Jonathan Murray studied at the University of Glasgow, where he completed an undergraduate MA and PhD in Film and Television Studies and Scottish History. Jonathan also taught briefly at the University of Glasgow before taking up a post as Lecturer in Film and Visual Culture at Edinburgh College of Art in August 2003.

Since working at Edinburgh College of Art, Jonathan’s major research interests have lain in the field of contemporary Scottish and British cinemas and popular culture. In addition to a range of articles published in various peer-reviewed journals and scholarly anthologies, he is the editor (with Rod Stoneman and Fidelma Farley) of Scottish Cinema Now (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2009) and (with Nea Ehrlich) of Drawn from Life: Issues and Themes in Animated Documentary Cinema (Edinburgh University Press, 2018). He is also the author of the monographs Discomfort and Joy: the Cinema of Bill Forsyth (Peter Lang, 2011) and The New Scottish Cinema (I.B. Tauris, 2015). He is the former co-editor (with Maureen Furness) of Animation Journal and of the journal Visual Culture in Britain (Taylor & Francis) and current co-Principal Editor of Journal of British Cinema and Television (Edinburgh University Press). Jonathan is a Contributing Writer on the staff of Cineaste, America’s leading magazine on the art and politics of the cinema, and he also works regularly with or at film festivals in Scotland (the Edinburgh International Film Festival) and overseas (Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Varna World Festival of Animated Film).

Jonathan’s teaching at Edinburgh College of Art predominantly focuses on moving image history and theory. He runs and contributes to a number of undergraduate short courses in this field, including Contemporary Cinema.