Oliver Gruner

My research focuses on historical representation, cultural memory and the politics of visual culture. In particular, I am interested in the 1960s and 1970s as a period of profound political, social and cultural transformation. My monograph Screening the Sixties: Hollywood Cinema and the Politics of Memory (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) explored filmic representations of the “long sixties” in the United States and the ways in which filmmakers engaged with wider public debates on the meaning and legacy of this era. I am currently working on a monograph exploring Hollywood screenwriters of the 60s and 70s. My interest in this period of US history and visual culture has also developed into several book chapters and journal articles pertaining to sixties representation, film and visual historiography. Collaborations with colleagues in illustration and graphic design led to a series of practice-research outputs based on the subject, including “Steal This History: Historiography, the Sixties and the Comic” (published in Rethinking History), which explored the potential of the comic as a conduit for sixties histories, and “Gettysburg Inc.: The Use and Abuse of an Historical Icon” (published in journal The Poster), which examined graphic design as a political form of history-telling. I continue to be interested in the intersection of history, theory and practice and, in 2022 organised "The Whole Earth: NASA's 'Blue Marble' Photograph 50 Years On", an event that brought together historians, scientists, artists and designers in a revisiting of this iconic image.