Colleen Laird

Colleen Laird, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC, Vancouver, Canada). Her primary research focus is on Japanese women directors and the industry relationships between women directors, female-identifying spectators, and the contemporary Japanese film market. She has published in the peer-reviewed journals [in]Transition, Tecmerin, Journal of Japanese and Korean Cinema, Feminist Media Studies, Frames Cinema Journal, MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture, and Jump Cut. She was the PI of the SSHRC grant for the “Embodying the Video Essay” (2023) and “Reframing the Argument” (2025) videographic workshops, is Co-PI for the “Ways of Undoing” AHRC-funded videographic project, co-organizer of the “Videographic Venice” workshops (2026-2028), and is co-founder of the “Ways of Doing” videographic collective. Her first monograph Sea Change: Japan’s New Wave of Female Film Directors is under contract with Rutgers University Press (forthcoming).