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
Peer-Reviewed Publications
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 - 100
Ruth Barton, Bad Sisters " space, class and the reimagining of Dublin, Transnational Screens, 15, (1), 2024, p31 - 44
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 - 210
Ruth Barton, Memories of Home: The Belfast Films of Mark Cousins and Kenneth Branagh, Journal of British Cinema and Television, 20, (3), 2023, p329 - 344
Ruth Barton and Denis Murphy, Prominent careers and Irish screen policy, Irish Journal of Arts Management and Cultural Policy, 9, 2022, p4 - 42
Barton, Ruth, Trauma, Motive and the Post-Troubles Psychopath in The Fall, Television & New Media, 22, (1), 2021, p32 - 46
Hedy Lamarr, Jennifer Sartori, The Shalvi/Hyman Encyclopedia of Jewish Women, online, Jewish Women's Archive, 2021, [Ruth Barton]
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 - 95
Ruth Barton, The end of time: Bullet in the Brain, Short Film Studies, 10, (2), 2020, p207 - 210
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]
Barton, Ruth; , The Cinematic Informer, New Hibernia Review, 24, (2), 2020, p33 - 70
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]
Screening Irish-America in, editor(s)Hill, John , A Companion to British and Irish Cinema, Hoboken, NJ, Wiley Blackwell, 2019, pp532 - 544, [Barton, Ruth]
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]
Barton, Ruth, Irish cinema in the twenty-first century, Manchester and New York, Manchester University Press, 2019, 1 - 248pp
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]
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]
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]
Barton, Ruth Trezise, Simon, Music and Sound in Silent Film, From the Nickelodeon to The Artist, London and New York, Routledge, 2018
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]
Barton, Ruth, A Female Voice in Irish Cinema: Women Filmmakers and the Creative Documentary, New Hibernia Review, 21, (2), 2017, p17 - 32
Ruth Barton, Narrating Clerical Sexual Abuse, The Journal of English Language & Literature, 63, (4), 2017, p641 - 658
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 - E15
Ruth Barton, Jimmy's Hall, Irish Cinema and the Telling of History, Review of Irish Studies in Europe, one, (one), 2016, p93 - 106
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]
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]
Ruth Barton, Haunted memories: Rex Ingram, Francis Hitchcock and World War One, Offaly Heritage, 8, 2015, p139 - 144
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 Ireland
Estudios Irlandeses, Spain, AEDEI, [editor review section Irish Media publications], 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' Network
"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]
Ruth Barton, Every Plot Has a Story, Estudios Irlandeses, (10), 2015, p197 - 197
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]
Barton, Ruth, Into What Future?, Short Film Studies, 4, (2), 2014, p153 - 156
Barton, Ruth, Rex Ingram, Visionary Director of the Silent Screen, Lexington, Kentucky, University Press of Kentucky, 2014, ix - 262pp
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]
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]
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]
Ruth Barton, Cultural Baggage - Pirjo Hokkanen's Matka, Short Film Studies, 4, (1), 2013, p35 - 38
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]
Ruth Barton, Silent Ritual: Marcell Ivany's Wind, Short Film Studies, 2, (2), 2012, p193 - 196
Ruth Barton, The O'Kalem Collection on DVD: Implications for future research, New Hibernia Review, 16, (2), 2012, p137 - 142
Ruth Barton, Tuning in to Sunday, Short Film Studies, 1, (2), 2011, p311 - 314
Neil Jordan: Superstition and Religion in, editor(s)Werner Huber Seån Crosson , Contemporary Irish Film, Vienna, Braumuller, 2011, pp105 - 114, [Ruth Barton]
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]
Irish Studies Review, 19, 1, (2011), Ruth Barton, [eds.], special issue
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]
Ruth Barton, Hedy Lamarr: The Most Beautiful Woman in FIlm, 1st, Lexington, University of Kentucky Press, 2010, 1 - 281pp
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]
Ruth Barton (ed.), Screening Irish-America, Dublin and Portland, Or., Irish Academic Press, 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]
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]
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]
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]
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]
