Dr Sarah Cardwell was appointed Honorary Fellow in the School of Arts, University of Kent in January 2012. She was previously Senior Lecturer in Film and Television at Kent (2000-2007), during which time she taught television aesthetics, British cinema, adaptation and film aesthetics (including temporality). Amongst other administrative roles, she was School Director of Learning and Teaching (2004-2007).
Sarah’s first degree was in Drama, Theatre and Television Studies (Winchester) and her PhD concerned literature-screen adaptations (Royal Holloway, London). Today, she specialises primarily in television aesthetics and adaptation studies, and has published widely in both areas. Her perspective is most often inspired by the methods and principles of analytic aesthetics.
Sarah first two books addressed television adaptation. Her most recent work in the area explores how adaptation studies might benefit from a fresh perspective drawn from analytic aesthetics.
Sarah is one of the founding scholars of television aesthetics. Particular areas of interest include medium specificity, aesthetic experience and evaluation. In 2003, she co-founded Manchester University Press’ The Television Series, which she now edits with Jonathan Bignell (Reading) and Lucy Fife Donaldson (St. Andrews). The series now includes over twenty books which explore important television creators, writers and showrunners; key television genres; and, in a new strand of edited books, Moments in Television.
Sarah’s books include Adaptation revisited: television and the classic novel (2002), Andrew Davies (2005) and four co-edited ‘Moments in Television’ collections: Style/substance (2022), Complexity/simplicity (2022), Sound/image (2022) and Epic/everyday (forthcoming 2022).
Current projects consider episodic form; the potential crossover between analytic and television aesthetics; and questions of medium specificity in relation to adaptation.
For fuller information on Sarah Cardwell’s work, please visit https://kent.academia.edu/SarahCardwell
Since 2004, Sarah Cardwell has also been a professional dancer and teacher of authentic Argentine Tango.
Sarah Cardwell specialises primarily in television aesthetics and adaptation studies. In both areas, her perspective is inspired by the methods and principles of analytic aesthetics. However, her work is interdisciplinary, and has drawn upon, and reflected upon, adaptation studies, literary studies, film and television studies, and analytic aesthetics.
Sarah was one of the first scholars to engage in establishing and developing the area of television aesthetics. Particular areas of interest include medium specificity, aesthetic experience and evaluation. She focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on British television. Current projects consider episodic form; the potential crossover between analytic and television aesthetics; and the notion of ‘moments’ in television.
In 2003, Sarah co-founded Manchester University Press’ The Television Series, which she now edits with Jonathan Bignell (Reading) and Lucy Fife Donaldson (St. Andrews). The series now includes over twenty books which explore important television creators, writers and showrunners, and key television genres. A new strand of edited books, Moments in Television, address specific instances of television from a broadly aesthetic perspective, and reflect upon critical terms in TV studies. Sarah is co-editor of the first four collections – Style/substance: moments in television (MUP, 2022), Complexity/simplicity: moments in television (MUP, 2022), Sound/image: moments in television (MUP, 2022) and Epic/everyday: moments in television (MUP, forthcoming 2022).
Sarah is currently working on a book about television aesthetics and episodic TV.
In adaptation studies, Sarah’s first book, Adaptation revisited: television and the classic novel (MUP, 2002), reappraised the television classic-novel adaptation and theories of adaptation. Her second, Andrew Davies (MUP, 2005), considered the work of the prolific screenwriter, addressing questions of authorship, interpretation and evaluation. Sarah’s current work explores how adaptation studies might benefit from a fresh perspective drawn from analytic aesthetics. Recent projects have examined the distinction between adaptation and intertexuality, and adaptation’s connection with visual culture.
Sarah is Editorial Advisor on the Board of Critical Studies in Television; on the advisory board for the book series Adaptation and Visual Culture (Palgrave Macmillan); and on the scientific committee for SERIES.
When a full-time lecturer at Kent, Sarah Cardwell collaborated with academics across and beyond the university, including internationally. She acted as peer reviewer for AHRC research leave applications. She has given invited keynote addresses at various conferences on adaptation, including the Literature Film Association’s annual conference in 2003, in the USA; the Annual Ferens Fine Art Film Lecture, 2004 (University of Hull); and a conference focusing on period dramas (University of Hull, 2012).
From 2000-2007 Sarah created and convened the following courses:
She also taught on the following undergraduate courses:
From 2000-2007 Sarah supervised and examined a range of undergraduate dissertations and postgraduate research projects.
She was internal examiner for several PhDs within Film at Kent, covering subjects as varied as cognitive film theory; British romantic comedies; the films of David Lean; British cinema and textual analysis; and film theory, cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
She was external examiner for a number of MA and PhD theses at other universities, falling under adaptation studies and literary/film aesthetics.
Sarah is able to supervise research projects within these areas: television aesthetics; adaptation studies and comparative studies of the narrative arts; television drama (especially, but not exclusively, British); and conceptual explorations of film/television/narrative arts from the perspective of analytic philosophical aesthetics. She supervises postgraduates at the University of Kent and the University of Reading.
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