Prof Tom Rice

Prof Tom Rice

Director of Impact

Director of Research

Professor

Phone
+44 (0)1334 46 7472
Email
twtr@st-andrews.ac.uk
Location
101a North Street
Office hours
On research leave

 

Biography

Professor Tom Rice is a film, media and cultural historian, with particular expertise in colonial cinemas and non-theatrical film. His first book,  (Indiana University Press, 2015) examines the role of cinema in the formation, development and demise of the Ku Klux Klan between 1915 and 1944. He has spoken on aspects of this work for  and , for print media (including the ) and written articles based on this research for publications including  and . 

Rice鈥檚 second book, (University of California Press, 2019) was supported by a Leverhulme Fellowship (2016/17). It explores the establishment and growth of the Colonial Film Units (particularly in Africa and the Caribbean) from the 1920s to the 1960s, charting the British Government鈥檚 widespread production and mobile exhibition of educational film across the British Empire. Rice previously served as the senior postdoctoral researcher on a major 3-year AHRC-funded project, writing historical essays on more than 200 films and production companies (). In close collaboration with archives, he has also helped to organise film seasons, conferences and educational programmes.

Rice鈥檚 latest book project, Conservative Convergence: The Daily Mail and the Making of Modern Media, will be published by Bloomsbury Academic in 2026. The book, which is funded by a , tracks the ways in which conservative British newspapers, exemplified by the Daily Mail, pioneered, produced and exploited new media forms across the 20th century, from early film to radio, from newsreels to commercial television.

Rice is also currently Co-I (with Professor Vinzenz Hediger, Goethe Universit盲t-Frankfurt) of a major European project on educational filmstrips, a critically-neglected media form that was extensively used across the globe in the mid-20th century. 鈥溾�� (2025-2027), which is funded by the , builds on an earlier (2022-2024). His interest in film history and archival research is also evident through an archival research project established for teaching in 2011.

Rice has served a wide range of administrative roles at St Andrews, including Director of Teaching and Director of Postgraduate Studies and has successfully supervised ten PhD students to completion.

Teaching

Rice has taught (or co-taught) on numerous honours and Mlitt modules, including Film and the Archive; Colonial Cinema; Film and History; Watching the Detectives: Murder, Mystery and the Media; Film Genres, Silent Cinema; and War and Cinema.   

PhD supervision

  • Katrina Dungay

Selected publications

  • Open access
    Rice, T., 23 Oct 2021, In: Film History. 33, 3, p. 63-93 28 p.

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Rice, T., 3 Sept 2019, Oakland, CA: University of California Press. 343 p.

    Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book

  • Open access
    Rice, T., Jan 2018, Cinema鈥檚 Military Industrial Complex . Wasson, H. & Grieveson, L. (eds.). University of California Press, p. 95-115

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter

  • Rice, T., 19 Dec 2017, A Companion to D.W. Griffith . Keil, C. (ed.). Wiley-Blackwell, p. 463-485

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter

  • Rice, T., Jan 2016, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 302 p.

    Research output: Book/Report 鈥� Book

  • Open access
    Rice, T., 2016, In: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. 36, 3, p. 331-351

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Open access
    Rice, T. & Yumibe, J., Jul 2015, In: Journal of British Cinema and Television. 12, 3, p. 321-341

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Rice, T., Jul 2013, In: Journal of British Cinema and Television. 10, 3, p. 430-451

    Research output: Contribution to journal 鈥� Article 鈥� peer-review

  • Rice, T., Oct 2011, Empire and Film. Grieveson, L. & MacCabe, C. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 115-133 (Cultural Histories of Cinema).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter

  • Rice, T., 2011, Film and the End of Empire. Grieveson, L. & MacCabe, C. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 135-153 (Cultural Histories of Cinema).

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding 鈥� Chapter