Research
Vinter is passionate about decolonial, anti-racist, anti-ableist and inclusive research and teaching practices and has integrated these into their work. Their research interests include the video-essay, experimental cinema, modernism and film-philosophy, particularly that of Jean-François Lyotard. As a neuroqueer researcher and filmmaker of colour, Vinter is also interested in exploring the intersections of disabled subjectivities, as well as disabled, queer and Black cinema.
In 2015 they completed an MA in Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths College, the University of London, with a particular focus on the relationship between literature, art, aesthetics and the problematics of representation in the work of Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin and Maurice Blanchot. This culminated in their dissertation; 'Utopia in fragments: Art and Adorno's Negative Dialectics after Shoah' supervised by the psychoanalyst and Emeritus Professor, Josh Cohen. This research explored Adorno's philosophy in relation to the work of Anselm Kiefer and Andrei Tarkovsky.
They have previously taught at The University of Warwick, delivering the film component of the first-year core module, ‘Film and Television Criticism’ and the third-year module, ‘The Practice of Film Criticism’, which drew on their specialism in video-essay and practice-based research. This intensive and practical module focused on the creation of film criticism in mediums including: the video-essay, podcasts, interviews and articles. Vinter’s video-essays have been recognised by BFI’s Sight & Sound and nominated for Learning on Screen Awards and have been published in [In] Transition.
At Birmingham, they have previously co-delivered the undergraduate module ‘Film Genre’ and the Postgraduate modules, ‘Documentary Filmmaking’ and ‘Research Skills in Film and Television.’ As the co-research assistant for B-Film, they co-created, organised and chaired the 2022 conference Cinema in the Margins: On the Edges and Borders with Ella Wright, which championed marginalised voices and experimental forms of film research. The symposium offered a platform for scholarship and practice-led research on feminist, queer, Black, disability centered and transnational film.
Their practice-led doctoral research, ‘Inhuman, all too Inhuman: Lyotard, Nihilism and Film’ developed Jean-François Lyotard’s thinking, namely his notions of the inhuman, acinemas and the libidinal within the realm of film through an audio-visual methodology which included a portfolio of experimental films and video-essays they created. Such an approach to my research was essential, both for their engagement with Lyotard's ideas and his fight against systems of totalisation, and domination, be it imperialism, capital, the academy and his defence of difference and justice, but significantly allowed for the centering of Vinter's neurodivergent subjectivity. In turn, this research questioned the viability of film as a site of resistance against what Lyotard terms the inhuman, as well as its positioning in relation to the textual and film theory. Moreover, this work set out to examine audio-visual approaches for pedagogy, and in turn deterritorialise the boundaries of creative and artistic practice, philosophy and academic research. This research was supervised by Associate Professor in Film, Dr Richard Langley and Emeritus Professor, Dr. Rob Stone. Importantly, this research is soon to be published as a monograph. As well as film-philosophy, they have a particular interest in experimental cinema, sound and critical theory.
Vinter is a member of BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies) and MeCCSA (Media, Communication and Cultural Studies Association). At the 2021 BAFTSS conference hosted by CIFR, they were a speaker at the ECR roundtable on ‘Applying for Fellowships, Lectureships and Post-Doc Roles’. Vinter also presented on the ‘Embodiment and Experimental Cinema’ panel, where they screened one of their films and presented an accompanying paper. From 2020-2022 they were the Book Review Editor, and towards the end of their tenure, the Creative Editor for Ad Alta: the Birmingham Journal of Literature.