My Expertise
Cinema Studies, Iranian Cinema, German Cinema, National Cinemas
Keywords
Fields of Research (FoR)
Screen and digital media, Cultural studiesSEO tags
Biography
I am Associate Professor in Film Studies and a fellow of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy.
My Qualifications
BA (Hons 1) (University of Sydney)
PhD (University of Sydney)
My Research Activities
My core research and publication activities are driven by my longstanding interest in the cinemas of Germany and Iran. These vastly different national cinemas are closely connected through my theorisation of...view more
I am Associate Professor in Film Studies and a fellow of the UNSW Scientia Education Academy.
My Qualifications
BA (Hons 1) (University of Sydney)
PhD (University of Sydney)
My Research Activities
My core research and publication activities are driven by my longstanding interest in the cinemas of Germany and Iran. These vastly different national cinemas are closely connected through my theorisation of allegorical processes in film combined with a close attention to the impact of socio-political and historical contexts on the development of film style. My current research is focused primarily on Iranian cinema. This emphasis on Iranian cinema has allowed me to extend and expand my theorisation of allegorical cinema into an area of national cinema studies that is both contemporary and dynamic. My most recent research project looks at the German films of the Iranian Filmmaker Sohrab Shahid Saless.
My new book Allegory in Iranian Cinema: The Aesthetics of Poetry and Resistance will be published by Bloomsbury on 25 July 2019
My Research Supervision
Supervision keywords
Areas of supervision
I am interested in supervising Honours students in a wide range of topics in Film Studies including national, transnational, transcultural cinemas, various dimensions of film theory including feminist film theory, the work of Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze.
I am interested in supervising MA (Research) and PhD projects in areas closely related to my research in Iranian and German cinemas and will consider students wishing to research other dimensions of national, transnational and inter-cultural cinema. Students wishing to apply for a PhD must be well-versed in film theory and film studies methods, including close film analysis.
I am also available to co-supervise PhD projects in areas more removed from my specific expertise if a qualified main supervisor is available.
Currently supervising
PhD Supervisions
Current PhD Supervisions:
- Mahsa Salamati: Circulation of Iranian Cinema
- Mazda Moradabbasi: Theoretical Approach to Literary Adaptation in Iranian Cinema with a Focus on the New Wave Cinema and Child-Centered Films
- Max Bledstein: Terrors of Identity: Horror and Historical Trauma in Contemporary Iranian Cinema
- Adineh Khojastehpour: Gender Translated across Cultures and Media: A Study of Gender Politics in Iranian Cinematic Adaptations of World Literature
- Luke Robinson: The Disappearing Faces of 1940s Hollywood Crime Films (caretaker supervisor)
Successful PhD Completions:
- Teo Miaw Lee: Industry, Space and Identity: Diasporic Chinese Indonesian Filmmaking in Perspective (2018)
- Melanie Robson: The Long Take in Contemporary European Cinema (as co-supervisor) (2017)
- Klara Bruveris: Globalisation and Latvian Cinema: Examining the impact of global flows on the development of aesthetic and thematic trends in contemporary Latvian film (2016)
- Rodney Wallis: (Re)Imagining the Promised Land: Israel and America in American Post-war Cinema (as co-supervisor) (2016)
- Rosa Holman: Iranian Women’s Cinema: Recovering Voice, Reclaiming Authority (2015)
- Louise Malcolm: Film Performance in the Films of Wong Kar-Wai (2014)
- Naadir Junaid: Bengali political cinema: protest and social transformation (as co-supervisor) (2013)
- Sanaz Fotouhi: Ways of Being, Lines of Becoming: A Study of Post-Revolutionary Iranian Literature in English (as joint supervisor) (2012)
- Eva Lewkowicz: Beyond the Happy Ending: Re-Viewing Female 'Citizenship' in the Mexican Telenovela Industry (2011)
- AeGyung Shim: Korean Cinema of Perseverance: Pushing the Boundaries of Quality During the Park Chung Hee Authoritarian Era, 1961-1970 (2010) (as co-supervisor)
- Khosrow Shahriari: Breaking Down Borders and Bridging Barriers: Iranian Taziyeh Theatre (2007)
Honours Supervisions
- Alex Malcolm 'Affective Memory in Post-2000s Zainichi Cinema' (2019 - caretaker supervisor)
- Zachary Karpinellison Negotiating Spectatorship: Censorship and Change in Hollywood Films Released in China' (2018)
- Thi Tuong Vi Nguyen 'Red Silk and Golden Flowers: An analysis of Zhang Yimou’s Ju Dou (1990) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006)' (2011)
- Klara Bruveris "‘Wished-for’ Masculinities and Harsh Realities: Searching for the Latvian Man" (2010)
- Martin Clarke 'The Return of the Sacred in Contemporary Hollywood Cinema.' (2009)
My Engagement
I am academic program co-ordinator for the Persian Film Festival
My Teaching
Introduction to Film Studies
Issues in Film Styles and Aesthetics (focus on allegorical cinema)
National Cinemas
Honours in Film Studies
Contact
Publications
ORCID as entered in ROS
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9025-2417
Related Links
FASS - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Faculty of Arts and Social Science (University of New South Wales) homepage