Laura U. Marks
School for the Contemporary Arts
Simon Fraser University
lmarks@sfu.ca www.sfu.ca/~lmarks
Curriculum Vitae
Education
1996 Ph.D. in Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester. Dissertation: “The skin of the film: Experimental cinema and intercultural experience.”
1994 M.A. in Visual and Cultural Studies, University of Rochester.
1987 B.A. with High Honors, Art History and Sociology/Anthropology, Swarthmore College.
Employment
2021-2023 Honorary appointment, Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
2018 Visiting Professor, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies, Harvard University
2011- Full Professor and Grant Strate University Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University (until 2015, Dena Wosk University Professor)
2010 Guest faculty, The European Graduate School
2003-2011 Associate Professor and Dena Wosk University Professor, School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University.
1998-2000 Media curator, Available Light Collective, Ottawa
1991-present Independent programmer, critic, and editor
2002-3 Visiting scholar, Center for Behavioral Research, American University in Beirut
2001-3 Associate Professor of Film Studies, Carleton University. Tenured.
1996-2001 Assistant Professor of Film Studies, Carleton University
1995-1996 Mellon/Pew Fellow, Division of Critical Studies, California Institute of the Arts
1994-1995 Luce Foundation/American Council of Learned Societies Dissertation Fellow
1994 Rush Rhees Fellow, University of Rochester
1993-1995 Media curator, Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester, NY
1988-1999 Dancer, Colleen Hendrick Dance Theatre, Rochester, NY
1987-1991 Assistant editor, Afterimage magazine
Awards
2022 Fellow, Royal Society of Canada
2021 SFU Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Award for Excellence in Leadership
2017 College Art Association, Frank Jewett Mather Award for Art Criticism for Hanan al-Cinema: Affections for the Moving Image
2017 Outstanding Academic Title award, Choice magazine, for Hanan al-Cinema: Affections for the Moving Image
Publications
Books
The Fold: From Your Body to the Cosmos. Under contract, Duke University Press.
Hanan al-Cinema: Affections for the Moving Image. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2015.
Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010.
Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000.
Edited volumes
Forthcoming Co-editor (with Farshid Kazemi and Radek Przedpełski) “Under Evil Eye. Assassin Media Genealogies,” by members of Substantial Motion Research Network. Intensions.
2004 Co-editor (with J. Christopher Horak), Dossier on Curating and Programming, The Moving Image: Journal of the Association of Motion Picture Archivists 4:1 (Spring). 5 essays plus introduction.
2001 Co-editor (with Robin Curtis), “Out of Time,” catalogue section, Oberhausen Short Film Festival. 8 essays plus co-authored introduction.
Encyclopedia entries
2014 “Haptic Aesthetics,” Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, ed. Michael Kelly (Oxford University Press), 269-274.
2014 "Pixel/Cut/Vector," The Routledge Encyclopedia of Film Theory, ed. Edward Branigan and Warren Buckland (Routledge), 359-365.
Book chapters
2022 “Collapse Informatics and the Environmental Impact of Information and Communication Technologies,” Routledge Handbook of Ecomedia Studies, ed. Alenda Chang, Kiu-Wai Chu, Adrian Ivakhiv, Antonio Lopez, Stephen Rust, and Miriam Tola. Forthcoming.
2022 Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, “The Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: Problems, Calculations, Solutions,” in Film and TV Production in the Era of Accelerated Climate Change, ed. Pietari Kääpä and Hunter Vaughan (Basingstoke: Palgrave, forthcoming).
2022 “Large-File Streaming: An Unsustainable Pleasure,” in What Film Is Good For, ed. Julian Hanich and Martin Rossouw (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming)
2020 “Talisman-images: from the cosmos to your body.” In Deleuze, Guattari and the Arts of Multiplicity, ed. Radek Przedpełski and S. E. Wilmer. Edinburgh University Press. 231-259.
2020 “Which Came First, Fascism or Misogyny? Reading Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies,” in Spectres of Fascism, ed. Samir Gandesha. Pluto Press. 109-119.
2020 “Flashes of Arab Communism,” coda to The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures, ed. Aga Skrodza, Kasia Marciniak, and Xiaoning Lu. Oxford University Press. 735-743.
2018 “We will exchange your likeness and recreate you in what you will not know”: Cinema and intercultural process philosophy,” in The Anthem Handbook of Film Theory, ed. Hunter Vaughn and Tom Conley (London: Anthem Press), 119-141.
2018 “Affective Analysis,” in Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods, ed. Celia Lury, Rachel Fersham, et al. (New York: Routledge), 152-157.
2017 “I Feel Like an Abstract Line,” in Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia: Thresholds of Empathy with Art, ed. Daria Martin with Elinor Cleghorn (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 151-176.
2016 "Radical gestures of unfolding in films by Mohamed Soueid and The Otolith Group,” Gestures of Seeing in Film, Video and Drawing, ed. Asbjørn Grønstad, Henrik Gustafsson, and Øyvind Vågnes (London: Routledge), 69-88.
2016 “The muteness of the gods,” in More than Meets the Eye: The Videos of Tran T. Kim-Trang, ed. Jesse Lerner, Tran T. Kim-Trang, and Holly Willis http://scalar.usc.edu/works/more-than-meets-the-eye-the-videos-of-tran-t-kim-trang/the-muteness-of-the-gods
2015 “A vida em suas muitas dobras: Leibniz, Whitehead, Mulla Sadra,” trans. Davina Marques, in Conexões: Deleuze e Territórios e Fugas e…, ed. Davina Marques, Gisele Girardi, and Wenceslao Machado de Oliveira Júnior (Petropolis, Brazil: DP et Alii Editora). 95-120.
2015 “Thinking like a carpet: embodied perception and individuation in algorithmic media,” in The Cinema of Sensations, ed. Ágnes Pethö (Cambridge Scholars Press)
2014 “Arab Glitch,” in Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Visual Practice in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. Anthony Downey (I.B. Tauris/Ibraaz Publishing), 257-271.
2014 "Arab media art: experiments in exhibition," in Film Festival Yearbook 6: Film Festivals and the Middle East, ed. Dina Iordanova and Stefanie Van de Peer (St. Andrews University Press)
2014 “Noise in Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics,” in The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Digital Media, ed. Amy Herzog, John Richardson and Carol Vernallis (Oxford University Press). 101-114.
2014 “Enfolding-Unfolding aesthetics, or the unthought at the heart of wood,” in Technology and Desire: The Transgressive Art of Moving Images, ed. Rania Gaafar and Martin Schulz (Karlsruhe: ZKM and London: Intellect Books), 151-161.
2013 "From haptic to optical, performance to figuration: A history of representation at the bottom of a bowl," in Islam and the Politics of Culture in Europe: Memory, Aesthetics, Art, ed. Frank Peter, Sarah Dornhof, and Elena Arigita (Bielefeld: Transcript-Verlag Press), 237-263.
2013 “Thinking like a carpet: embodied perception and individuation in algorithmic media,” in Entautomatisierung [Deautomatization], ed. Annette Brauerhoch et al. (Paderborn, Germany: Wilhelm Fink)
2013 "Getting in Touch: Palestinian Video from Haptic Image to Networked Space," in Palestinian Video Art; Constellation of the Moving Image, ed. Bashir Makhoul (Jerusalem: Palestinian Art Court), 202-215.
2013 “A Deleuzian Ijtihad: Unfolding Deleuze’s Islamic sources occulted in the ethnic cleansing of Spain,” in Deleuze and Race, ed. Arun Saldhana and Jason Michael Adams (Edinburgh University Press), 51-72.
2012 “Vegetable Locomotion: A Deleuzian ethics/aesthetics of traveling plants,” in Revisiting Normativity with Deleuze, ed. Rosi Braidotti and Patricia Pisters (London: Continuum)
2010 "Words dream of being flowers, ducks dream of being words: the becoming-world of foliated Kufic,” in Variantology 4, ed. Siegfried Zielinski and Eckhard Fürlus (Köln: Walther König), 267-288.
2010 “Experience — Information — Image: A Historiography of Unfolding in Arab Cinema,” in Cinema at the Periphery, ed. Dina Iordanova, David Martin-Jones and Belén Vidal (Detroit: Wayne State University Press), 232-253.
2009 "Aniconism: An Islamic Idea Blooms Anew in Contemporary Art,” in Now Is the Time: Art and Theory in the 21st Century, ed. Jelle Bouwhis et al. (Amsterdam: NAi Publishers), 151-162.
2009 “Object Lesson: My Rock,” in The Object Reader, ed. Fiona Candlin and Raiford Guins (New York: Routledge), 503-505.
2008 "Genetic Algorithms, Caucasian Carpets, and Kunstwollen," in Place Studies in Art, Media, Science and Technology: Historical Investigations on the Sites and the Migration of Knowledge, ed. Andrteas Broekmann and Gunalan Nadarajan (VDG-Weimar), 221-241.
2007 “The Haptic Transfer and the Travels of the Abstract Line: Embodied perception from classical Islam to modern Europe,” in Verkörperungen/Embodiment, ed. Christina Lammer and Kim Sawchuck (Vienna: Löcker Verlag), 269-284.
2007 “Immigrant semiosis,” in Fluid Screens, Expanded Cinema: Digital Futures, ed. Susan Lord and Janine Marchessault (University of Toronto Press), 284-303.
2006 “Asphalt Nomadism: The new desert in contemporary Arab cinema,” in Landscape Cinema, ed. Martin Lefebvre (New York: Routledge), 125-147.
2006 “Mémoire et implication: les origines islamiques des médias numériques,” in Mémoire et culture, ed. Claude Filteau and Michel Beniamino (Presses Universitaire de Limoges), 305-311.
2003 “Invisible Media,” in New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality, ed. Anna Everett and John T. Caldwell (New York: Routledge), 33-46.
2001 “Live Video,” in The End of Cinema as We Know It, ed. Jon Lewis (New York: Routledge), 305-318.
2001 “Ten Years of Dreams About Art” (Canadian version), in English Canadian Cinema: An Anthology, ed. Jerry White and Bill Beard (Alberta: University of Alberta Press).
2000 “Signs of the time: Deleuze, Peirce and the documentary image,” in The Brain Is the Screen: Gilles Deleuze's Cinematic Philosophy, ed. Gregory Flaxman (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press). 193-214.
2000 “Ten Years of Dreams About Art,” in Lux: A Decade of Artist Film and Video, ed. Steve Reinke and Tom Taylor (Toronto: YYZ Press). 15-33.
1998 “Hara Kazuo,” with Scott MacDonald, in A Critical Cinema 3, by Scott MacDonald (Berkeley: University of California Press). 125-147.
1999 “Fetishes and fossils,” in Feminism and Documentary, ed. Diane Waldman and Janet Walker (Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press). 224-243.
Refereed articles
2022 Stephen Makonin, Laura U. Marks, Radek Przedpełski, Ramy El Mallah, Alejandro Rodriguez-Silva, “A Holistic End-To-End Model to Calculate the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media,” LIMITS ‘22, https://limits.pubpub.org/pub/calc/release/1
2018 "Lively Up Your Ontology: Bringing Deleuze into Sadrā’s Modulated Universe," Qui Parle? 27:2 (December): 321-354.
2017 “Poor Images, Ad Hoc Archives, Artists’ Rights: The Scrappy Beauties of Handmade Digital Culture,” International Journal of Communication, 11. 3899–3916.
2015 “Real Images Flow: Mulla Sadra Meets Film-Philosophy,” Film-Philosophy, 20, “A World of Cinemas” special issue, ed. David Martin-Jones. 24-46.
2015 “The taming of the haptic space, from Málaga to Valencia to Florence,” Muqarnas, 32, special issue, “Gazing Otherwise,” ed. Olga Bush and Avinoam Shalem. 253-278.
2015 “Monad, Database, Remix: Manners of Unfolding in The Last Angel of History," Black Camera 6:2, special issue on John Akomfrah, ed. Matthias de Groof and Stephanie Symons. 112-134.
2015 “What can a body do? Answers from Trablus, Cairo, Beirut, and Algiers,” Paragraph, 19:1, special issue, “Screening Embodiment,” ed. Nicholas Chare and Liz Watkins
2013 “Arab Experiments: Creation, Exhibition, Distribution," in proceedings of Think: Film, International Experimental CInema Congress 2012, http://thinkfilm.de/panel/avantgarde-lost-time-and-space-laura-u-marks
2011 “Calligraphic Animation: Documenting the Invisible,” in Animation 6:3, special issue on documentary (November): 245-262.
2009 “Information, Secrets, and Enigmas: An Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics for Cinema,” Screen 50:1, 50th anniversary special issue (Spring): 86-98.
2009 “‘Taking a Line for a Walk’ from the Abbasid Caliphate to Vector Graphics,” Third Text 23:3 (May): 229-240.
2008 “Thinking Multisensory Culture,” Paragraph 31:2, special issue on cinema and the senses, ed. Emma Wilson (July): 123-137.
2007 “Experience – Information – Image: a historiography of unfolding. Arab cinema as example,” Cultural Studies Review 14:1, special issue on “History Experiments” (March): 85-98.
2006 “Enfolding and Unfolding: An Aesthetics for the Information Age,” interactive essay produced in collaboration with designer Raegan Kelly, Vectors: Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular 1:3, www.vectorsjournal.org
2006 “Infinity and Accident: Strategies of Enfoldment in Islamic Art and Computer Art,” Leonardo 39:1 (Winter): 37-42.
2005 “In the University’s Ruins, Some Audiovisual Thoughts,” Intermedialités 1:3 (Winter): 173-189.
2004 “The Ethical Presenter, or, How to have Good Arguments Over Dinner,” The Moving Image: Journal of the Association of Motion Picture Archivists 4:1 (Spring)
2003 “What Is That ‘And’ between Arab Women and Video? The Case of Beirut,” Camera Obscura 18:2 (December): 41-70.
1998 “Video haptics and erotics,” Screen 39:4 (Winter): 331-348.
1997 “Loving a disappearing image,” in “Cinéma et mélancholie,” special issue of Cinémas (Fall), ed. Denise Pérusse and Denis Bellemare. 93-112.
1996 “The audience is revolting: coalition and transformation at the Flaherty Seminar,” Wide Angle 17:1-4. 277-291.
1994 “A Deleuzian politics of hybrid cinema,” Screen 34:3 (Autumn). 244-264.
1991 “Tie a yellow ribbon around me: masochism, militarism, and the Gulf war on TV,” Camera Obscura, 27. 55-75.
Major non-refereed articles
2021 Laura U. Marks, Stephen Makonin, Alejandro Rodriguez-Silva, and Radek Przedpełski. Final report, Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media, SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis grant. 58 pages.
Full report: https://www.sfu.ca/sca/projects---activities/streaming-carbon-footprint.html
Evidence brief: https://www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/society-societe/community-communite/ifca-iac/evidence_briefs-donnees_probantes/earth_carrying_capacity-capacite_limite_terre/marks_makonin_przedpelski_rodriguez-silva-eng.aspx
2021 Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, “Bandwidth Imperialism and Small-File Media,” in Post-45, special issue on “New Filmic Geographies” ed. Suzanne Enzerink. https://post45.org/2021/04/bandwidth-imperialism-and-small-file-media/
2020 Laura U. Marks, Joseph Clark, Jason Livingston, Denise Oleksijczuk, Lucas Hilderbrand, “Streaming Media’s Environmental Impact,” Media + Environment. https://mediaenviron.org/article/17242-streaming-media-s-environmental-impact
2020 “Small-File Movies: Saving the planet, one pixel at a time.” Millennium Film Journal 71/72 (Spring/Fall): 94-101.
2020 “Let’s Deal with the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media,” Afterimage 47:2, 46-52. https://online.ucpress.edu/afterimage/article/47/2/46/110729/Let-s-Deal-with-the-Carbon-Footprint-of-Streaming
2016 “Workshopping for Ideas: Jacques Rivette’s Out 1: Noli Me Tangere,” in “Dossier on Affect,” ed. Anne Rutherford, The Cine-Files, http://www.thecine-files.com/marks2016/
2015 “Dearest one, my sincere greetings to you, and how are you doing?”, in The Rumors of the World: Rethinking Trust in the Age of the Internet, ed. Omar Kholeif (Sternberg Press)
2012 “Immersed in the single channel: Experimental media from theater to gallery,” Millennium Film Journal 55 (Spring): 14-23.
2011 “Can cinema slow the flow of blood?”, on Noble Sacrifice by Vatche Boulghorjian, Senses and Society 6:3: 350-357.
2011 “Unfolding from the Real: Mediation as Connective Tissue,” Passagens (Universidade Federal de Rio de Janeiro), 6
2007 “Letters from Beirut,” Cultural Studies Review 14:1, special issue on “History Experiments” (March): 99-110.
2007 “Mohamed Soueid’s Cinema of Immanence,” Jump Cut, 49, http://ejumpcut.org/archive/jc49.2007/lauraMarks/index.html
2006 “Taking a Line for a Walk, from the Abbasid Caliphate to Computer Graphics,” The Capilano Review 2:50 (Fall): 58-67.
2006 “Letters from Beirut,” 12 letters widely distributed by e-mail during bombardment of Lebanon, July 16-28
2005 “Infinity, Enfoldment, and Accident: Toward an Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art,” Semiotic Inquiry 24: 1-3 (2005), 237-259.
2004 “Haptic Visuality: Touching with the Eyes,” Framework: The Finnish Art Review, 2 (November) http://www.framework.fi/2_2004/visitor/artikkelit/marks.html
2002 “The Task of the Digital Translator,” Artbrain: Journal of Neuro-Aesthetic Theory (www.artbrain.org) 2:1, May 2002
2000 “Video’s Body, Analog and Digital,” in “Show Reality / Reality Shows,” Nach dem Film, 2 (www.nachdemfilm.de).
2000 “Live Video,” The Independent 23:6 (July).
1999 “How electrons remember,” Millennium Film Journal, 34 (Autumn)
1999 “Low Tech Is How Electrons Remember,” in ‘The Tremors of Cinema - Visual Culture at the End of the Century,” Nach dem Film, 1 (www.nachdemfilm.de).
1998 “Inuit auteurs and arctic airwaves: Questions of southern reception,” Fuse 22:1 (Autumn)
1997 “The Quays' Institute Benjamenta: An olfactory view,” Afterimage 25:2 (September)
1996 “Hara Kazuo: 'I am very frightened by the things I film,'“ Spectator 16:2 (Spring/Summer)
1996 “Transnational objects: commodities in postcolonial displacement,” Parachute, 81 (Spring)
1996 “Love the one you're with: straight women, gay porn, and the scene of erotic looking,” Jump Cut, 40
1995 “Media becoming NOMAD,” with Sara Diamond, Felix 2:1
1995 “Ghosts of stories: Black Audio Film Collective's Who Needs a Heart?,” CineAction!, 36
1995 “The interactive citizen, the disappearing subject,” Parachute, 77
1994 “Reconfigured nationhood: A partisan history of the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation,” Afterimage 21:8
1993 “Packaged for export, contents under pressure: Canadian filmmakers in an international context,” Fuse 17:2
1993 “Animal appetites, animal identifications,” Parachute, 72
1993 “Sexual hybrids: from oriental exotic to postcolonial grotesque,” Parachute, 70
1993 “Here's gazing at you: a new spin on old porn exposes gender and generation gaps,” The Independent 16:3
1992 “The erotics of the public sphere,” Documents, 1
1992 “The language of terrorism,” Framework (London), 38
1992 “Images and identities: film and video in Canada,” Afterimage 20:2
1992 “Nice gun you got there: John Greyson's critique of masculinity,” Parachute, 66
1992 “White people in the native camera: subverting anthropology,” Afterimage 19:10
1992 “Healing the cultural body: Clarissa Sligh's unfinished business,” Center Quarterly, 49
1992 “Of many one: the Hybrid State films,” Black Film Review 7:1
1990 “Minor infractions: child pornography and the legislation of morality,” Afterimage 18:4
1990 “Classified information: new technologies in the archive,” Afterimage 18:1
1989 “Reinscribing the self: an interview with Clarissa Sligh,” Afterimage 17:5
1989 “Kodak's latent image: toxic spills in the company town,” Ten.8 (Birmingham, UK), 34
Selected catalogue essays, shorter essays, and reviews
2022 “NSFT Art: Sustainable, Equitable, and Fun!,” smallfile.ca
2021 “Streaming carbon footprint,” Tenth Cairo Video Festival program.
2021 “Talisman-images,” for “Questionnaire on the New Ontology of the Image,” The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics.
2021 “A Survey of ICT Engineering Research Confirms Streaming Media’s Carbon Footprint,” Media + Environment.
2021 “A World Where Flowers Reign,” essay for Jawa El Khash’s virtual-reality work The Upper Side of the Sky. Western Front, Vancouver.
2021 “Rehavi (Timekeepers) by Juan Castrillón: a talismanic film,” text for Society for Cultural Anthropology’s Screening Room online film series
2021 “Two Movies about Becoming-Plant,” review of Yim Soon-Rye, Little Forest (Korea, 2018) and Lisa Marie Malloy and JP Sniadecki, A Shape of Things to Come (U.S., 2020). Anthropologica. Forthcoming.
2020 “Steve Reinke’s Needlepoint of Cruelty.” Catalogue essay, Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien.
2020 “Living well is the best revenge,” gallery text for Ramin Haerizadeh, Rokni Haerizadeh, and Hesam Rahmanian, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt
2020 Laura U. Marks and Stephen Makonin, “Streaming video is overheating the planet.” Op-ed, The Vancouver Sun. August 15.
2020 “Streaming video, a surprising link between pandemic and climate crisis,” Journal of Visual Culture and Harun Farocki Institut special issue on Covid-19. https://www.harun-farocki-institut.org/en/2020/04/16/streaming-video-a-link-between-pandemic-and-climate-crisis-journal-of-visual-culture-hafi-2/
2019 “Scrappy Remediations,” Thresholds journal, MIT, ed. Sara Rifky and Warren Downey
2019 “Ardele Lister's Divine Irony.” Millennium Film Journal 70 (Fall): 14-23.
2019 “Enfolding-unfolding aesthetics,” commissioned pages for Tenderfoot, artist Laura White’s blog on material processes, tenderfoot.co.uk
2018 “Disturbing Sympathies,” catalogue essay for “Agency,” curated by James Bridle, with Suzanne Treister, Sophia al-Maria, Ingrid Burrington, Anna Ridler, Morehshin Allahyari, Constant Dullaart, Navine G. Khan-Dossos. Nome Gallery, Berlin.
2018 “The scent of places,” in Flaherty Stories, ed. Patricia Zimmermann https://faculty.ithaca.edu/patty/blogs/flaherty_stories/the_scent_of_places:__laura_u._marks/
2018 “Soul Cages,” in Strange Machines: The Films of Phillip Barker, ed. Mike Hoolboom (Toronto: Pleasure Dome)
2018 “Everyday Gods,” catalogue essay for “Transience,” generative public artwork by Flicker Art Media (Aleksandra Dulic and Kenneth Newby), Surrey Art Gallery, Surrey, BC.
2018 “Azadeh Emadi takes pixels for a spin,” catalogue essay, Azadeh Emadi, “Motion within Motion,” grunt gallery, Vancouver.
2017 “Experiments at Beirut Cinema Days,” Millennium Film Journal 66 (Fall): 12-15.
2016 “Gifts, Plunder, and a Secret: Wael Shawky’s Cabaret Crusades,” catalogue essay, Wael Shawky, ed. Carolyn Christof-Bakargiev and Marcella Beccaria (Torino: Castello di Rivoli Museo di Arte Contemporanea), 62-73.
2015 “My Favourite Words,” NOA (not only arabic), ed. Mounira Al Solh
2013 "Life in the Manifold: the landscapes of Mireille Kassar," catalogue essay, Mireille Kassar, Landscape or, Vision (Beirut: Agial Gallery)
2012 "An Embodied Geometry: Living forms in the work of Gerard Caris and Islamic art," catalogue essay, Gerard Caris (Istanbul: Kuad Gallery)
2012 "Moving Images," review, Art Dubai, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism 40:1 (Summer): 4-5
2012 “Imaginal Materials,” catalogue essay, Spectral Imprints, ed. Nat Muller, Abraaj Capital Art Prize
2012 Short contribution to Ibraaz Research Platform, www.ibraaz.org
2011 “Poems in the Skin of the World,” catalogue essay for La Certitude de l’ombre by Kali Jones and Maurizio Ruggiano (Palermo: Kalós Editions) http://kalijones.weebly.com/certainty-of-shadow--video.html
2010 “A Fond Forgetfulness: Jamelie Hassan's Archival Encounters,” catalogue essay, The Films and Videos of Jamelie Hassan, ed. Julian Haladyn and Miriam Jordan (Windsor, ON: Platform: Centre for Photographic and Digital Arts and the Art Gallery of Windsor).
2010 Review, Lebanese Cinema: Imagining the Civil War and Beyond by Lina Khatib, Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television
2010 “Ryoji Ikeda,” Millennium Film Journal, 53 (Fall/Winter)
2010 “Mounir Fatmi,” Millennium Film Journal, 53 (Fall/Winter)
2009 “Akram Zaatari’s In This House: Diagram with Olive Tree,” catalogue essay, Akram Zaatari, Earth of Endless Secrets (Frankfurt: Portikus Gallery), 228-231.
2009 “Eyes to See With,” catalogue essay for Tran T. Kim-Trang, The Blindness Series (Chicago: Video Data Bank), 13-27.
2009 “Taking your eyes for a crawl,” catalogue essay for Laura White: The Stuff of Images (London: Castlefield Publications), n.p.
2007 “Adel Abidin’s Baghdad Travels,” excerpt from catalogue essay, Universes in Universe (July). http://universes-in-universe.org/eng/islamic_world/articles/2007/adel_abidin
2007 “This Land Is Your Land: The Art of Adel Abidin,” catalogue essay for the Nordic Pavilion, 52nd Venice Biennale, Framework (Helsinki), 7 (June), 80-87
2007 “Lamia Joreige’s Objects of War,’ Art Journal 66: 2, special issue on Beirut
2006 “Letters from Beirut,” installation in The Window Project by Ho Tam, Victoria, September
2005 “Performance and its other side: Hassan Khan’s The Hidden Location,” catalogue essay, A Space (Toronto)
2004 “Haptic Visuality: Touching with the Eyes,” Framework: The Finnish Art Review, 2 (November)
2003 “Citizen Salloum,” Fuse (Autumn)
2003 Review, Atlas of Emotion: Journeys in Art, Architecture, and Film by Giuliana Bruno, Screen (Autumn)
2002 “The World Seen through Nomadic I’s,” catalogue essay for Argos Festival, Brussels
2002 “Objects in Need of Love (on the video works of Annie Martin),” catalogue essay for “Annie Martin,” Daimon Gallery, Hull
2002 “Plunging Into the Event,” catalogue essay for “Better Worlds” exhibition, Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen’s University
2002 “Packing Light,” catalogue essay for “Ces pays qui m’habitent: Expressions by Canadian Artists of Arab Origin,” Canadian Museum of Civilization.
2002 Review, Sure Seaters: The Emergence of Art House Cinema by Barbara Wilinsky. Association of Moving Image Archivists Journal
2001 “Dream resumé,” web site
2001 “In a Marginal State,” catalogue essay, “How” by Cathy Busby, Gallery 101, Ottawa
2001 “Immanent Domain,” catalogue essay, “Germaine Koh,” Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver
2001 “Slow down! Affect in the information age,” catalogue essay for “Out of Time” program, Oberhausen Film Festival, May
2000 Review, The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On / Yukiyukite Shingun by Jeffrey Ruoff and Kenneth Ruoff. Canadian Journal of Film Studies.
2000 Review, Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto, Afterimage 28:2 (September).
1999 Review, 25th Toronto International Film Festival, Afterimage 27: 5 (December).
1999 Review, Digital Aesthetics by Sean Cubitt, Screen 40:2 (Summer): 218-222
1999 “Computer-Assisted Pollination: Installation Art by Screen,” catalogue essay, “Image Duration: Ten Years at Gallery 101,” ed. Tim Dallett. Gallery 101, Ottawa
1999 “You Dropped Something,” catalogue essay, Softworlds (Janine Cirincione and Michael Ferraro), “The Dead Souls,” Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA
1999 Review, Robert Flaherty Film Seminar, Afterimage 27:2-3 (September/October)
1999 “Enter laughing: the new baroque in intercultural cinema,” catalogue essay, “No Cross, No King, No Margaritas in the Sun.” Art Institute of Chicago
1999 Review, “Crossings,” National Gallery of Canada. Fuse 22:1 (Winter)
1998 Review, Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies: Sexual Re-Orientation in Film and Video by Chris Straayer. Screen 39:3 (Autumn)
1997 “Caspar Stracke’s material image,” special issue of Milennium Film Journal on German experimental film, ed. Mike Hoolboom
1996 Catalogue essay, “Memories in an Apricot,” “ ...east of here... (reimagining the orient),” curated by Jayce Salloum, YYZ Artists’ Outlet (Toronto)
1996 “The haptic critic II,” in “Ethics,” special issue of Framework, ed. Roberto Bedoya (Los Angeles Center for Photographic Studies)
1996 “Brave things,” catalogue essay, Luca Buvoli, Dianna Frid and Anton Vidokle, “A Maze of Complicity,” YYZ
1996 Review, House of Pain by Mike Hoolboom, CineAction!, 40
1995 “Retracción/Retraction,” catalogue essay, Antoni Abad, “De Fuerza Mayor,” Museo de Teruel, Teruel, Spain
1995 Catalogue essay, Victor Masayesva, American Film Institute Maya Deren Awards
1995 Reviews in Artforum: “Press/Enter: Between Seduction and Disbelief,” Steve Reinke, “The Hundred Videos,” Janet Cardiff, “To Touch” (Toronto); “Dentro Brazil” (Long Beach)
1995 “The Blue Flame of Reason,” catalogue essay, Adrian Piper, University of Buffalo Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
1995 Review, Fresh Kill by Shu Lea Cheang, CineAction!, 36
1994 Reviews in Artforum: Robert Houle; “For Our Own Pleasure”; Shonagh Adelman, “Tele Donna”; Joanne Tod; “Revelaciones: Hispanic Art of Evanescence”
1994 “Agnostic witness” (review, Sixth Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New York), Afterimage 22:2
1993 “The haptic critic,” presented at “La jeune critique aujourd'hui,” École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris
1993 “Skin grafts: The good way to distribute multicultural media,” High Performance, 63
1993 Review, Montage International Festival of the Image, The Independent 16:8
1993 Reviews in Artforum: “The Final Frontier” ( New York); Teresa Cullen (Toronto); John Scott (Toronto); Andy Fabo (Toronto); Deborah Samuel (Toronto),
1993 “On the streets, between the sheets,” catalogue essay, First Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival
1993 Reviews, Shauna Beharry; “D'Ghetto Eyes” (film/video series), Parachute
1993 “The Indie 300” (review, Toronto International Film Festival of Festivals), Afterimage 22:3
1993 “Small pleasures” (review, Black Maria Film and Video Festival), Afterimage 22:2
1993 “Media arts at the Whitney Biennial: the skin of the film,” High Performance, 62
1993 Reviews in Fuse: Colette Urban; Joyce Nelson, Sign Crimes/Road Kill
1992 “The documentary obsession: Hara Kazuo,” The Independent 15:10
1992 “Slouching toward Palestine,” High Performance, 59
1992 Review, Sixth New York Gay and Lesbian Experimental Film Festival, Village Voice 37:37
1992 Review, “Infermental 9: The Heart of Europe,” Parachute, 67
1992 “Postpone death, prolong desire” (review, Playing with Power by Marsha Kinder), American Book Review 14:1
1992 “Communicable democracy” (conference review, “Democracy and Communication Technologies”), Fuse 15:3
1991 “Suspicious truths: Flaherty 1991” (review, 33rd Flaherty Film Seminar), Afterimage 19:3
1991 “Desire and Dissolution” (review, Sally's Beauty Spot, by Helen Lee), Afterimage 18:9
1990 “City planning as talking cure,” catalogue essay, “The City,” Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester, NY
1990 “Adrian Piper: reflections 1967-1987,” Fuse 14:1-2
1990 “Ritual and resistance” (review, Native American Film and Video Festival), Afterimage 17:6
Works reprinted and translated
2020 Translation of “What Can a Body Do?” into French for Regards, Institut d'Études Scéniques, Audiovisuelles et Cinématographiques, Université Saint-Joseph, Beirut
2019 Chapter 9 of Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art, reprinted in “Beyond Mind,” ed. Natasha Lushetich, special issue of Symbolism: the Interdisciplinary Journal of Critical Aesthetics (Berlin: De Gruyter)
2018 Translation of “A Deleuzian Ijtihad: Unfolding Deleuze’s Islamic sources occulted in the ethnic cleansing of Spain” into Malayalam by Shan Muhammad. http://campusalive.in/a-deleuzian-ijtihad/
2018 Translation of “Real Images Flow: Mulla Sadra Meets Film-Philosophy” into Malayalam by Anwar Haneefa. http://campusalive.in/cinemaandrealism/
2018 Translation of “The language of terrorism” into Malayalam by Salih Cholakkalath for Thelitcham magazine.
2018 “Asphaltnomaden. Die neue Wüste im unabhängigen arabischen Kino,” translation into German by Noll Brinckmann of “Asphalt Nomadism: The new desert in contemporary Arab cinema,” Montage AV: Zeirschrift für Theorie und Geschichter Audiovisueller Kommunication, special issue on “Arabischer Film” ed. Viola Shafik.
2018 “Unofficial Memory: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment and the Senses,” excerpt from The Skin of the Film in Senses and Sensation: Critical and Primary Sources, vols. I-IV, ed. David Howes (London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018)
2018 “Logika zapachu,” translation into Polish by Maciej Topolski of "The Logic of Smell." http://opcje.net.pl/laura-marks-logika-zapachu/
2016 “Circulation d’oeuvres expérimentales: créativité dans les systèmes métastables,” translation by Patricia Caillé of chapter 2 of Hanan al-Cinema, in La Circulation des Films: Afrique et Moyen-Orient, ed. Abdelfettah Benchenna, Patricia Caillé, and Nolwenn Mingant (Les Pilles, France: Africultures)
2016 “Mohamed Soueid’s Cinema of Immanence,” revised version, in The Essay Film, ed. Caroline Eades and Elizabeth Papazian (Wallflower Press)
2015 “Très chers, mes plus sincères salutations, et comment allez-vous?”, translation of “Dearest one, my sincere greetings to you, and how are you doing?”, in The Rumour of the World: Re-thinking Trust in the Age of the Internet, ed. Omar Kholeif (Sternberg Press)
2013 “Nice gun you got there: John Greyson's critique of masculinity,” reprinted in The Perils of Pedagogy: The Works of John Greyson, ed. Scott Mackenzie, Brenda Longfellow and Thomas Waugh (McGill-Queens UP)
2013 “Thinking Multisensory Culture,” reprinted in Carnal Aesthetics, ed. Bettina Papenburg and Marta Zarzycka (Routledge)
2012 "Baghdad, 830: Birth of the Algorithm," chapter 6 of Enfoldment and Infinity, reprinted in On Geometry and Speculation, ed. Hicham Khalidi (Marrakech: El Watanya), 27-58
2011 "Sense knowledge in diaspora: translation and ambivalence," excerpt from The Skin of the Film, reprinted in Mongols from Everywhere, ed. "Immanual Pourpre" (Sharjah, UAE: Sharjah Art Foundation), 74-77
2011 “Invisible media,” reprinted in The New Media and Technocultures Reader, ed. Seth Giddings and Martin Lister (New York: Routledge)
2011 “Thinking Multisensory Culture,” reprinted in Art and the Senses, ed. David Melcher and Francesca Bacci (Oxford University Press)
2010 “The Quays' Institute Benjamenta: An olfactory view,” translated into Polish for Thirteenth Month. The Films of Brothers Quay, ed. Kuba Mirkuda (Kracow: Korporacja Ha!art Press)
2010 “The Memory of Things,” chapter 2 of The Skin of the Film, translated into Portuguese for Cinema, Globalizacao e Interculturalidade (Cinema, Globalization, and Interculturality), ed. Denilson Lopes Silva and Andrea França Martins (Rio de Janeiro: Argos)
2009 Introduction to Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media, reprinted in The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader, rev. ed., ed. Amelia Jones (New York: Routledge)
2009 "How Electrons Remember," translated into Czech for Objekt animace. Tretì smysl ("Object Animation. Third Sense") ed. Martin Mazanec (Zlin, Czech Republic: Regional Art Gallery of Zlin, 2009)
2007 “Signs of the time: Deleuze, Peirce and the documentary image,” translated into Japanese for special issue on Deleuze and cinema, VOL (Tokyo), 2
2005 “Packaged for export, contents under pressure: Canadian filmmakers in an international context” (first published in Fuse, 1993), in Cultural Subjects: A Popular Culture Reader, ed. Allan Gedalof et al. (Toronto: Nelson)
2005 “Transnational objects: commodities in postcolonial displacement,” first published in Parachute, 1996), translated into Spanish for Parachute anthology (Murcia: Center of Documentation and Advanced Studies of Contemporary Art)
2005 “Amar una imagen que desaparece,” translation into Spanish by Fernando Pérez of “Loving a Disappearing Image” (first published in Cinémas, 1997) for Vertebra: Revistade Artes, Literatura y Critica (Chile), 9, 116-128.
2004 “Video Haptics and Erotics” translated into Flemish for “Touch,” special issue of AS (Brussels)
Talks at refereed conferences
2022 “Efficiency fever dreams,” talk on the panel “Compression politics and aesthetics: Mitigating the carbon footprint of streaming media” organized by Marek Jancovic and Judith Keilbach. NECS (European Network for Cinema and Media Studies), Bucharest, June 22 (by videoconference)
2022 “The Small File Media Festival,” talk on the panel “On Greening Film Festivals” organized by Ger Zielinski. Society for Cinema Studies 2022. April 3 (by videoconference)
2021 Talk on panel with Azadeh Emadi, Joseph Malbon, Laura U. Marks, and Radek Przedpełski, “Bending the possible (one pixel at a time): Small-file ecomedia for the Anthropocene,” pre-recorded panel, ISEA 2022. https://isea2022.isea-international.org/event/online-presentations/
2021 “Rebound Effects in Streaming and Video Conferencing,” talk at roundtable “Immaterial Material: The Carbon Footprint of Online Teaching and Learning,” organized by Yani Kong. UAAC, October 22. By videoconference.
2021 Laura U. Marks and Radek Przedpełski, “A Contribution to the Critique of the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media. Earth’s Carrying Capacity as a Regime of Capital in the Postdigital Age.” Talk on the panel “Capital, Nature, Infrastructure” at the conference Many Regimes of Capital in the Postdigital Age, University of Warsaw. By videoconference. October 20.
2021 “A Contribution to the Critique of the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media. Earth’s Carrying Capacity as a Regime of Capital in the Postdigital Age,” with Radek Przedpełski. Talk on the panel “Capital, Nature, Infrastructure” at the conference Many Regimes of Capital in the Postdigital Age, University of Warsaw. By videoconference. October 20.
2021 “Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media: A Transdisciplinary Laboratory for New Media Informatics.” With Radek Przedpełski. New Materialist Informatics 2021. March 24. By videoconference.
2021 “Streaming media populate the ether and heat the planet,” talk on the panel “Expanded Environments II,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies. March 21. By videoconference.
2020 Introduction, “Let’s Tackle the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media.” Roundtable, Society for Cinema and Media Studies. April 4. Video conference organized by SCMS’ Environmental Special Interest Group.
2019 Respondent, “Anthropology of and Through the Image,” American Anthropological Association2019, Vancouver. November 24.
2019 “Disarming anxious audiences,” talk on the roundtable “‘Reasons to Believe in this World:’ Film Programming after David Pendleton,” SCMS, Seattle. March 15
2018 Respondent on the panel “Imaginary Matters: Visualizing Space and History in the Global Middle East,” Middle East Studies Association, San Antonio. November 17
2018 Respondent on the panel “Cripping Film Theory,” SCMS. Toronto. March 4
2016 “Generative abstraction in the media artworks of Mounir Fatmi and Arthur Jafa,” talk at Abstraction Unframed, Fourth Annual Conference of AMCA, NYU Abu Dhabi and Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah
2016 “Co-Producing Distribution in Arab Experimental Cinema,” talk on the panel Joint Ventures: Middle Eastern Cine-Media in Co-Production, Past and Present. SCMS, Atlanta. April 1
2015 “Can metadata smell the fragrance of being?”, talk on the panel “Documentary Theory Redux,” Visible Evidence XXII, University of Toronto (August 20)
2014 “Experiments in the Archive,” talk on the panel “Defining Experimental & Art Films in Middle Eastern Cinemas,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Seattle (March 20)
2013 "Arab Glitch," talk on the panel "Glitch: Matter, Power, Aesthetics," Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Chicago (March 14)
2012 "Fabulation and Imaginal in Hadjithomas and Joreige’s Je Veux Voir," talk on the panel "Taking Place: Media Objects, Media Histories, and Middle East Studies," Middle East Studies Association annual conference, Denver (November 19)
2011 “Individuation in generative artworks and Caucasian carpets,” talk in the panel “Arabesque, Mandala, Algorithm: A Long History of Generative Art,” International Society of Electronic Arts, Istanbul (September 14)
2011 “Islamic Atomism in the films of Abderrahmane Sissako and Miranda July,” talk on the panel “Image Ethics,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, New Orleans (March 11)
2011 Respondent on the panel “Cinema and Software Studies,” Society for Cinema and Media Studies, New Orleans (March 11)
2011 “An enfolding-unfolding aesthetics for cinema,” talk at the conference “Rendering the Visible,” Atlanta (February 12)
2010 “Lebanese media arts of the post-postwar period,” talk on the panel “Poetics, Politics, and Arab Cinema,” Film Studies Association of Canada, Montréal, June 2, 2010
2009 "Neo-textualism in Arab and Muslim media art," talk on the panel "Pirated Politics: Contemporary art, artists, and the postproduction of the Middle East," Middle East Studies Association, Boston (November)
2009 "Working with Artists' Media," talk on the panel "Using Non-Traditional Materials in the Classroom," Middle East Studies Association, Boston (November)
2009 "Calligraphic animation: a critical revival of Islamic aesthetics," talk on the panel "Animation via Writing, Traces, and Inscription," Visible Evidence XVI, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (August 15)
2009 "Unfolding into the visible: On some relationships between Islamic Neoplatonism and the thought of Deleuze and Guattari," talk on the panel "Jolts of Cinema in Philosophy" at the 20th & 21th Century French and Francophone International Studies, Minneapolis (March 26)
2008 “Baroque fascination in casino movies and Safavid carpets,” talk at Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Philadelphia (March)
2007 “Artificial life from classical Islamic art to new media art, via 17th-century Holland,” at “Re: Place: Histories of New Media Art,” Berlin (November)
2006 “Algorithmic abstraction, perceptual unfolding, and artificial life, or, Taking a line for a walk from 9th C Iraq to 21st C computer graphics,” talk at Society for Cinema and Media Studies, Vancouver (March)
2005 “Latent rhythm: Algorithmic performativity in media art and Islamic art, or, The performativity of the vector,” at “Refresh! Histories of New Media, Banff, September
2005 “Mohamad Soueid’s Cinema of Immanence,” Visible Evidence 12: New Strategies in Documentary Film and Video (Concordia University, Montreal)
2005 Residency fellowship, Vectors Journal of Culture and Technology in a Dynamic Vernacular, University of Southern California (June)
2002 Panel organizer, “Fabulous Reality in Arab and Arab-Diasporan Documentary,” Visible Evidence 10: New Strategies in Documentary Film and Video, Université de Provence, Marseilles (December)
2002 “Necessary experiments: Arab women’s video in situ and in diaspora,” talk in the panel “Women and Video: Histories, Theories, Practices,” Society for Cinema Studies, Denver, CO (May)
2001 Presentation on the panel “Non-Academic Film Criticism,” Film Society of Canada, Québec City, Québec (May)
2001 “Disciplinary Action: Film Studies Seen From Elsewhere,” panel organized at the Film Studies Association of Canada, Québec City, Québec (May)
2000 “Lo-Tek Media: Immanence Online,” talk at International Society of Electronic Arts, Paris (December)
2000 “Video’s Queer Body,” talk on the panel “Canada’s Queer Geographies,” Film Studies Association of Canada, Edmonton (May)
2000 “Video's Body, Analog and Digital,” talk on the panel “Video Bodies,” Console-ing Passions annual conference on feminism and media, Notre Dame University (May)
2000 Chair, “Women on the Internet,” panel at Console-ing Passions annual conference on feminism and media, Notre Dame University (May)
2000 “Olfactory Montage,” talk on the panel “Cinematic Senses,” Uncommon Senses conference, Concordia University (April)
2000 “Live Video,” talk on the panel “In the Mix: Cut-and-Paste Aesthetics,” Society for Cinema Studies, Chicago (April)
1999 “The Task of the Digital Translator,” talk on the panel “The Sense of Translation,” Society for Cinema Studies, Florida State University (April)
1999 “LowTech.Org,” talk in the workshop “Transnational Digital Documentaries,” Visible Evidence 7: New Strategies in Documentary Film and Video, UCLA (August)
1998 “Olfactory Evidence,” talk in the workshop “Form and Fascination,” Visible Evidence 6: New Strategies in Documentary Film and Video,” San Francisco State University (August)
1998 “Intermedia Studies and Audiovisual Practice,” talk on the plenary “The Cutting Edge?”, Annual Screen Studies conference, Glasgow (July)
1998 “Olfaction and Intellection,” talk in the workshop “Bi-Sensitivity: Art as Cultural Analysis,” at “Come to Your Senses!”, Amsterdam Society for Cultural Analysis (May)
1998 “Nonorganic Subjectivity, or, Our Friend the Electron,” talk on the panel “Digital Technologies: Reconfiguring Bodies and Subjectivities,” Society for Cinema Studies, San Diego (April)
1998 “Authorship and Audience in Inuit Video,” talk on the panel “Reimagining the Arctic,” College Art Association, Toronto (March)
1997 “Loving a Disappearing Image,” talk on the panel “New Theories of Experimental Media,” Society for Cinema Studies, Ottawa (May)
1997 “A Digital Écriture Féminine?”, talk on the panel “Theorizing New Technologies,” “Console-ing Passions” annual conference on feminism, television and video, Montréal (May)
1996 “Video and tactility,” talk on the panel “Video Ontologies,” Society for Cinema Studies, Dallas (March)
1995 “Video haptics and erotics,” “Console-ing Passions” annual conference on feminism, television and video, Seattle (April)
1995 “Indigenous media inside and out,” Society for Cinema Studies, New York (March)
1994 “Transnational objects: commodities in postcolonial displacement,” “Visible Evidence II: New Strategies in Documentary Film and Video,” University of Southern California (August)
1994 “Love the one you're with: experimental pornography and the contingent gaze,” Society for Cinema Studies, Syracuse, NY
1993 “Hara Kazuo: Filmmaker as adversary, film subject as intercessor,” “Visible Evidence: New Issues in Documentary Film,” Duke University, Durham, NC
1993 “A Deleuzian politics of hybrid cinema,” Society for Cinema Studies, New Orleans, LA
Invited talks and public lectures
2022 Keynote talk at “Moroccan Diasporic Cinema,” Moroccan Association of Film Critics and Couaib Doukkali University, El Jadida, Morocco. October 11.
