Dr David Sorfa (MA, PhD)

Senior Lecturer in Film Studies | Programme Director of Film Studies

Biography

Background

Dr David Sorfa is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University  of Edinburgh. He is Programme Director of the MSc and PhD in Film Studies and has served as the Postgraduate Research Director for the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the journal Film-Philosophy and convenes the Academic Committee of Edinburgh University Press. He was previously Head of Film Studies at Liverpool John Moores University

He has published work on existential imagining in film, the problem of freedom in independent American cinema, suicide in film, Czech cinema, surrealism, belief and the presentation of thought on screen. He has particular interests in existentialism, phenomenology, the philosophy of fiction, and the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and Albert Camus. 

Qualifications

  • PhD (University of Kent)
  • MA (University of Cape Town)
  • BA (Hons) (University of Cape Town)

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Director of the MSc and PhD in Film Studies
  • Graduate School Research and Ethics Director
  • Editorial Board Member, Film-Philosophy journal
  • Convenor of the Academic Committee of Edinburgh University Press
  • Edinburgh Network for Studies in Secrecy
  • Member of the SGSAH Media, Communications, Film & TV Catalyst
  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

Membership

  • British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS)
  • UK Sartre Society

Previous

  • Programme Director of the MSc in Film Studies (2013-2022), (2025- present)
  • Postgraduate Research Director for LLC (2020-2022)
  • Editor-in-Chief, Film-Philosophy journal (2006-2026)
  • Board Trustee for the Africa in Motion Film Festival (2015 - 2019)

Undergraduate teaching

Postgraduate teaching

Previous:

  • Film Adaptation
  • Cinema Auteurs
  • Film Criticism and Analysis
  • Comparative Literature (2 seminars on Jacques Derrida)

Open to PhD supervision enquiries?

Yes

Areas of interest for supervision

I welcome PhD applications in the areas of film-philosophy, film theory and cinematic aesthetics. I am particularly interested in projects related to existentialism.

If you are interested in applying for the PhD in Film Studies please go to: https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/film/phd-film-studies

Current PhD students supervised

  • Coming-of-Age in American,  British and Czech/Slovak Cinema
  • Existentialism and the War Film
  • Justice in Contemporary American Horror Film
  • Lars von Trier and Søren Kierkegaard
  • H. P.  Lovecraft and Postliterary Adaptation

Past PhD students supervised

Principal Supervisor

Assistant Supervisor

Research summary

  • Film-philosophy and film theory
  • Existentialism
  • Phenomenology
  • Czech, European and English-language cinema

Current research interests

Fiction and imagination via existentialism

  • 2016 - 2020: MA Film Studies, King's College London
  • 2016 - 2020: BA Film Studies and English, MLitt Film Studies, University of Dundee
  • 2010 - 2014: BA Film, Falmouth University
  • 2010 - 2014: BA Film, University of the West of England, Bristol
  • 2008 - 2012: MA Screening Europe, University of Swansea

PhD External Examiner

  • 2023: University of Sydney
  • 2019: Liverpool John Moores University
  • 2019: University of Leeds (MPhil)
  • 2016: Royal College of Art
  • 2014: University of Cape Town
  • 2014: University of Western Australia
  • 2008: University of Cape Town
  • 2007: University of Cape Town
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