ROBYN WORONKA

I am a Canadian-British cultural geographer, focusing on film geographies.   I have studied at British and Canadian universities, including Bishop's University (BA Canadian studies, 1996), University of Westminster (MA Urban regeneration, 2000), University for the Creative Arts (Documentary filmmaking, 2017) and University of Reading (PhD, Film geography, 2026).  Having spent the past 25 years between the UK and Canada, I have worked in urban and rural community regeneration for several years before combining these experiences into a PhD.

 

My interests are people, places, and film, with a focus on community-led, bottom-up, and collaborative initiatives.  Watching films and television helps me find meaning and make sense of the world, and I am often drawn to the film's setting. I am a visual thinker, seeing the world through pictures and patterns.  I continuously view, decode, and interact with the world (both internally and externally) through images, prioritising them as a way to see and understand meaning.  Examined as social practice and cultural product, film geographies offer a place to examine and (re)imagine a world that fosters connections between people and place, both on-screen and off-screen, and across space and time.  

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I am always looking for creative, challenging ideas and projects in the UK and Canada that aim to improve our understanding of cultural and geographical identities and their representations within a local, national and global context.