2022 “Soul-Assemblage media,” talk at Confronting Chaos, Queen’s University. August 26.
2022 “The promise and danger of mutual embodiment: experiencing Ligia Lewis’ Deader than Dead online.” talk at International Tanzmesse, September 3. By videoconference.
2022 “Julia Crabtree and William Evans Pl(a)y the Abstract Line.” Talk at Henry Moore Institute talk, Wednesday December 1, 2021. By videoconference.
2021 "Soul-Assemblage media," talk in the UC Berkeley Media Studies Fall 2021 Lecture Series, moderated by Minoo Moallem. October 28. By videoconference.
2021 “Mercurial Moments in Asian Video Art.” Talk to the San Francisco Society for Asian Art. September 3, 2020. By videoconference.
2021 "Let's Get Together with a Small Carbon Footprint," with Stephen Makonin; talk for Pacific AIDS Network on best practices for organizations. May 27. By videoconference. Compressed recording here
2021 “Curating the Flaherty,” talk at book launch of Flash Flaherty, ed. Scott MacDonald and Patricia R. Zimmermann. April 29. By videoconference.
2021 “The Small File Media Festival,” talk to the Animation; Experiment collective, hosted by New Media Society, Tehran. April 29. By videoconference.
2021 “Streaming Media, Online Conferences, and the Jevons Paradox,” keynote talk, British Association for American Studies, April 6. By videoconference.
2020 “Seeing in the dark,” keynote talk at “Dark Eden,” Sixth International Conference on Transdisciplinary Imaging at the Intersections between Art, Science, and Culture. November 6. By videoconference.
2020 “The Small File Media Festival,” keynote talk at NxtMedia 2020, Trondheim, Norway. By videoconference.
2020 “Moments of Light from Islamic Philosophy,” talk at the symposium “Light in Dark Times,” Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, September 16. By videoconference.
2019 “Luminous Images, hidden in the senses: From your body to the cosmos,” invited lecture, Department of Media, University of Glasgow. November 6
2019 “A radical indexicality: From your body to the cosmos,” Keynote lecture at “Light | Sensitive | Material” photography conference, London. November 1
2019 “Luminous Images, hidden in the senses: From your body to the cosmos,” invited lecture, Goldsmith’s, London. October 31
2019 “Luminous Images, hidden in the senses: From your body to the cosmos,” invited lecture, Kanner Lecture Series, Department of English, UCLA. October 10
2019 "Talisman-images: from the cosmos to your body," California College of the Arts, San Francisco. April 17
2019 “‘God Failed All My Tests”: Ardele Lister's Divine Irony,” lecture in honor of Ardele Lister on her retirement from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University. James J Florio Forum, 33 Livingston Ave, New Brunswick, NJ. April 4, 5 p.m.
2019 "Talisman-images: from the cosmos to your body," Miranda Joseph Endowed Lecture, Institute for LGBT Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. March 28
2019 "Talisman-images: from the cosmos to your body," PLASMA (Performances, Lectures and Screenings in Media Arts), SUNY Buffalo. February 18
2018 "Talisman-images gather the cosmos and press it to your body," talk in the "Thinking Cinema" series at Princeton University, and Affective Analysis workshop. Princeton. November 29
2018 "Talisman-images gather the cosmos and press it to your body" and Affective Analysis workshop, Columbia University Seminar on Affect Studies. Columbia University, New York. October 25
2018 "Losing My Cool: An Effective Research Strategy," visiting lecture hosted by Dr. Sung-shim Hong, Dean of Humanities, Chungnam National University, Daejeon. June 5
2018 "Losing My Cool: An Effective Research Strategy," keynote talk, Seoul International Women's Film Festival. June 4
2018 "Taqiyya: A genealogy of arts of the secret, at “Deleuze + Art: Multiplicities, Thresholds, Potentialities,” Trinity College Dublin. March 9
2018 “Luminous images, hidden in the senses,” talk at “Hold Me Now: Feel and Touch in an Unreal World,” Studium Generale Rietveld, Amsterdam. March 7
2017 “Creative Algorithms: From Islamic Art to Digital Media,” public lecture, Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. November 19
2017 “The Feelings of Fabulation,” talk at the symposium “The Afterlives of Witnessing: Moving Images from the Levant and the Political Imagination,” Middle East Studies program, Brown University, organized by Hanan Toukan and Kareem Estefan. November 4
2017 “Programming the Robert Flaherty Film Seminar,” talk at the symposium “Histories of Arab Documentary, Munich Filmuseum, organized by Viola Shafik and Kerstin Pinther. October 27
2017 “Roy Dib: Glamour and the wound,” talk in symposium following “Close to Here: A Performance by Roy Dib” organized by Pleasure Dome, Toronto. April 30.
2016 “Algorithmic, Networked, Live: Islamic aesthetics never went out of fashion." Talk on the panel “A Media Archaeology of Ingenious Designs: Middle-East Pasts and Futurisms,” Istanbul Design Biennial. November 19
2016 “Suwar fil Sarayan—Figures in a Flow,” keynote talk at Light Moves Festival of Screendance, Limerick, Ireland. November 4
2016 “DIY Archives: Unfolding from Any Point Whatever,” keynote talk at "Critique and the Untranslatability of History,” Center for the Arts and Humanities, American University of Beirut. May 12-14
2016 “Haptic Cinema,” workshop at DocsMX festival, Mexico City. October 20
2016 “Losing My Cool: An Effective Research Strategy,” lecture in the series “Things that Move Us: Affect and Authority,” Heinrich-Heine-University, Düsseldorf. April 27
2016 “The scrappy beauties of handmade digital culture,” talk at the symposium “Convergence and Disjuncture in Global Digital Culture?”, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, April 7
2016 “I Feel Like an Abstract Line,” keynote talk at MAGIS International Film Studies Spring School, Gorizia, Italy. March 13
2015 Book launch, Hanan al-Cinema, and discussion with Walid Sadek. Beirut Art Center. December 9.
2015 “Archival Romances,” Film Department, American University of Beirut. December 9.
2015 Book launch, Hanan al-Cinema. Townhouse Gallery, Cairo. December 7.
2015 Talk at “Syria Speaks,” Sixth Annual DocuAsia Forum, Melville Centre for Dialogue, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Richmond, BC. November 24
2015 “Mulla Sadra Meets Cinema Studies,” University of Århus. March 18.
2015 “Metadata and the fragrance of being: data-analytic artworks by VJ Um Amel,” talk at the symposium “Projection/Expulsion: Strategies of Beholding,” Chelsea College London. March 15.
2014 “Mulla Sadra Meets Cinema Studies,” Istanbul Sehir University. November 13.
2014 “Thinking Like a Carpet: Embodied perception and individuation in algorithmic media,” Istanbul Sehir University. November 12.
2014 “I Feel Like an Abstract Line,” talk at the ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, University of Melbourne. July 30.
2014 “Affective Analysis,” workshop in Angela Ndalianis’ graduate seminar, University of Melbourne. July 28.
2014 “Monad, Database, Remix: Manners of Unfolding in The Last Angel of History,” keynote lecture at the symposium “The Artifactual Image: Fragments, Folds and Futures.” Auckland University of Technology. July 25.
2014 “What Can A Body Do? Answers from Arab Cinema.” Talk at Auckland Art Gallery. July 23.
2014 “I Feel Like an Abstract Line,” talk at the University of Auckland. July 21.
2014 “Mulla Sadra Meets Cinema Studies,” keynote lecture, Film-Philosophy conference, Glasgow, July 2-4
2014 “Arab Glitch,” talk in Jon Cates’ graduate seminar “Intensities,” School of the Art Institute of Chicago. April 4.
2014 “Monad, Database, Remix: Manners of Unfolding in The Last Angel of History,” talk in the symposium “Cinematic Conversations,” MIT Center for Art, Science, and Technology. March 7.
2014 “I Feel Like an Abstract Line,” talk sponsored by Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University. February 12.
2014 “Enfoldment and Infinity,” seminar with PhD students in Film and Visual Studies, Harvard University. February 11.
2014 “Enfoldment and Infinity,” seminar in Dr. Peter McMurray’s course “Islam and Media Studies,” MIT. February 11.
2014 “I Feel Like an Abstract Line,” talk at the symposium “Mirror-Touch: Synaesthesia and the Social,” Tate Modern, London. February 7
2014 "Practicing Affective Analysis with Hassan Khan's Blind Ambition (2012),” workshop at Ruskin School of Art, University of Oxford. February 5.
2013 “An Archeology of Haptic Perception,” talk at the symposium "Plateaux de la perception” organized by Dr. Kuniichi Uno, Rikkyo University, Tokyo. December 15.
2013 “What happens in the affective pause: views from Spinoza, Deleuze, and Whitehead.” Talk in Randy Lee Cutler’s class “Interdisciplinary Forums,” Emily Carr University. October 10
2013 Discussion with Dr. Yasser Tabbaa and students from the course “Islam and Cinema: Light, Sound and Space” at “Islamic Media: Sense and Sensation,” Duke University, October 4
2013 "Life in the Manifold: Mulla Sadra, Deleuze, Whitehead," talk at V Seminário Conexões: Deleuze e Territórios e Fugas e… and the XII Seminário Internacional de Filosofia: Nietzsche/Deleuze, State University of Campinas, São Paulo. August 20.
2013 “Affective Analysis,” workshop in Antonio Amorim’s graduate seminar, State University of Campinas, São Paulo. August 18.
2013 "Aromatic Events: how plant communication makes us more than human," talk at the symposium "The Secret Life of Plants," Princeton. May 3
2013 "Immersed in the single channel: Media art exhibition, distribution, and getting paid," talk at Townhouse Gallery, Cairo. April 23
2013 "Cinematic friendships: intercessors, collectives, and collaborations in Arab media arts," talk at the conference "Being With…," IKKM, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. April 18
2013 “’A secret about a secret that is veiled by another secret’: An enfolding-unfolding aesthetics for documentary," talk at Aarhus University, Denmark. April 16
2013 "Noise in Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics," talk at Laurentian University, Sudbury, ON. February 4
2013 "Experiments in Arab Cinema," talk at Goldsmith's College, London. January 17.
