Mia EM Treacey

Dr Mia Treacey works in the interdisciplinary field of ‘Screened History’. Applying theories and methods from History, Screen Studies and Cultural Studies (among others), she explores the intersections between the past, screen representations and viewers. Reframing the Past: history, film and television (Routledge, 2016) is a history of the field, bringing together disconnected bodies of scholarship from America, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia. Connecting this research to the development of History and Screen Studies as disciplines, it considers the interactions between theoretical paradigms and the scholarship produced in different periods and fields. Engaging with the question raised by Robert A. Rosenstone in 1988, of how history will be practiced in a ‘post-literate age’, Mia’s work focuses on a stronger engagement with other disciplines to facilitate future scholarship on, and public communication of, history. After competing her PhD at Monash University, for the last 20 years she has taught in History, Film & Television Studies, and Specialist Transition programs at Monash University and Federation University Australia. She is currently completing a Master of Teaching (Secondary) at Deakin University, while also working on her own screened history research.

History and the Moving Image

The past has been a topic of interest to filmmakers since the invention of film. This chapter traces what historians, filmmakers and others have written about film - and television - from 1898 until the early 2010s. Drawing from the fields of history, film, television and cultural studies, it provides an introduction to a complex, international field of research. Identifying and analysing key works and individuals who have considered the representation of the past on screen, and the value of screen artefacts for history, it draws together contributions by theorists and practitioners to consider the patterns, themes, concerns and possibilities of history in moving images.