Allen, Richard

Richard Allen, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Cinema Studies New York University, New York & Hong Kong

Richard’s research interests as a scholar began in the areas of film theory and the philosophy of film.  His first book, Projecting Illusion, articulated a sophisticated version of the illusion theory of representation as a basis for defending a psychoanalytic conception of spectatorship. Much of his research has focused upon film poetics and aesthetics, in particular, the films of Alfred Hitchcock.  This research includes three Hitchcock anthologies and editorship of The Hitchcock Annual, the journal of Hitchcock studies, as well as his book Hitchcock’s Romantic Irony. Latterly, he has become interested in the poetics and aesthetics of Hindi cinema, whose most recent avatar is known as Bollywood, and he collaborated with Professor Ira Bhaskar of Jawarharlal Nehru University on curating a film festival in Abu Dhabi and New York — Muslim Cultures of Bombay Cinema, and publishing a book entitled Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema.