Dr Romana Turina
Associate Professor – BA (Hons) Film ProductionPhD, MA, PGCE, FHEA, SEDAOverview
Dr Romana Turina is a screenwriter, filmmaker and historian. Currently, Romana focuses her research on exploring writing processes that enable faster and more robust development for fiction and non-fiction narratives alike, especially in the essay film form, and the translation of complex systems, as intended in sciences and the humanities, into effective communication for vast audiences.
While leading research for the SIG Essay Film Form of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies, and as an active member of the SIG Narrative and Complex Systems of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Narrative Studies of the University of York, Romana's creative practice continues questioning the dialogue between archival research and narratives, building on a professional practice in film and documentary that prompted her to work in the essay film form and explore the links between research 'in and as film' in the expression of complex realities, silenced history, the sciences and auto-ethnography.
Recently, Romana completed the essay film and installation entitled Three Sisters in a Sketchbook (2024), a nominee at the Toronto International Women Film Festival 2025; winner of Best Short Documentary at the LA Independent Film Channel Festival (November 2024), and running finalist; selected a the LA Independent Women Film Awards 2024, Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards and Festivals 2024. Her creative practice works include the awarded essay films Lunch with Family (2016) and San Sabba (2016), shortlisted at the AHRC Research in Film Awards and awarded at the Hollywood International Independent Documentary Awards 2018. Her films can be watched online on various platforms, but also on the British Council - UK Films Database, a database of new and recent UK produced and UK co-produced films.
Within her pedagogical engagement, Romana leads the Comparative Screenwriting Teaching research for the Screenwriting Research Network. The new field of research aims to offer a fresh take on the teaching of screenwriting, applications in VR and relation with and to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Before joining AUB, Romana taught creative writing and screenwriting at the University of Indianapolis, the University of York, and the University of Greenwich.
Qualifications
Qualifications
- PhD Theatre, Film and Television (University of York)
- MA Screenwriting (Bournemouth University)
- MA English (University of Indianapolis)
Teaching Qualification
- PGCE Creative Education (University of the Creative Arts)
- SEDA Supervising Research Degrees (University of the Arts London)
Teaching
- Storytelling – BA (Hons) Film Production
- Screenwriting – BA (Hons) Film Production
- Creative Practice and Research – MA Film Practice
Research
Research Interests and Projects
I see creative writing and screenwriting as a research practice within the academy. Also, I conceive of writing as hybrid and fluid and as a way to generate and disseminate new knowledge in the arts and the sciences. Simultaneously, while leading research for the SIG Essay Film Form of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies, I'm active in the creative processes, analysis and reflection around the Essay Film Form – as an arena of experimentation and dissemination of human complex realities, and scientific research and discoveries.
Consequently, the act of writing a screenplay within this be-frontal frame of interest is understood as a form of research, a form of communication, and laterally as a document for industrial production. Therefore, what has become known as the 'academic screenplay' becomes the process and method of a research enquiry, and the research artefacts become the dialogue between the author's thinking and making.
This process is of particular interest in the translation of scientific research and complex systems, where the act of dissemination is not immediately obvious, and benefits from threshold concepts found in screenwriting, e-storytelling – which need to be applied to the specificity of the communication act.
Research Supervision
I am interested in innovative and original research looking at the act of writing. Primarily, writing (and screenwriting) as a form of research and exploration in the translation and communication (into a variety of formats) of layered realities and complex systems in the humanities and sciences alike.
My Research Gallery
Professional Engagement
BOOKS:
- Turina, R. & Tianqi Yu, K. (Eds.), (2025). Essay Film and Narrative Techniques: Screen-writing Non-fiction. Bristol: Intellect.
CHAPTERS:
- 'Independent, short and controversial: the script development of San Sabba', in Batty C. and Taylor S. (2022), Script Development: International Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- ‘Narrative Experiences of History and Complex System’, in Walsh, R. & Stepney, S. (2018), Narrating Complexity, New York: Springer, pp. 123-141.
- Re-Making the Northeast: Trieste in Italian Cinema and the Remediation of Silenced History’, in Rayner J & Dobson, J, (2016), Mapping Cinematic Norths, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 223-240.
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS:
- Turina, R., Gee, M. (Eds) (2025). Screenwriting and AI: Emerging Theories, Modes, and Practices. Journal of Screenwriting, Special Issue, (Nov. 2025).
- Turina, R., Dooley, K. (Eds.) (2023). Virtual Reality: Exploring Technologies, Practices and Paradigms. Journal of Screenwriting, Special Issue., 02/02/2024: DOI
- Turina, R., Tremblay, G. (Eds.) (2022). The New Screenplay? Emerging Styles, Modes and Languages. Journal of Screenwriting, Special Issue. , 02/12/2022: DOI
- ‘Out in the open and invisible: the city as archive in the essay film San Sabba’, Landscape Research Journal, Special Issue: The City as Cinematic Archive, 19/10/2021: DOI.
- 'Autoethnography and Postmemory: A Methodology for the Use of Film Forms as Research’. Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, Issue 17, Summer 2019: DOI.
- 'Screenwriting Animation in the Essay Film : the challenges presented by Silenced History’, Journal of Screenwriting. Vol 9.03. December 2018, pp.297-316: DOI.
- 'Lunch with Family’, Screenworks, Volume 8.1, January 2018: DOI.
Memberships
Advance HE Membership
- Fellow (FHEA)
Professional Memberships
- Screenwriting Research Network (SNR)
- Complex Systems Society
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Narrative Studies - Narrative and Complex Systems - University of York
- British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS)
- International Association for Media and History (IAMH)
- Society of Authors