Ruth Barton, Maureen O'Hara: Pirate Queen, Feminist Icon?, Éire-Ireland, 41, (1/2), 2006, p142 - 168
Ruth Barton, Acting Irish in Hollywood: From Fitzgerald to Farrell, pbk; hbk, USA and Ireland, Irish Academic Press, 2006
Jim Sheridan in, editor(s)Anthony Roche , The UCD Aesthetic, Dublin, New Island, 2005, pp190 - 198, [Ruth Barton]
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]
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 - 45
Ruth Barton, Harvey O'Brien, Keeping it Real: Irish Film and Television, pbk, New York and London, Wallflower Press, 2004
Ruth Barton, Irish National Cinema, pbk; hbk, New York, London, Routledge, 2004
Ruth Barton, Jim Sheridan: Framing the Nation, pbk, Dublin, The Liffey Press, 2002, xi-175pp
Ruth Barton, Kitsch as authenticity, Irish Studies Review, 9, (2), 2001, p193 - 202
Ruth Barton, The Ballykissangelisation of Ireland, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 20, (3), 2000, p413 - 426
Ruth Barton, Feisty Colleens and Faithful Sons, Gender in Irish Cinema, Cineaste, xxiv, (2/3), 1999, p40 - 45
Ruth Barton, Irish Cinema - From History to Heritage, The Irish Review, 21, 1997, p41 - 56
Non-Peer-Reviewed Publications
Ruth Barton, Why are so many Irish films and filmmakers nominated for Oscars?, 2023, 461 - 469
Ruth Barton, The War on Film, Irish Times, (25 May), 2021, p12 - 13
Ruth Barton, Is Chariots of Fire still the best Olympics' film ever?, 2021, -
Ruth Barton, Contemporary Irish Cinema, NEI Digital Roundtable, online, 29 June 2021, edited by Beatriz Kopschitz Bastos , 2021
Barton, Ruth; Murphy, Denis, Ecologies of Cultural Production, Dublin, February , 2020, p1 - 99
Ruth Barton, 'Come Live With Me', Hedy Lamar - Fremder Star, Berlin Zeughaus Kino, 17 August, 2019, Deutsches Historisches Museum
Barton, Ruth, New Dublin on screen - a place of freedom and choice, The Conversation, 2019
Ruth Barton, Women in Irish Cinema, San Patricio 2019 | La mujer en la cultura irlandesa, Universidad de La Rioja , 13 March, 2019, Melania Terrazas Gallego
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 UFSC
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, SPECTRESS
Ruth Barton, Screening 1916, 2017, - 14-15
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, 2016
Ruth Barton, Jimmy's Hall, Whose Story is it?, SOFEIR, Paris, March, 2015
Ruth Barton, Rethinking heritage cinema: how tourism has inflected the national visual imaginary., AEDEI 2015, Granada, Spain, May 2015, 2015
Ruth Barton, Rex Ingram: The Magician of Nice, ACIS/CAIS, UCD, June , 2014
Barton, Ruth, Brothers in arms: the soldier and the director: , Irish Times, (8 November), 2014, p9 - 9
Ruth Barton, Retrieving Rex Ingram, Irish Cinema, UCC, April, 2013
Ruth Barton, City Break Cinema, European Heritage Cinema, University of Leeds, September , 2013
Ruth Barton, Screening Irish-America III, 30 March , 2012
Ruth Barton, Old Mother Riley Goes to the Pictures, EFACIS, University of Salford, September, 2011
Ruth Barton, Repair it - or replace it entirely? Fatherhood and contemporary Irish cinema, Masculinities in Irish Popular Culture, NUI Galway, 2011
Barton, Ruth, Guide to 'Psycho' and our love of the thriller, Review of The Moment of Psychosis, by David Thompson , Irish Times, (17 February), 2010
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, 2010
Ruth Barton, Screening the Irish in Britain, 26 September , 2009, Arts Technology Research Laboratory, TCD
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), 2008
Ruth Barton, Screening Irish-America, April , 2007, University College Dublin
Barton, Ruth, War waif, screen icon, Review of Enchantment: the life of Audrey Hepburn, by Donald Spoto , Irish Times, (15 July), 2006
Barton, Ruth, What Katy really did, Review of Kate: the woman who was Katherine Hepburn, by William J Mann , Irish Times, (11 November), 2006
Barton, Ruth, Not a lot of people know that . . ., Review of Michael Caine: A Class Act, by Christopher Bray , Irish Times, (8 October), 2005
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), 2004
Barton, Ruth, Method man with the blues, Review of Paul Newman, by Daniel O'Brien , Irish Times, (27 November), 2004
Ruth Barton, Harvey O'Brien, Keeping it Real, April , 2002, University College Dublin
Research Expertise
Description
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.Projects
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
Recognition
Representations
External examiner, DKIT, 2015-2018
Awards and Honours
Fellow of Trinity College
Elected Member of Royal Irish Academy
IRCHSS Postdoctoral Fellow
IRCHSS Doctoral Fellow
Memberships
Member of Board of Long Room Hub, Trinity's Arts and Humanities Institute
Member of board of Irish Humanities Alliance