2013 "Noise in Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics," talk at Royal College of Art, London. January 16
2013 "Getting in Touch: Palestinian Video from Haptic Image to Networked Space," talk at Lund University, Sweden. January 14
2012 "From single-channel to installation: questions regarding distribution and artists' rights," talk on the panel "Avantgarde: Lost in Time and Space," International Experimental Media Congress: THINK, FILM!, Berlin, October 13
2012 “Further Travels of the Abstract Line,” talk at the conference “Gazing Otherwise: Modalities of Seeing,” Max Planck Institute, Florence. October 10-12
2012 "Immersed in the single channel: Experimental media from theater to gallery,” talk at Home Workshop, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut. June 19
2012 “Thinking like a carpet: embodied perception and individuation in algorithmic media,” keynote lecture at “Cinema of Sensations,” 14th Annual Cinema and Media Studies Conference in Transylvania, Sapientia University, Cluj-Napoca, Transylvania. May 26
2012 “Looking not at but beyond: mosaics and performative pixels in Byzantine, Islamic, and new media art,” talk at the conference “Byzantium/Modernism: Art, Cultural Heritage, and the Avant-Gardes,” Yale University. April 22
2012 Visiting Distinguished Scholar in Aesthetics and Politics, in Media and Critical/Visual Studies, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn. April 18-19
2012 "Enfolding-Unfolding aesthetics, or the unthought at the heart of wood," lecture in the School of Architecture, University of Utah. April 12
2012 “Individuation in enfolding-unfolding aesthetics,” keynote lecture at “Instability in Visual and Material Culture,” University of Alberta Art and Design Graduate Student Association conference. March 17
2012 "Manners of Unfolding in Documentary Cinema,” President’s Faculty Lecture, Simon Fraser University, January 31
2012 “Cinematic Friendships,” talk at “MOA Global Dialogue: Nomadic Aesthetics and the Importance of Place,” UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver. January 22
2011 "Enfolding-unfolding aesthetics: What gesture draws an image into the visible; what gesture hides it away?", keynote talk at “Image-Gesture,” 5th Nomadikon meeting, University of Bergen, Norway, November 10
2011 “Enfolding-unfolding aesthetics,” talk at the Institut für Künste und Medien, Europäische Medienwissenschaft, University of Potsdam, Germany, November 8
2011 “The Abstract Line's Travels in Andalusia,” talk at “Image - Imagination - Islam,“ Casa Árabe, Córdoba, Spain, October 15 (by videoconference)
2011 “A secret about a secret that is veiled by another secret”: An enfolding-unfolding aesthetics for documentary,” talk at the Center for Media and Religion, New York University, October 14
2011 “Immersed in the single channel: Experimental media from theater to gallery,” keynote lecture at “Moving Image and Institution: Cinema and the Museum in the 21st Century,” Cambridge University (July 6)
2011 “Une esthétique de pliage et dépliage,” talk invited by Groupe de recherche sur les Diagrammes Actifs, Université de Québec à Montreal (January 26)
2010 “Thinking like a carpet: embodied perception and artificial life,” talk in the “Deautomatization” lecture series, University of Padeborn, Germany (December 14)
2010 "Enfolding-Unfolding aesthetics, or the unthought at the heart of wood,” talk in film symposium at the University of Pécs, Hungary (December 11)
2010 “Radical acts of unfolding,” lecture in the “Cine:Subjects” symposium on documentary, University of British Columbia (December 3)
2010 “Thinking like a carpet: embodied perception and artificial life,” lecture sponsored by the Humanities Institute, Simon Fraser University (November 27)
2010 "Enfolding-Unfolding aesthetics, or the unthought at the heart of wood,” lecture in the Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University (November 12); and studio visits (November 12 and 13)
2010 “Vegetable Locomotion: A Deleuzian ethics/aesthetics of traveling plants,” lecture in the Department of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and graduate seminar (November 10)
2010 “The Minimal Part, the Infinitesimal, and the Monad: Points of Contact,” European Graduate School, Saas-Fee, Switzerland (August 12)
2010 “Vegetable Locomotion: A Deleuzian ethics/aesthetics of traveling plants,” keynote lecture, Third Annual Deleuze Studies conference, University of Amsterdam (July 14)
2010 “The mystical mirror image in Persian painting and interactive media,” Mediamatic, Amsterdam (July 12)
2010 “Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art,” talk in the department of Architecture and Design, American University in Beirut (May 3)
2010 “Research Problems with an Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art,” talk in the Brown Bag Lecture Series, Department of Behavioral Research, American University of Beirut (April 20)
2010 “A Noisy Brush with the Infinite,” keynote lecture at Noise Not Noise festival, Western Front, Vancouver (March 26)
2010 “Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics, or the Unthought at the Heart of Wood,” talk in the Department of Visual Art, University of Western Ontario (February 9); and graduate student seminar (February 10)
2009 "Historical travels of artificial life: sixteenth-century Turkey, seventeenth-century Holland, and twenty-first century new media," talk in the Media Arts department, Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul (October 31)
2009 "Unfolding from the Real: Mediation as Connective Tissue," talk at the conference Returns of the Real: Engagements with Contemporary Cinema at a Comparative Perspective, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (August)
2009 "Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art," Aga Khan University, London (July)
2008 “A historical trajectory of nonorganic life: sixteenth-century Persia, seventeenth-century Holland, and twenty-first century new media,” keynote lecture at the conference “Flash: Film, Image, Culture,” Centre for Contemporary Art and Politics, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (October)
2008 “A historical trajectory of nonorganic life,” talk in the School of Culture and Communication, University of Melbourne, Australia (October)
2008 “Baroque fascination in casino movies and Safavid carpets,” talk invited by the Writing and Society group of University of Western Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney, Australia (October)
2008 “From aniconism to the infinite: an Islamic idea blooms anew in contemporary media art,” talk in the series “Now Is the Time: Art & Theory in the 21st Century,” organized by the Stedelijk Museum and the University of Amsterdam (October)
2008 “An Aesthetics of Enfolding and Unfolding,” talk in the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, University of Cardiff, Wales (April)
2008 “Latency and the Will to Figuration in Islamic Art and New Media Art,” talk at the conference “Recoded: Landscapes and Politics of New Media,” Centre for Modern Thought, University of Aberdeen (April)
2008 “Latency and the Will to Figuration in Islamic Art and New Media Art,” talk at Chelsea College of Art and Design, London (April)
2007 “’These patterns are not suitable for advanced cultures’: Moments in the travels of the abstract line, from the carpet trade to vector graphics,” keynote lecture, “Critical Institutions” symposium, Michigan State University, March
2007 “What Kind of Invisible in the Work of Bill Viola?”, conference with Bill Viola’s Tanner Lecture on Human Values, University of Utah (March)
2007 "Travels of the abstract line: New media's debt to Islamic aesthetics,” invited lecture, Film Department, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, February
2006 “After the cinema of promises,” talk at the conference “Matthias Müller: Multimedia Poet,” Boston University (September 29-30)
2006 Keynote lecture, “Experience – Information – Image : a historiography of unfolding,” at the conference “Rethinking the Past: Experimental Histories in the Arts,” University of Technology Sydney (July 2006; I was unable to attend due to the war in Lebanon, where I was)
2006 “Geopolitics hides something in the image; Arab cinema unfolds something else,” talk at the conference “Cinema at the Periphery,” University of St. Andrew’s, Scotland (June 15-17)
2006 “Mohamad Soueid’s Cinema of Immanence,” talk at the conference “Cinema and Society in the Arab World," University of Minnesota (March 2006)
2006 “Taking a line for a walk, from the Abbasid Caliphate to computer graphics,” University of Manchester Department of Art History and Visual Studies (March)
2006 Distinguished Visiting Lecturer, Department of Medieval and Modern Languages, Cambridge University: includes workshops, symposium, and lecture, “Thinking Multisensory Culture” (March)
2006 “Taking a line for a walk, from the Abbasid Caliphate to computer graphics,” lecture to Patricia Pisters’ Arab Cinema course, University of Amsterdam (February)
2006 “Can cinema slow the flow of blood? Two films about Ashura,” talk in the series "Ritualizing", Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam (February)
2006 “Taking a line for a walk, from the Abbasid Caliphate to computer graphics,” Koerner Lecture Series, Capilano College (February)
2005 “Performance as Unfolding,” remarks at Transnet (Transdisciplinary Network for Performance and Technology), Vancouver (June)
2005 “Thinking Multisensory Culture,” invited talk at “Vision in the Realm of the Senses," University of Southern California (April)
2005 “Invisible Media,” lecture to Grahame Weinbren’s graduate course in new media, School of Visual Arts, New York (March)
2005 Visiting scholar, Queen’s University: guest lecture in "Assigning a Category: Inuit Video" and lecture at Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, “Infinity and Accident in Islamic Art and Computer Art” (February)
2004 “Virtuality in Arab cinema,” UC Berkeley Graduate Film Studies Group (November)
2004 “Islamic Aesthetics, Modern Attention, and the Abstract Line,” talk at the conference Sinn und Sensationen, Freiuniversität Berlin (November)
2004 “Al-Jurjani on Software: What Islamic Aesthetics Says to Digital Arts,” New Forms Festival, Vancouver (October)
2004 “Firewall: Virtual Worlds in Arab cinema,” keynote address, “Walls and Representation,” conference at 5th Annual Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, Tel Aviv
2004 ‘The Haptic Transfer and the Travels of the Abstract Line: Alois Riegl and Islamic Aesthetics,” keynote address, “Nineteenth-Century Aberrations and Afterimages,” 8th Annual Interdisciplinary 19th-Century Studies Graduate Conference, University of British Columbia (March)
2004 “From Haptic to Invisible: Arts of Enfoldment from Islam to Internet,” Akademie of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland (March)
2004 “Haptic Visuality: Touching with the Eyes,” Akademie of Fine Arts, Helsinki, Finland (March)
2003 “Mémoire et implication: les origines islamiques des médias numériques,” talk at the conference “Mémoire et culture,” Université de Limoges, France (December)
2003 “Asphalt Nomadism: Tendencies in Arab Independent Cinema,” Center for Behavioral Research, American University of Beirut (March)
2003 “Haptic to See You: From Tactile Image to Digital Trace; or, How to Make Art in Wartime,” talk in the Department of Architecture, American University of Beirut (March)
2003 “The Ethical Presenter, or, How to Have Good Arguments over Dinner,” talk at “Terms of Address: A conference on the politics and Pedagogy of Media Curating,” Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto (March)
2002 “Mystical Software? What’s Implicit in the Pixel,” talk in the Digital Arts Lecture Series, Department of Fine Arts, Concordia University (May)
2002 “Invisibility and Enfoldment in Arab Independent Media,” talk at the conference “Modernités Arabes,” Département de littérature comparé, Université de Montréal (May)
2002 “Invisible media,” talk in the Dalhousie University Gallery Critics’ Series, Halifax, Nova Scotia (March)
2002 “Haptic Media Revisited,” talk in the Department of Women’s Studies, Lancaster University, Lancaster, England (March)
2001 “Haptic media revisited,” talk in the Calico Lecture Series, Hamphsire College, Amherst, MA (November)
2001 “The task of the digital translator,” seminar in Communications Department, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (November)
2001 “The logic of smell,” Harpur College Dean's Interdisciplinary Film Workshop, SUNY Binghamton (November)
2001 “Invisible Media,” at “Blowing the Trumpet to the Tulips: An Encounter on Experimental Media,” Queen’s University, Kingston, ON (October)
2001 “The logic of smell: Olfactory media, actual and virtual,” at “Affective Encounters: Rethinking Embodiment in Feminist Media Studies,” University of Turku, Finland (September)
2001 “Tremors in the Material Ground,” talk at Images Festival of Independent Film and Video (April)
2001 “The Logic of Smell,” talk in the Department of Art History, University of British Columbia (March)
2000 “Lo-Tek Women on the Web,” talk at “Maid in Cyberspace,” annual conference of StudioXX, Montréal (April)
2000 “Digital Lo-Tek: Virtual, Actual, or Physical?,” McGill University Graduate Program in Communications, Montréal (March)
2000 “Women's Tactile Media,” Ithaca College (February)
2000 “Olfaction and Embodied Perception,” University of Rochester (February)
1999 “How Electrons Remember,” Second Annual Conference on Subtle Technologies, InterAccess Electronic Media Arts Centre, Toronto (April)
1999 Moderator, “Alternate Visions: Festivals Forum,” “Asserting Independence,” conference of the Independent Film and Video Alliance of Canada, Toronto (April)
1999 Moderator and co-organizer, ““Art Ex Machina” symposium, Carleton University Art Gallery (March)
1999 “Smell-o-vision: Cinema and synaesthesia,” Department of Film and Video, University of California at Santa Cruz (February)
1998 “New developments in video and new media,” New York University Tisch School of the Arts (December)
1998 “Intermedia Studies and Audiovisual Practice,” talk on the plenary “The Cutting Edge?”, Annual Screen Studies conference, Glasgow (June)
1998 “Fossil Memories,” talk at the conference “Deleuze and the Cinema,” University of Iowa (February)
1998 “Smell-o-Vision,” University of Ottawa Visual Arts Department (January)
1997 “Loving a Disappearing Image: Vision and AIDS in Contemporary Canadian Film and Video,” at “Canadian Cinema: Modes of Address,” Concordia University (April)
1997 “Visuality, tactility, and cultural difference,” Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston ON (January)
1996 “Haptic to see you: Cinema, memory and the senses,” UCLA Department of Film (April)
1996 “Traveling fetishes, migrating fossils,” UC San Diego School of Visual Arts (January)
1995 “Freewheeling Theoretical” panel, Artists' and Activists' CD-ROMs conference, LA Freewaves and University of Southern California (October)
1995 “Haptic to see you: Video, touch and memory,” New York International Video Festival (June)
1995 “Tactile memories: Cultural displacement and sense memory,” Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto (April)
1994 “Animal appetites/Appetites for conquest,” “Animals: A Reappraisal” conference, University of Toronto (May)
1995 Invited speaker, “Voyeurism: Who looks?”; “Experimental documentary: Who knows?”, Rochester Institute of Technology (February)
1994 “Love the one you're with: women's erotic imagery and questions of power,” Alfred University, Alfred, NY
1993 “Animal appetites, animal identifications,” “Bestiaire/Endangered Species” conference, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montréal, Quebec
1993 “Film and video from the new colony,” “Women Direct” series, Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY
1990 Panelist, “The child sex panic,” symposium organized by ACT UP, Black Rose, Guide magazine, Boston, MA
Selected programming and curating
2022 Third Annual Small File Media Festival, with nine programs, two panels, workshop, and Small File Ultra Dance Party. August 9-14 in Vancouver and August 16-21 online. smallfile.ca
2022 “Cosmological Diagrams,” program of works by Substantial Motion Research Network members. At A Light Footprint in the Cosmos, Vancouver. June 25
2021 Small-file media program for Animation; Experiment and New Media Society, Tehran. April 27.
2021 “The Intense Pleasures of the Small File.” Organized by Neta Alexander. Colgate University, Colgate, NY. April 2
2021 “The Intense Pleasures of the Small File.” Organized by Dorit Naaman. Queen’s University, Kingston, ON. March 12
2021 Second Annual Small File Media Festival, Vancouver-based and online, with six panels. August 10-20
2020 First Annual Small File Media Festival, Vancouver-based and online, with five panels. August 10-20
2018 “Remote Materialization,” inaugural exhibition of the Substantial Motion Research Network, substantialmotion.org. With artworks by Ziggy Lever, Waèl El Allouche and Robbie Schweiger, Jessika Kenney, Steven Baris, Navine G. Khan-Dossos, Azadeh Emadi, and Desire Machine Collective (Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya).
