Sean Holmes

Sean teaches in the Film and Television Studies programme and is presently the Deputy Head of the School of Arts. He graduated from Durham University with a degree in Modern History. He went on to complete an MA in American History at Bowling Green State University, Ohio and a PhD in American History at New York University. He has published extensively on the politics of cultural production in the United States, focusing in particular on trade unionism in the early twentieth-century American theatre and the regulation of actors’ labour in silent-era Hollywood. His monograph Weavers of Dreams, Unite!: Actors’ Unionism in Early Twentieth-Century America will be published by the University of Illinois Press in early 2013 to coincide with the centenary of the founding of the Actors’ Equity Association, the union that represents American stage actors. He co-edited (with Andrew Dawson of the University of Greenwich) Working in the Global Film and Television Industries: Creativity, Systems, Space, Patronage (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2012), an interdisciplinary collection of essays on the experience of working in film and television production which Professor Steven J. Ross of the University of Southern California described as ‘the most wide-reaching multinational study of its kind.’

He has recently shifted the focus of his research from the American entertainment industry to the British film and television industries. He is collaborating with Andrew Dawson and the BECTU History Project on a number of oral history initiatives and has just begun a project on working with celluloid which will document the experiences of technicians (cutting-room workers, lab workers, projectionists, etc.) whose working lives, prior to the advent of digital technologies, were defined by handling film.

Research Overview

Though he will not be neglecting the history of work and workers in the American entertainment industry over the course of the next research cycle, the focus of his research has now shifted to the British context. He would welcome the opportunity to work with doctoral students who have an interest in any of the following: historical explorations of the work of technicians in the British film and television industries; production/work cultures in the British film and television industries; cultural production in relation to notions of art and craft; collaboration and creativity in the British film and television industry.

Teaching Activity

Sean teaches modules on The Western, Post-War European Cinema, and Crime Cinema. He is presently exploring ways of making connections between his research and his teaching by drawing students into the process of conducting oral history interviews with men and women who have spent their working lives in the British film and television industries.

Edited with Andrew Dawson. Working in the Global Film and Television Industries: Systems, Space, Patronage, and Creativity (London: Bloomsbury Academic, forthcoming 2012).

“Vaudeville” in Lynn Dumenil, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012).

“All Work or No Play: Key Themes in the History of the American Stage Actor as Worker,” European Journal of American Studies 2 (2008), document 6. Online since December 2, 2008. URL: http://ejas.revues.org/5673.

“Actors’ Equity Association” in Eric Arnesen, ed., Encyclopedia of Labor and Working-Class History (New York and Oxford: Routledge, 2007), 8-13.

“Actors’ Strike of 1919” in Eric Arnesen, ed., Encyclopedia of Labor and Working-Class History (New York and Oxford: Routledge, 2007), 13-14.

“Canned Cooking: Stage Actors, Screen Acting, and Cultural Hierarchy in the United States, 1912-1929,” Journal of American Drama and Theatre 17 (Winter 2005), 5-24.

“And the Villain Still Pursued Her: The Actors’ Equity Association in Hollywood, 1919-1929,” Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television 25 (March 2005), 27-50.

“All the World’s A Stage: The Actors’ Strike of 1919,” Journal of American History 91 (March 2005), 1291-1317.

“The Shuberts and the Actors’ Equity Association, 1913-1924,” The Passing Show: The Journal of the Shubert Archives (2003), 21-32.

 “When Elmer Met Juanita: Organized Labor and Women War Workers in the Toledo Flat Glass Industry, 1941-45,” Northwest Ohio Quarterly 73 (Summer/Fall 2001), 142-161.

 “The Hollywood Star System and the Regulation of Actors’ Labour, 1916-1934,” Film History 12 (2000), 97-114

Publications

Journal Papers

(2012) Holmes, SP., The BECTU History Project: A Postscript, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 32 (3) : 449- 451

(2012) Holmes, SP. and Dawson, A., 'Help to Preserve the Real Story of Our Cinema and Television Industries': The BECTU History Project and the Construction of British Media History, 1986-2010, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 32 (3) : 435- 448

(2008) Holmes, SP., All Work or No Play: Key Themes in the History of the American Stage Actor as Worker, European Journal of American Studies [online] 2008document 6

(2005) Holmes, SP., Canned cooking: Stage actors, screen acting, and cultural hierarchy in the United States, 1912-1929, Journal of American Drama and Theatre 17 (1) : 5- 24

(2005) Holmes, SP., All the world's a stage! The actors' strike of 1919, Journal of American History 91 (4) : 1291- 1317

(2005) Holmes, SP., And the villain still pursued her: The actors' equity association in Hollywood, 1919-1929, Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television 25 (1) : 27- 50

(2003) Holmes, SP., The Shuberts and the Actors’ Equity Association, 1913-1924, The Passing Show: The Journal of the Shubert Archives 21- 32

(2001) Holmes, SP., When Elmer met Juanita: Organized labor and women war workers in the Toledo flat glass industry, 1941-45, Northwest Ohio Quarterly 73 (3-4) : 142- 162

(2000) Holmes, SP., The Hollywood star system and the regulation of actors’ labour, 1916-1934, Film History 12 97- 114

Book Chapters

(2012) Holmes, SP., New Perspectives on Working in the Global Film and Television Industries. In: Holmes, SP. and Dawson, A. eds. Working in the Global Film and Television Industries: Systems, Space, Patronage, and Creativity. London : Bloomsbury Academic

(2012) Holmes, SP., No Room for Manoeuvre: Star Images and the Regulation of Actors' Labour in Silent-Era Hollywood. In: Working in the Global Film and Television Industries: Systems, Space, Patronage, and Creativity. London : Bloomsbury Academic

(2012) Holmes, SP., Vaudeville. In: Dumenil, L. ed. Oxford Encyclopedia of American Social History. Oxford and London : Oxford University Press

(1997) Holmes, SP., Margaret Sanger: A bibliographical essay. In: Parish, PJ. ed. Reader's guide to American history. Routledge -

Books

(2013) Holmes, SP., Weavers of Dreams, Unite!: Actors' Unionism in Early Twentieth-Century America. University of Illinois Press