Dr Agata Frymus is a Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University Malaysia.

Before joining Monash, she was a Marie Sklodowska Curie postdoctoral fellow (under Horizon 2020) at Ghent University, Belgium, where she was a principal investigator on Black Cinema-Going in New York during the Interwar Period (2018-2020).

She is the author of Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood (Rutgers University Press, 2020). The book explores the personae of three stars of the silent era: Vilma Banky, Pola Negri and Jetta Goudal.

She serves as a submissions editor for Early Popular Visual Culture.

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PROJECTS

[3] Sustainability and Cinematic Heritage in Malaysia and Singapore (2022-2024). Principal Investigator. Co-investigators: Chrishandra Sebastiampillai, Thaatch Kananatu, Shyamala Dhoraisingam. Monash University Malaysia ECR Intra-School Grant. 70,000RM

[2] Malaysian Moviegoing in Kuala Lumpur during the 1970s (2020-2021). Principal Inverstigator. Monash University Malaysia, School of Arts and Social Sciences. 15,000RM

[1] Black Cinema-going in New York during the Interwar Period (2018- 2020). Principal Investigator. Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship, grant no. 792629, EU under Horizon 2020.  160,800€

Dr Frymus’ main interests lie in film history, star studies and silent cinema.

Her work focuses on the intersections between race, ethnicity, stardom, and audiences, particularly in the first half of the twentieth century. She is interested in bringing women - both as consumers of film, as well as producers and stars - to the forefront of film history.

Dr Agata is interested in supervising projects relating to feminism, race, and film history, broadly defined.

Current PhD students

2022 Choo Sum Lee, "Kawaii Kayfabe: Co-construction and Negotiation of Indonesian VTuber Talents’ Fictive Realities." With A/Prof Olivia Khoo (Monash Australia)