2018 Curator mentor, Hongyan Sun, “The Rhythm of Objects: International Puppet Animation.” Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. March 25.
2018 “Luminous images, hidden in the senses,” program for “Hold Me Now: Feel and Touch in an Unreal World,” Studium Generale Rietveld, Amsterdam. March 7
2016 Gaza 36mm by Khalil Al-Mozian and Laura Marks: Affections by Grahame Weinbren and Laura U. Marks. International House Philadelphia. April 4.
2016 “Movie Palace Ghosts: Gaza 36mm by Khalil Al-Mozian and Where We Stand by Lindsay McIntyre,” programmed with Jem Noble, Cineworks Studio, Vancouver. February 26.
2015 “Information Erupts into Perception,” with Samirah Alkassim. Nine-film program and live video performance by DJ Um Amel. International Society for Electronic Arts. August 18.
2015 “The Scent of Places—الامكنه عطر,” for the Robert Flaherty Seminar, Colgate, NY, June 13-19. A week-long program with 12 invited artists and approximately 150 attendees.
follow-up screenings and reviews: “Flaherty at MoMA: The Scent of Places,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, June 20-27, 2015; “Shorts after the Flaherty,” UnionDocs, Brooklyn, June 20, 2015; Nicholas Elliott, “L’aventure Flaherty.” Cahiers du Cinéma, 713 (2015): 63.
2014 “Arab Glitch,” University of Rochester Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies, March 4
2013 Program of videos by Mona Hatoum and Basma Alsharif, at the symposium "Plateaux de la perception,” Rikkyo University, Tokyo. December 15
2013 “Experiments in Arab Cinema: The Glitch Program; Unbearable Beauty; The Body in the Archive.” Sponsored by SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs. Simon Fraser University, Woodward's campus, Vancouver. November 15 and 16.
2013 “Experiments in Arab Cinema,” program to accompany the exhibition “Safar/Voyage,” Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, September 13
2012 "DoxBox Global Days," program in support of Syrian documentary festival DoxBox. Simon Fraser University, Woodward's campus, March 14-16
2011 “From Aniconism to Bliss: Media art shows its Islamic roots,” Niagara Artists Centre, London, ON. March 19
2010 “From Aniconism to Bliss: Media art shows its Islamic roots,” DIM Cinema at the Pacific Cinemathèque, Vancouver. September 20
2007 “Visualizing Ecstasy,” program for “Mystifying Rumi” conference, Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Societies and Cultures. October
2006 “Love, sea, snow and war,” program of experimental films for Toronto Arab Film Festival. December
2004 “Mortal tissue: Beirut’s cinema of the vulnerable body,” Pacific Cinematheque, San Francisco. November
2004 “Virtual Beirut,” San Francisco Cinematheque. November
2004 “Contemporary Arab Cinema,” 13-week free public series at Simon Fraser Harbour Centre Campus. September-December
2004 “Virtual Beirut: Lebanese artists look beneath the skin of the image,” SeNEF, Seoul Net and Experimental Film Festival, Seoul, South Korea. September
2004 “Never the Right Time: Experimental Media from the Arab World,” with guest artist Mohamed Soueid, Images Festival, Toronto. April
2004 “Never the Right Time: Experimental Media from the Arab World,” with guest artist Mohamed Soueid, Available Light Film Collective, Ottawa. April
2004 “Enfolded Tales,” program for the 20th Annual Conference on Literature and Film, Florida State University, Tallahassee. January
2002 “The World Seen through Nomadic I’s,” four-part program for Argos Festival, Brussels (October)
2002 “Immanence in the pixel: Islamic and intercultural roots of digital culture,” Race in Digital Space 3.0, University of Southern California, Los Angeles (October)
2002 “Immanence in the pixel: traditional cultural origins of math and technology,” for Subtle Technologies , Toronto (May)
2001 “Craving Duration,” for Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-op, Ottawa (November)
2001 “African Cinema: A Trio,” for Canadian Film Institute, Ottawa (June)
2001 Co-curator (with Robin Curtis), “Out of Time,” section of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival, Oberhausen, Germany. Included 15 curated programs, 8 guest lectures, 8 commissioned catalogue essays (May)
2000 “Whose Land? Skewed Views of Canadian Geography,” for Available Light Collective, Gallery 101, Ottawa (November)
2000 “Stuck on Structuralism,” for Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-Op, Ottawa (March)
2000 “Video in the Digital Age,” Saratoga Springs Public Library, Saratoga Springs, NY (February)
1999 “Lo Tek and Loving It: Electronic Media from Analog to ASCII,” videotheque and installation co-curated with Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-Op and SAW Gallery (May)
1999 CD-ROM selections for “Art Ex Machina,” Carleton University Art Gallery (April)
1998 “Toys F Us,” for Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-Op, Ottawa (December)
1998 “Men We Love,” for Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-Op, Ottawa (November)
1998 “Impossible Histories of the Middle East,” for Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-Op, Ottawa (May)
1998 “Disappearing Images,” for Available Light Collective, SAW Video Co-Op, Ottawa (March)
1998 “Haptic Cinema,” for Proseminar in Cinema and Culture, University of Iowa (February)
1997 Co-curator, “Digital Salon,” Robert Flaherty Seminar, Ithaca, NY (October)
1997 Selection committee, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival (September)
1997 “Community Media in Canada: The Challenge for Change and the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation,” at “Representation, Arts and Media in Education and Community,” Carleton University, Ottawa
1996 Selection committee, LA Freewaves Fifth Celebration of Independent Video, Los Angeles. Individual program: “Short Tapes About Longing”
1996 Selection committee, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival (September)
1995 “What Is a Man?” film/video series, Third Rochester Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, Rochester, NY
1995 “Touch Memory,” Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto
1994 “Montage—Frottage—Bricolage” film/video series, Pyramid Arts Center, Rochester, NY
1994 Selection, outreach, and program committees, Second Rochester Gay and Lesbian Film Festival
1994 Film program, “Sexual Violence and Exploitation” conference, University of Rochester
1994 “Rumours of War,” film/video series, Pyramid Arts Center
1994 “All Persuasions: Women's Erotic Imagery,” film/video series co-curated with Stephanie Maxwell, Rochester Institute of Technology and Pyramid Arts Center
1993 “Rituals for Power,” film/video series, Pyramid Arts Center
1993 Selection committee, First Rochester Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Rochester, NY
1993 “Film and Video from the New Colony,” Pyramid Arts Center
1992 “Palestine: The Aesthetics of Exile,” film and video series organized with International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, University of Rochester, and National Association of Palestinian Americans, Rochester, NY
1988 Co-organizer, “Public Relations: Kodak, the Community, and the Media,” exhibition, Pyramid Arts Center
Films
2020 Gerard Caris: Unfolding from Pentagons. Short experimental documentary on artist Gerard Caris, co-directed with Azadeh Emadi. Cinematography and interviews by James Byrne and Negar Ipakchiazimi. Sound design by Stefan Smulovitz. In post-production.
2016 A Corky Day (3 minutes) by Laura U. Marks. Super-8 film made for One Take Super 8 Festival, organized by Iris Film Collective, Vancouver.
2016 Laura Marks: Affections (25 minutes) by Grahame Weinbren and Laura U. Marks. A playful introduction to experimental cinema in the Arab world. vimeo.com/160179965
Research teams
2020-2021 Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media
1. The Small File Media Festival, to raise awareness about the carbon footprint of streaming media and demonstrate the attractiveness of small files that use less energy.
2. In collaboration with SFU IT Engineering professor Stephen Makonin, a project to raise awareness about the carbon footprint of streaming media, including by translating engineering publications into lay language. Funded by my 2020 SSHRC Grant, Living within the Earth's Carrying Capacity
2020- Associate Investigator, Computational Sustainability Lab, directed by Stephen Makonin https://compsust.fas.sfu.ca/
2017- Substantial Motion Research Network, an international network of about 60 artists and scholars, co-founded with Dr. Azadeh Emadi (University of Glasgow). Network members meet monthly to discuss works in progress and subjects of common interest. We publish our collective activities and collaborate privately through our site substantialmotion.org. We produce podcasts on our channel at Creative Disturbance. We are planning a symposium and exhibition in Vancouver for June 2022, to be followed by publications. Funded by my 2016 and 2021 SSHRC Insight Grants.
Interviews
2021 “Haptic Entanglements, Organs of Touch,” interview with dramaturgs Rahel Spöhrer and Joshua Wicke, Schauspielhaus Journal, Schauspielhaus (Zürich). September. https://www.schauspielhaus.ch/en/journal/20831/haptic-entanglements-organs-of-touch-a-mail-conversation-with-laura-u-marks
2021 Interview with Michael Hedges on the carbon footprint of streaming media after my plenary talk, British Association for American Studies 2021 Annual Conference. June 30. https://usso.uk/plenary-speaker-interview-laura-marks-interviewed-by-michael-hedges-baas-2021-annual-conference/
2021 “Cinema, touch, and the climate movement with Laura U. Marks,” interview on Roz Skillen’s podcast Catch Yerself On. March. https://www.stitcher.com/show/catch-yerself-on/episode/cinema-touch-and-the-climate-movement-with-laura-u-marks-82122405
2018 Interview with Peter Limbrick, Society for Cinema and Media Studies “Fieldnotes” series of interviews with "film and media studies pioneers." https://vimeo.com/335154125
2018 Interview with Morgan Harper and Zoë Laks, Cinephile 12:1 (Spring), special issue, “Philosophy and New Media.” 54-56.
2017 “Hanan al Cinema: An Interview with Laura U. Marks” by Stefanie Baumann and Susana Nascimento Duarte, Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image, 9; special issue, “Islam and Images.” 108-114. http://cjpmi.ifilnova.pt/
2017 “Aniconic Futures,” podcast conversation with Dr. Tarek Elhaik, UC Davis. February 6, 2017. http://www.antimagelab.com/aniconic-futures-laura-marks/
2016 “Culture file: Process Philosophy for Dummies,” podcast by Luke Clancy for RTÉ, Irish public radio. https://soundcloud.com/soundsdoable/culture-file-process
2016 “The Skin and the Screen—A Dialogue,” interview with Dominique Chateau and José Moure, in Screens: The Key Debates, ed. Dominique Chateau and José Moure (Amsterdam University Press). 258-263.
2008 "Revealing: New Media Art according to Laura U. Marks," interview with Nat Muller, Metropolis (Amsterdam) 4 (Fall).
2005 “A Latent Embodiment,” interview with Monika Jaeckel, Mind the Gap.
Bibliography
Reviews of Hanan al-Cinema: Affections for the Moving Image
Anastasia Valassopolous, review in International Journal of Middle East Studies, 49 (2017), 355-357.
Mathilde Roman, review in Critique d’art, May 20, 2017. http://journals.openedition.org/critiquedart/21285
Susana Mouzinho, review in Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image, 9 (2017), special issue, “Islam and Images.” 138-141. http://cjpmi.ifilnova.pt/
Najmeh Moradiyan Rizi, review in InVisible Culture, May 25, 2016
A.S. Jawad, review in Choice, April 2016
Lindsey Reno, review in Art Libraries Society of North America, January 2016
Nour El Safoury, review in Mada Masr, December 2015 http://www.madamasr.com/sections/culture/hanan-al-cinema-caring-critique-arab-filmmaking-rebirth
Lindsey Moore, review in Times Higher Education Supplement, December 2015 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/review-hanan-al-cinema-laura-marks-mit-press
Mike Hoolboom, remix, November 2015 http://mikehoolboom.com/?p=16926
Reviews of Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art
Josh Ellenbogen, “Value: Erkki Huhtamo, Illusions in Motion: Media Archaeology of the Moving Panorama and Related Spectacles; Laura U. Marks, Enfoldment and Infinity: An Islamic Genealogy of New Media Art,” The Art Bulletin, 96:1 (2014): 132-134.
J.R. Osborn, review in Design and Culture, 3:3 (2011): 409-411.
Christopher Vitale, “Algorithmicity, Islamic Art, and Virtual Philosophy: Thoughts on Laura Marks’ ‘Enfoldment and Infinity,’” Networkologies blog (2011), https://networkologies.wordpress.com/2011/12/11/algorithm-islamic-art-and-virtual-philosophy-thoughts-on-laura-marks-enfoldment-and-infinity/
Stijnie Thuijs, review on Masters of Media (September 2011), http://mastersofmedia.hum.uva.nl/2011/09/21/book-review-enfoldment-and-infinity-by-laura-u-marks/
Carol Bier, review in Journal of Mathematics and the Arts 6:2-3 (June-September 2012):137-139.
Marina Warner, review in Art Newspaper 230 (December 2011): 46.
Kathleen Scott, review in Screen 52:4 (Winter 2011): 553-556.
Jay Murphy, “Unfolding Complexity,” Afterimage 38:6 (February 2011): 38.
Elizabeth Harrington, Association for Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World, Iran, and Turkey (Spring 2011) http://amcainternational.org/
Nora Azouz, “L’Islam dans les arts expérimentaux,” L’Express du Pacifique (January 28, 2011): 11.
Rob Harle, Leonardo Reviews (December 2010) http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/dec2010/harle_marks.php
Reviews of Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media
Ted Kafala, RCCS, Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies (April 2006) www.com.washington.edu/rccs/
Sean Gauthier, Canadian Journal of Communication 31:4 (2006): 953-958.
Melinda Barlow, Canadian Journal of Film Studies 12:2 (Autumn 2003)
Dene Grigar, review, Leonardo Digital Review (February 2003)
Reviews of The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses
Review on What Is to Be Done. https://ksangmin.wordpress.com/2010/02/25/laura-u-marks-the-skin-of-the-film/
Melanie Swalwell, “The Senses and Memory in Intercultural Cinema,” Film-Philosophy, October 2002, www.film-philosophy.com
David Martin-Jones, Screen 43:4 (Winter 2002)
Tamara Vukov, “Intercultural Sensoriums,” Topia, 8 (Fall 2002)
Tara Forrest, “‘Intercultural Cinema’ and the Rubble of History,” The UTS Review: Cultural Studies and New Writing, 7:1 (2001): 210-212.
Donato Totaro, review, Canadian Journal of Film Studies 10:1 (2001): 106-109.
Tollof Nelson, review, Cinémas 11:2-3 (Summer-Autumn 2001): 293-301.
Avi Santo, review, The Velvet Light Trap 47 (Spring 2001): 80-82.
Sarah Leisdovich, review, AS (Netherlands; 2001): 14-23.
