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 robust research and development for fiction and non-fiction narratives alike, especially in the essay film form, and for the translation of complex systems, as intended in the sciences and the humanities, into effective communication via creative processes that apply Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
While leading research for the SIG Essay Film Form of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS), as a member of the Screenwriting Research Network (SRN) Executive Committee, but also as a member of the SIG Narrative and Complex Systems of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Narrative Studies of the University of York, Romana's creative practice questions the dialogue between archival research, photography, silenced history, and auto-ethnography. Within her pedagogical service, Romana leads the Comparative Screenwriting Teaching Research for the SRN. The new field of research offers a novel take on the teaching of screenwriting, applications in Virtual Reality (VR) and relation with and to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Recently, Romana completed the essay film and installation entitled Three Sisters in a Sketchbook (2024), which won as Best Biographical Film at the Toronto International Women Film Festival 2025; and as Best Short Documentary at the LA Independent Film Channel Festival (November 2024). The film was selected as finalist at Tokyo International Short Film Festival 2025, the LA Independent Women Film Awards 2024, and the Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards and Festivals 2024.
Romana's creative practice includes 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.
Publications include Edited Anthologies, Special Issues of the Journal of Screenwriting, and an array of articles in academic and professional journals (see AUBREI). 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 – BFS, Arts University Bournemouth
- Screenwriting – BFS, Arts University Bournemouth; Film Department, Univeristy of York; Film Department, Univerity of Greenwich.
- Non-Fiction – Film Department, University of York; English Department, University of Indianapolis.
- Film Research and Development – Film Department, University of York
- Adaptation – Film Department, University of York; English Department, University of Indianapolis; Film Department, Univerity of Greenwich.
- Literature into Film – English Department, University of Indianapolis.
- Creative Practice – BFS, Arts University Bournemouth; Film Department, University of York; English Department, University of Indianapolis.
- PhD supervision – BFS, Arts University Bournemouth
My Teaching Gallery
Research
Research Interests and Projects
I see creative writing and screenwriting as both a research practice within the academy, and as hybrid and fluid ways to generate and disseminate new knowledge in the arts and the sciences. I am 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 via creative processes that apply Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA).
The dialogue between theory and practice is applied in my own creative practice, in writing both text and images, in a dialogue with the in-between, and the juxtaposed.
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. (2026). The Objects of Creative Practice - A Diary in Authoetnography, Essay Film Form and Italian Silenced History. London: Routledge.
- Turina, R. (2026). Gli Oggetti della Pratica Creative. Venice: Bucanevis Press.
- 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.
Awards and Prizes
Notable awards/prizes
Romana completed the essay film and installation entitled Three Sisters in a Sketchbook (2024), which won as Best Biographical Film at the Toronto International Women Film Festival 2025; and as Best Short Documentary at the LA Independent Film Channel Festival (November 2024). The film was selected as finalist at Tokyo International Short Film Festival 2025, the LA Independent Women Film Awards 2024, and the Hollywood Independent Filmmaker Awards and Festivals 2024.
My Awards and Prizes Gallery
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