working in the UK/Ireland or abroad and on overseas women working here. It is affiliated to Women & Film History International and encourages British and Irish contributions to international initiatives such as the Women Film Pioneers Database, the biennial international Women and Silent Screen conferences and the women's television conference, Consoling Passions.
    Funding Agency
    AHRC
    Date From
    2009
    Date To
    2011

Creative & performing arts,

Recognition

  • IRCHSS Doctoral Fellow 1999
  • Fellow of Trinity College 2018
  • Elected Member of Royal Irish Academy 2021
  • IRCHSS Postdoctoral Fellow 2000
  • Member of Board of Long Room Hub, Trinity's Arts and Humanities Institute
  • Member of board of Irish Humanities Alliance
  • External examiner, DKIT, 2015-2018 2015-18