Martha P. Nochimson, review, Quarterly Review of Film & Video 17:4 (December 2000)
John Belton, review, Choice 38:1 (September 2000)
Claire Perkins, “Cinephilia and Monstrosity: The Problem of Cinema in Deleuze's Cinema Books,” Senses of Cinema online journal, 2000
Professional activity and service
2021 Mini-course, “Small-File Media Aesthetics & Politics,” with Radek Przedpełski. SFU School for the Contemporary Arts. May 7-June 11
2021 Workshop, “Small File Aesthetics and Politics,” with postdoc Radek Przedpełski. VIVO Media Art Centre, Vancouver. March 20 and 27, April 3.
2021 Mentor, Society for Cinema and Media Studies and X-Film SIG mentorship programs. April.
2021 Jury member, Bourses postdoctorales, Fonds de recherche du Québec — Société et culture. January
2020 Mentor, Society for Cinema and Media Studies mentorship program. April.
2019 “Wael Shawky’s Cabaret Crusades,” Polygon Gallery, North Vancouver. December 10, 2019.
2019 Nominator, Heinz Awards
2019 SMRN workshop, “Cross-Cultural Roots for Media Practice,” with postdoc Siying Duan. VIVO Media Art Centre, Vancouver. June 8, 15, 22.
2019 Juror, BC Arts Council Media Arts Scholarships
2019 SMRN workshop, “Making Sense: Exploring Altered Perception through Notes on Blindness,” with Azadeh Emadi, Fiona Macpherson, and Gillian Mooney. School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow. May 23
2019 Remarks at roundtable for Ligia Lewis, “Breathing Room,” performance residency at Or Gallery, Vancouver. January 29
2019 “Science fiction as fabulation,” for DIM Cinema program of works by Larissa Sansour and Soda Jerk, Pacific Cinémathèque, Vancouver. January 28
2019 Introduction to The Strawberry Tree by Simone Rapisardi Casanova,” Pacific Cinémathèque, Vancouver. January 24
2018 Academic assessment committee, Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University
2018 "Creative Algorithms: From Islamic Art to Digital Media,” followed by conversation with Azadeh Emadi. Talk sponsored by SFU Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies. SFU, Vancouver. May 23
2017 “Which Came First, Fascism or Misogyny? Reading Klaus Theweleit’s Male Fantasies,” talk in the Spectre of Fascism public school, organized by SFU’s Department of Humanities. Unit/Pitt Gallery, Vancouver. October 26.
2016 Juror, Capture Photography Festival competition for Canada Line King Edward Station
2016 Juror, Cinevolution Media Arts Society Richmond Youth Media Festival
2016 “Five Ways to Experience Duration,” introduction to screening of Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, Pacific Cinematheque, March 23
2016 Digital seminar on experimental cinema distribution in the Arab world, “MENA Cinemas” with Abdelfettah Benchenna, Patricia Caillé, and Nolwenn Mingant, University of Strasbourg. March 18
2015 Visiting scholar, “Camera as Cultural Critique” research group, University of Moesgard, Denmark. March 15-18.
2014 Jury member, Best short film, DOXA documentary film festival, Vancouver
2013 "Aromatic Events: how plant communication makes us more than human," Vancouver Institute for Social Research, Or Gallery. November 25.
2013 External consultant, Ph.D. program in Communications, University of Ottawa. October 24-26.
2011 Adjudication Committee, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral grants, category 401-3 (Fine Arts). Required the review of 108 files.
2010 Speaker, “Let’s Twist Again: Situating Vancouver in the Changing World of Contemporary Art,” Centre A, Vancouver (September 18)
2010 Roundtable on art, science, and technology, Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam (July 11)
2009 Docent talk, Ryoji Ikeda, “data.tron/data.scan,” Surrey Art Gallery (November 16)
2008 Moderator, artists’ panel, “Orientalism and Ephemera,” presented by Centre A Gallery, Vancouver (March)
2007 Program committee, Re:Place 2007, the Second International Conference on the Histories of Media, Art, Science and Technology, Berlin
2004 Adjudication Committee, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, category 401-3 (Fine Arts), meeting February 29-March 2
- Juror, SAW Video Co-Op Feature Video Grants, Ottawa
- Panel chair, Ontario Graduate Scholarship competition
2000 Juror, SAW Video Co-Op Feature Video Grants, Ottawa
2000 Juror, Images Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto
2000 Panelist, Ontario Graduate Scholarship competition
1999 Juror, Ontario Art Council Film and Media Grants
1999-2001 Board member, Independent Film Co-Op of Ottawa
1998-2000 Member, Available Light Experimental Screening Collective, Ottawa
1999 Juror, Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton Film and Media Grants
1998 Panelist, New Media Production Grants, SAW Video, Ottawa
1997 Panelist, Film Production Grants, Independent Film Cooperative of Ottawa, Ottawa
1997 Council nominee, Society for Cinema Studies
1997 Board member, Making Scenes Lesbian and Gay Film and Video Festival, Ottawa
1997 Panelist, Equity Grants, SAW Video, Ottawa
1997 Programming Committee site coordinator and Host Committee, Society for Cinema Studies annual meeting, Ottawa
1997 Co-organizer, “Representation, Arts and Media in Education and Community,” Carleton University
1997 Panelist, Jump Start video grants, SAW Video, Ottawa
1997 Selection committee, Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film and Video Festival
1997 Panelist, Canada Council Media Arts Touring Office
1995 Panelist, New York State Council on the Arts Program in Film
1994 Nominator, Rockefeller Intercultural Film/Video Fellowships
1993 Nominator, Rockefeller Intercultural Film/Video Fellowships
1993 Nominator, DiverseForms regranting program for New York State Artists
1992 Guest critic, Images 92 Festival of Independent Film and Video, Toronto
Editorial and advisory boards
2020- Member, Global Green Media Production Network
2019- Advisory board, Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism
2018- Reading committee, Regards - revue d'arts du spectacle, Institute of Scenic, Audiovisual and Cinematic Studies, Université Saint-Joseph de Beyrouth.
2016-present Advisory board member, Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication
2015-present Advisory board member, Center for the Ethics of Visual Culture (Ethikon), University of Bergen. Director: Professor Asbjørn Grønstad
2015-present Advisory board member, FILM THINKS: How Cinema Inspires Writers and Thinkers, I.B. Tauris
2012-2014 Advisory board member, ASCII Center for New Media Art and Education, Cairo
2012-2016 Advisory board member, Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia Research Network, based at Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University
2011-present Advisory board member, Centre for New Aesthetics, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands
2011-present Advisory board member, Transnational Cinemas
2010-present Editorial board, Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image (Lisbon)
2009-present Editorial board, Journal of Visual Culture
2009-present Editorial board, The Senses and Society
2007- present Editorial advisory board, InTensions e-journal
2006- present Leonardo Book Advisory Board, MIT Press
2003- present Editorial advisory board, Screen
2003-2006 Editorial advisory board, The Moving Image, journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists
2000-6 Advisory board, Centre for Media and Culture in Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Teaching
Simon Fraser University
I have a three-course annual teaching load thanks to the Grant Strate University Professorship
Fall 2021
CA 216/316, Cinema and Magic
CA 821, Research Methods in Contemporary Arts
Spring 2021
Directed study, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies. Mar Alzamora and Mozhdeh Bashirian.
Fall 2020
CA 186, Art and the Moving Image
CA 138, Theory and Cinema
Spring 2020
CA 436/824, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
Fall 2019
CA 186, Art and the Moving Image
CA 822, Colloquium in Comparative Media Arts
Spring 2019
CA 436/824, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
Teaching at Harvard, fall 2018
Spring 2018
CA 436/824, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
Fall 2017
FPA 821, Research Methods in Comparative Media Arts
FPA 822, Colloquium in Comparative Media Arts
On sabbatical 2016-2017
Spring 2016
FPA 235, Experimental Film and Video
FPA 824, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
Fall 2015
FPA 335, Introduction to Film Theory
FPA 821, Research Methods in Comparative Media Arts
Spring 2015
FPA 412, Arts and Philosophies of the Fold
FPA 824, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
Fall 2014
FPA 821, Research Methods in Comparative Media Arts
Spring 2014
FPA 824, New Approaches in Moving-Image Studies
Fall 2013
FPA 821, Research Methods in Comparative Media Arts
FPA 312, Media Art in the Arab World
Spring 2013
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods
Fall 2012
FPA 335, Introduction to Film Theory
FPA 811, Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Arts
FPA 889, Graduated Directed Study with Michael Filimowicz (SIAT)
Spring 2012
FPA 412, Advanced Seminar in Art and Culture: Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics
FPA 887, Selected Topics in Fine and Performing Arts: Enfolding-Unfolding Aesthetics
9 directed studies
Fall 2011
FPA 111, Issues in the Fine and Performing Arts
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods
FPA 811, Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Arts
FPA 889, Graduated Directed Study with Tyler Fox (SIAT)
Summer 2011
FPA 403, Directed Study with Mohsen Yazdani: Cinema and Islamic Aesthetics
Spring 2011
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Art and Culture Studies
FPA 314, Readings in the History of Art and Culture: Creative Forces in Islamic Art
Fall 2010
FPA 335, Introduction to Film Theory
FPA 887-5, Selected Topics in Fine and Performing Arts: Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Cinema Theory
On sabbatical 2009-2010
Spring 2009
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Art and Culture Studies
FPA 887, Directed Study, “Cinema of Presence,” with Edith Artner
FPA 403, Directed Study, Academic Research Exchange, with Tzeyi Pang
Spring 2008
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Art and Culture Studies
FPA 401, Directed Study, “Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze,” with Nick Bradford-Ewart
Fall 2007
FPA 811/12, Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Arts
Summer 2007
FPA 403, Directed Study, Academic Research Exchange, with Pauline Hadfield
Spring 2007
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Art and Culture Studies
HIS 897, Directed Study, “Bollywood, Melodrama, and Film Theory,” with Sabita Majid
FPA 887, Directed Study, “Tora-Bora Cinema,” with Sobhi al-Zobaidi
Fall 2006
FPA 811/12, Graduate Seminar in Contemporary Arts
FPA 335, Introduction to Film Theory
FPA 401, Directed Study, “Faith and Art,’ with Andrew Coelho
FPA 403, Directed Study, Academic Research Exchange, with Sarah Gallagher
Spring 2006
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Art and Culture Studies
FPA 887, Directed study, “Cinematic Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze,” with Sharon Kahanoff
FPA 887, Directed study, “Desire and Language,: with Emily Rosamond
FPA 401, Directed Study, “Performance Theory,’ with Rachel Johndrow
Fall 2005
FPA 335, Introduction to Film Theory
FPA 311, Interdisciplinary Approaches to New Media
Spring 2005
FPA 311, Creative Processes Converge in Video!
FPA 310, Interdisciplinary Research Methods in Art and Culture Studies
Directed study, “Touch and Sensuality in a Multimedia Context,” with Dennis Humphrey, SIAT
Fall 2004
FPA 337, Contemporary Arab Cinema
FPA 410, Directed Study, “Aura, Fetish, and Mimesis,” with Julian Hou
Spring 2004
FPA 412, Advanced Seminar in Art and Culture: Embodiment and the Senses
Fall 2003
FPA 311, Interdisciplinary Approaches to New Media
Harvard University, Department of Visual and Environmental Studies
Fall 2018
VES 186M A Deep History of Arts of the Secret
VES 271, Proseminar in Film Theory
European Graduate School
Summer 2010
“Deleuze, Aesthetics, and a Brush with Islamic Thought,” 6-day course (August)
Carleton University
Fall 2001
19.331 Topics in Cinema and Gender
19.402 Cinema and New Media
19.500 Directions in Film Theory
19.502 Directed reading, “Cinematic Philosophy of Gilles Deleuze,” with Kristin Pasnak
19.502 Directed reading, “Theories of Anarchism and Art Practice,” with Michel Luc Bellemare
2000-2001
19.100 Introduction to Film Studies
19.381 Audiovisual Practice
19.485 Practicum in Film Studies
19.402 Directed reading, “Early Horror Film and Queer Theory,” Marc-André Leblanc
19.502 Directed reading, “Documentary Theory,” Janice Neill
Directed Interdisciplinary Studies Honours Thesis director, Romy Randev. Completed December 2000.
Directed Interdisciplinary Studies Honours Thesis director, Ryoko Nishibori. Completed April 2001.
1999-2000
19.100 Introduction to Film Studies
19.331 Topics in Cinema and Gender
19.485 Practicum
19.402 Directed reading, “Cinema and Phenomenology,” with Robert Tremblay
19.402 Directed reading, “Audiovisual Practice,”with Jan Jacobiec
19.500 Directions in Film Theory and Film History (with Charles O’Brien)
19.502 Directed reading, “Phenomenology and Experimental Media,” with James Missen
1998-99
19.100 Introduction to Film Studies
19.381 Audiovisual Practice
19.485 Practicum
19.500 Directions in Film Theory and Film History (with Charles O’Brien)
1997-98
19.200 Introduction to Film Theory, Historiography and Criticism
19.331 Topics in Cinema and Gender
19.381 Audiovisual Practice
19.485 Practicum
1996-97
19.200 Introduction to Film Theory, Historiography and Criticism
19.331 Topics in Cinema and Gender
19.491 Hybrid Cinema
19.402 Independent study, “Pornography,” with Michelle Lillie
19.402 Independent study, “Women in African Cinema,” with Beatrice Mukora
Concordia University (1999)
Doctoral-level directed reading, “Theories of Interactive Media,” with Nancie Wight
California Institute of the Arts (1996)
History of Experimental Film
Cinema, Memory, and the Senses
University of Rochester (1993-94)
Introduction to Women’s Studies
Critical Writing for Love and Money
Teaching assistant, Introduction to Art History
Teaching development
Instructional Skills Workshop, three-day intensive workshop, August 2011.
Graduate supervision, Simon Fraser University
Post-doctoral
2020-2021 Dr. Radek Przedpelski
2019-2021 Dr. Farshid Kazemi
2018-2020 Dr. Siying Duan
2004-2006 Dr. Hudson Moura, “The Intermedial Frontiers of Exile in Intercultural Cinema.”
Ph.D.
Supervisor, Joni Low. PhD in Contemporary Arts. Commenced September 2021.
Supervisor, Niusha Hatefinia. PhD in Contemporary Arts. Commenced September 2021.
Supervisor, Jordan Strom. Ph.D. via Individual Interdisciplinary Studies. Commenced September 2019.
Supervisor, Daisy Esegbona Thompson. Ph.D. via Individual Interdisciplinary Studies. “Kinaesthetic Strike.” Co-supervising with Peter Dickinson. Commenced September 2016.
Supervisor, Yani Kong. Ph.D. via Individual Interdisciplinary Studies. “A Present Bond: crisis, possibility, and a theory of enchantment in contemporary art.” Commenced September 2015.
