Lifetime Achievement Award for Richard Dyer

Congratulations to Professor Richard Dyer, who has been honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2014 British Academy of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Conference. 

The three-day conference includes a special screening of Professor Dyer’s ‘Desert Island Movie’, Kamal Amrohi’s timeless Pakeezah, and concludes with his keynote paper on The Persistence of Textual Analysis.

Richard Dyer studied languages and Philosophy at St Andrews University, before gaining his PhD at the University of Birmingham in the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. His book Stars, first published in 1979, played a crucial role in establishing the academic discipline of Star Studies, and among his subsequent works are several landmarks in their fields – in particular Now You See It: Historical Studies on Lesbian and Gay Film (1990) and White: Essays on Race and Culture (1997). He was appointed Professor of Film Studies at King’s in 2006, and has held Visiting Professorships at Weimar, Stockholm and St Andrews amongst others.

Professor Dyer’s long-standing friend and colleague Ginette Vincendeau said of the award, “It recognises the incomparable contribution Richard has made to Film Studies and Cultural Studies. His work combines the fun and excitement of explaining why entertainment is … entertaining, with penetrating views of its cultural, aesthetic and ideological implications.”