Professor Emerita Judith Noble

<p>Professor Judith Noble is Professor Emerita at Arts University Plymouth. Her research interests centre on avant-garde and artists film. Surrealism, the occult and magic, and women artists working within these fields. She has published extensively on Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, Derek Jarman and other filmmakers. She founded the Black Mirror Research Network with Dominic Shepherd (Arts University Bournemouth) and Jesse Bransford (NYU Steinhardt). She is a founder member of the Inner Space Exploration Unit, an artists’ project with fellow members from the University of Cambridge and Arts University Bournemouth that makes collaborative practice-led research that is published online and exhibited physically. She is a Board member of the Research Network for the Study of Esoteric Practices (RENSEP) and in 2024 organised the inaugural RENSEP Artist’s Award.</p> <p>In 2014 she organised the Visions of Enchantment conference with Dan Zamani and Rachel Parikh. Before returning to Higher Education in 2007, she worked for many years in arts funding and the film industry. From 1984 - 96 she was Film and Television Officer at South West Arts; from 1996 - 2001 she was Chief Executive of the South West Media Development Agency and from 2001 - 2006 she was Head of Production at Sgrin Cymru Wales, where she was responsible for executive-producing and developing feature films supported by the Wales Lottery Film Fund. These included Peter Greenaway’s Tulse Luper Suitcases trilogy (in competition at Cannes and Berlin 2002 - 4), Amma Asante’s A Way Of Life (BAFTA winner 2005), Patagonia (Gruff Rhys) and Sleep, Furiously (Gideon Koppel). In 2007 she joined the staff of the BA (Hons) Film Production course at Arts University Bournemouth. She held an AUB Research Fellowship in 2010-11, trained as a PhD supervisor and became Course Leader for BA (Hons) Film Production in 2014 before taking up her current post at Arts University Plymouth. In 2016 she was appointed Associate Dean for Media and subsequently Head of Academic Research at Arts University Plymouth. Judith was appointed as Professor of Film and the Occult at Arts University Plymouth in 2023, and in 2025 was appointed as Professor Emerita.<br /></p> <p dir="ltr">Judith is a member of the International Society for the Study of Surrealism and the Modernist Studies Association. She is a trustee of Plymouth Arts Cinema. Judith holds an MFA from Reading (1980) and a BA (Hons) in Fine Art from Nottingham Trent (1978).<br /></p>