Jenny Chamarette is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media at The Open University, as well as a writer, curator, and artist. Originally trained in modern European languages at University of Cambridge, she earned a PhD in French continental philosophy and visual cultures and has previously held academic positions at the Universities of Cambridge, Leicester, Reading, and Queen Mary University of London.
Chamarette’s work is driven by ethical-political, feminist, and equalities-based values, with a focus on nurturing socially engaged interdisciplinary research. Drawing on intersectional feminist, ecological, disability-informed, and systems-based methodologies, her research addresses critical questions in filmmaking, exhibition practices, archives, museums, and contemporary art. Across her work, she is particularly interested in the relationships between bodies, technologies, environments, and forms of agency, including self-fashioning, creative practice, digital access labor, and cultural power.
Alongside a substantial body of single-authored scholarship on film, artist moving image, phenomenology, archives, museums, and issues of gender, sexuality, disability, and race, Chamarette continues to collaborate on innovative projects in social practice, curation, and programming. She also writes nonfiction, fiction, and experimental art writing for a range of independent and trade publications, with work that has been shortlisted and longlisted for national and international writing prizes.
From 2018–2022, Chamarette served as Co-Investigator on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded project The Legacies of Stephen Dwoskin’s Personal Cinema, dedicated to preserving and expanding access to the archive of Stephen Dwoskin. Working with a multidisciplinary team of artists, historians, and technology specialists, the project developed a “360-degree model” of analysis combining archival research, disability studies, forensic visualization, data imaging, and machine learning techniques.
Chamarette also works extensively with the screen and cultural industries to advocate for more equitable and compassionate working practices. Through projects such as How Do You Feel Cinema?, co-designed with interdisciplinary artist Gaylene Gould in collaboration with the British Film Institute and the Independent Cinema Office, she has helped create restorative spaces of care for cinema workers and audiences. She has also collaborated with the advocacy organization RAISING FILMS on industry research exploring the experiences of parents and carers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and continues to work with creative industries on accessibility, equity, and compassionate cultural practice.