Supervisor, Andrew Czink, Ph.D. in Liberal Studies. “Philosophy of Embodied Musical Practices.” In progress.
Host supervisor, Hongyan Sun (Communication University of China, Beijing). “Haptics in Puppet Animation.” 2017-2018.
Supervisor, Tyler Fox, Ph.D. in Interactive Arts and Technology. “Transductive Praxis in BioArt: Relational Ontology and Aesthetics of Nonhuman Experience.” Defended, May 2015.
Supervisor, Aleksandra Dulic, Ph.D. in Interactive Art and Technology. “Fields of Interaction: From Shadow Play Theatre to Media Performance.” Defended, May 2006.
MFA
Senior supervisor, Homa Khosravi. In progress.
Senior supervisor, Somayeh Khakshoor. “Where I heard your voice.” In progress.
Senior supervisor, Asmaa Al-Issa. “Visiting hundun’s territory.” Defended, September 2017.
Supervisor, Vilhelm Sundin. “Situations.” Defended, September 2016.
Supervisor, Deborah Edmeades. “On the Validity of Illusion (and Its Attractions).” Defended, September 2014.
Supervisor, Juan Manuel Sepulveda Martínez. “The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park.” Defended, March 2014.
Senior supervisor, Jeffrey Langille. “How Is It That There Is Always Something New?” Defended, October 2014.
Senior supervisor, Alize Zorlotuna. “Queering Islamicate Aesthetics.” Defended, September 2013.
Senior supervisor, Sydney Koke. “Holographic Universe.” Defended, September 2013.
Supervisor, Charlene Vickers. “My Breath, My Gravity: My Anishinabe Indexical Opens, Pops and Riffs.” Defended, September 2013.
Supervisor, Hamidreza Jadid. “Temporary Marriage.” Defended, September 2013.
Senior supervisor, Edith Artner. “Surfbox on a Moving Platform.” Defended, September 2011.
Senior supervisor, Natalie Sorenson. “The Life’s Work of Murphy Piltdown.” Defended, March 2010.
Supervisor, Adrian Buitenhuis, MFA, “HWY 99.” Defended, November 2008.
Supervisor, Sharon Kahanoff, MFA, “The Here to Gathered.” Defended, September 2008.
Senior supervisor, Emily Rosamond. “Chewing Chewing Chewing Social Space.” Defended, October 2007.
Senior supervisor, Amanda Christie. “Sensuous Machines: Embodied Mechanics of Cinematic Performances.” Defended, May 2007.
Supervisor, Donna Szoke, MFA. “Optics out of Shadows: The Presence of Absence.” Defended, March 2007.
Senior supervisor, Jacky Sawatzky. “The RGB Project.” Defended, December 2004.
MA in Comparative Media Arts
Supervisor, Katie Yeo. “Korean Division Cinema: Food and Unification.” In progress.
Supervisor, Alexandra Tsay. “Another Turn: Contemporary art in Kazakhstan.” In progress.
Supervisor, Hardi Bhila. “Photo Narratives: analyzing caste hierarchy in India through Sudharak Olwe’s lens.” Completed April 2021.
Supervisor, Joey Malbon. “Fun and Good Ways to Break the Law: Videofreex, Telestreet and Pirate Television’s Potential within Emancipatory Media Activism.” Completed April 2021.
Supervisor, Joshua Marquis. “Mixing, Poking and Compiling: The Slime Video Assemblage and Digital Affective Economies.” Completed March 2021.
Supervisor, Madison Mayhew. Completed August 2020.
Supervisor, Weihsin Lee. “‘Attractive Grouping’—Short Film Program and The Cinema of Attractions.” Completed December 2020.
Supervisor, Israt Taslim. “Liberating a Queer Body in Rituparno Ghosh’s Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish (2012).” Complete August 2020.
Supervisor, Kwyn Kenaz Aquino. “Curating the Moving Image: Filmmaker Chantal Akerman’s Crossover to the Museum.” Completed December 2019.
Supervisor, Cindy Chan. “Dream Vision Through the Environmental Scenes in Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendor.” Completed December 2019.
Supervisor, Michelle Kim. “Eating the Screen like Ice Cream: How heung is expressed aesthetically in South Korean cinema.” Completed December 2019.
Supervisor, Maria Filipina Palad. “An Aesthetics of Virtual Reality Art Through Embodied Immersion and Interaction.” Completed December 2019.
Supervisor, Zaki Rezwan. “The Art of Resistance: Exploring Rickshaw Art through the Mapping of Individual Film Reception in Bangladesh.” Completed December 2019.
Supervisor, Negar Ipakchiazemi. “How Reenactment as a Process of Becoming Intensifies Reality.” Completed December 2019.
Supervisor, Jason Margolis. “Place as Memory: Time Travel via Backgrounds in Immersive Digital Environments.” Completed April 2019.
Supervisor, Diego Slosse. “Not just another surf and snowboard movie: On embodied transcendency in Higher and Nervous Laughter.” Completed December 2018.
Supervisor, Rose Anza-Burgess. “Disgust, Desire, and Transformation.” Completed December 2018.
Supervisor, Mallory Gemmell. “Cinematic Curating: All I Need Is the Air I Breathe.” Completed December 2018.
Supervisor, Micaela Kwiatkowski. “What Would Lilith Do?” Completed December 2018.
Supervisor, Michelle Martin. “Stories That Slow: Narrative Abundance and Austerity in Miguel Gomes’ Arabian Nights.” Completed December 2017.
Supervisor, Minah Lee. “Third Skin: The Borderless Surface of Migrants’ Creative Resistance.” Completed December 2017.
Supervisor, Yumna Iftikhar. “The Lion and the Lamb: A Molecular Analysis of the Vampire ‘Reveal’ Scene.” Completed December 2017.
Supervisor, Lee Gilad. “Richter, Kippenberger and Bergemann: Capitalist and Communist Memories of the Holocaust.” Completed December 2016.
Supervisor, Dionne Horacsek. “Manic-Pixie and Melancholia: Analyzing the Expressive Potential in the Self(less).” Completed December 2016.
Supervisor, Megan Jones. “Something about Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai.” Completed December 2016.
Supervisor, Jorma Kujala. "See Me, Feel Me, Touch, Me, Hear Me: Embodied Cognition and Soundwalks." Completed April 2016.
Supervisor, Jelena Beocovich. “Turbo Folk.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Carolina Bergonzoni. “Presence in Dance – Practical Strategies in a Choreographic Process: An Analysis of Rob Kitsos’s new work Saudade.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Elysia Bourne. “The Sense Image and the Resurrection of Cultural Memory: elements of haptic image, duration and objecthood in Sergei Parajanov’s The Colour of Pomegranates (1968).” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Kristina Fiedrich. “The Glut of Faciality: investigating the resonance of biometric technologies in contemporary portraiture.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Molly Grant. “Dynamics of Experience: Visual Ethnographies and Corporeal Knowledge in The Enclave.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Mandy Ginson. “Surface Effects: Collage, Photomontage and Contemporary Internet Aesthetics.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Rebecca Karpus. “Defining Ballerina: Degas, Shonibare, and ballerina media.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Maria Cecilia Saba Bonilla. “Altered Realities: Visceral journeys into post-war Peruvian Andean horror films.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Bridget Uhl. “Framing Uncharted Territory with Digital Storytelling.” Completed December 2015.
Supervisor, Justin Ramsey. Completed April 2015.
Supervisor, Dillon Ramsey. Completed April 2015.
Supervisor, Bob Christie. “New Millennium Queer Cinema and the Affects of Joy.” Completed December 2014.
MA in Interactive Art and Technology
Supervisor, Maria Federova. “Performing Political: Precarious Aesthetics of Digital Video in Capturing Activist Performance.” Defended, May 2015.
Supervisor, Özgün Eylül İşcen. “Migrating Embodied Experiences: The Convergence of Sensory Ethnography and Experimental Documentary.” Defended, May 2014.
MA in Communications
Supervisor, Helma Sawatzky. “Unfolding Presence: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis of Photography.” Defended, September 2011.
MA in History
Senior supervisor, Sabita Majid. “Bollywood’s Diasporan Audience.” Defended, May 2008.
Graduate supervision, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Supervisor, Azadeh Emadi, Ph.D. in Art and Design, “Motion within Motion: Investigating Digital Video in the Light of Substantial Motion.” Defended, August 2014.
Graduate supervision, Helsinki Academy of the Arts, Finland
Doctoral advisor, Tarja Pitkanen-Walter, Ph.D. in Fine Arts. “From Amodal Perception To Abstract Representation – Re-Interpretation Of Modernist Painting.” Defended, June 2006.
Graduate supervision, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto
Supervisor, Gabrielle Hezekiah, Ph.D. “Experimentation, mediation, and Knowledge: The Videos of Robert Yao Ramesar.” Defended, February 20, 2006.
Graduate supervision, Carleton University
Senior supervisor, James Missen, “Fringe Experientiality: Canadian Experimental Film and Video as Affective Cultural Theory,” M.A. thesis in Film Studies, Carleton University. Defended April 2002.
Senior supervisor, Maria Ramadori, “Phenomenal Bodies: Relocating the Senses in Canadian Feminist Experimental Cinema,” M.A. thesis in Canadian Studies, Carleton University. Defended May 2001.
Senior supervisor, Barbara Rockburn, “Bonne Entente: Elliptical Elisions and Canadian Narrative Structure,” M.A. thesis in Canadian Studies, Carleton University. Defended September 1997.
Graduate examination
Respondent, Borbála Maté, “Haptics and (Eco)Trauma Experience in Avant-Garde Documentary Films.” Universität für angewandte Kunst, Vienna, 2021.
Respondent, Mai Ørskov. School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, 2021.
Sol Hashemi. MFA, University of British Columbia Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, 2021.
Dion Smith-Dokke. MFA, University of British Columbia Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory, 2021.
Mriganka Madhukaillya, “The Cinema Is Missing: In Search of the Ontological Temperature of Being in Northeast India.” PhD, Department of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, 2020.
Elia Eliev Rémillard, “Uneasy Acts: Queer Masculinities in Akram Zaatari's Lens-Based Artworks,” Ph.D. in Women’s Studies, University of Ottawa, 2018
Adiba Muzaffar, “Skin as feeling vessel,” MFA, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, 2018
Paul Goodfellow, “Art as a Distributed Ecosystem: mapping the limits of systems-based art,” Ph.D., Faculty of Arts, Design and Social Sciences, Northumbria University, 2018
Mohsen Nasrin, “The Intensity of Recollection-Images in Suspicious River and The Law of Enclosures”, Ph.D. in Cultural Mediations, Carleton University, 2016
Nick Dicecco, “The Ends of Adaptation: Comparative Media, Digital Culture, and Performance,” Ph.D. in English, Simon Fraser University, 2015
Mansoor Behnam, “Rhizomatic Thinking: Mystical Philosophy in Experimental Film and Video Art,” Ph.D. in Cultural Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, 2015
Tammer El Sheikh, " Strategies of refusal: art and cultural politics in the work of Edward W. Said and Hassan Khan," Department of Art History & Communication, McGill University, 2013
Christian Suhr, “Descending with Angels: Psychiatry, Exorcism, and the Invisible in Denmark,” Ph.D. in Anthropology and Ethnography, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 2013.
Tereza Stehlikova, "Tangible Territory: Inviting the Body into the Experience of Moving Image," Ph.D. in Animation, Royal College of Art, London, 2012
Moderator, Nasim Zamanzadeh, "New Media, Communication Networks and Contemporary Art in Iran; Recognizing Iranian contemporary art practices through Sufism" (to determine whether the candidate should move from M.Phil to Ph.D. program)
Ilona Hongisto, “Soul of the Documentary: Expression and the Capture of the Real,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Turku, Finland, 2011
Kjetil Rodje, “Seeing Red: Blood Images in American Cinema, 1958-1969, Ph.D. dissertation, School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, 2011
Nour Dados, “Lost and Found in Beirut: Memory and Place in Narratives of the City,” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Communication, University of Technology Sydney, 2010
Mahmoud Yektaparast, "An Aesthetics of Anger," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Western Sydney, 2009
Saige Nadine Walton, "Cinema's Baroque Flesh," Ph.D. dissertation, University of Melbourne, 2009
Mary Watson-Seoighe, “The Cutting Edge: Deviant Realisms and Cinematic Interruption,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cape Town, 2007.
Jennifer Deger, “Shimmering Screens: Media, Mimesis, and a Vision of Yolngu Modernity,” Ph.D. dissertation, Macquarie University, Department of Anthropology, 2004.
Numerous internal examinations, M.A. in Film Studies, Carleton University
Melinda Swalwell, “Aesthetics and Hyper/Aesthetics: Rethinking the Senses in Contemporary Media Contexts,” Ph.D. thesis, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, September 2002
Hudson Moura, “L’Image-exil,” Ph.D. thesis, Département des Littératures Comparés, Université de Montréal, July 2002
Michel Luc Bellemare, “ Guy Debord and the Future of Anarchism,” M.A. thesis, Mass Communication, Carleton University, August 2001
Jenefer Curtis, “Wait a Minute Mr. Postman! Neil Postman’s Critique of Media Culture,” M.A. thesis, Mass Communication, Carleton University, July 2001
Lazarus L.D.K. Dokora, “A Postcolonial Paradigm for Mass Communications in Zimbabwe,” M.A. thesis, Mass Communication, Carleton University, May 2000
Research assistants
Simon Fraser University
Niusha Hatefinia (2021-2022), Healing Media for Renewable Energy.
Radek Przedpelski (2020-2021) Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media
Alejandro Rodriguez-Silva (2020-2021) Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media
Joey Malbon (2020) Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media
Sophia Biedka (2020) Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media
Farshid Kazemi (201902021) Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Somayeh Khakshoor (2019-2021), Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Negar Ipakchiazimi (2019), Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Zaki Rezwan (2019), Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Michelle Mossop (2019), Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Daisy Thompson (2018), Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Rosa Anza-Burgess (2018), “Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art”
Yani Kong (2017-2021), Managing editor, CMA Journal
Minah Lee (2017), Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural deep histories of new media art
Asmaa Al-Issa (2017), Intercultural Approaches in Comparative Media Arts
Yani Kong (2016), Intercultural Approaches in Comparative Media Arts
Yumna Iftikhar (2015), Strengthening the Core curriculum research
Lee Gilad (2015), Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines
Jorma Kujala (2015), Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines
Alysha Seriani (2015-2016), FCAT undegraduate fellow
Matthew MacLellan (2014-2015), researcher, contemporary Arab cinema
Elysia Bourne (2014), researcher, contemporary Arab cinema
Daisy Thompson (2013), researcher, contemporary Arab cinema
Fay Nass (2012), researcher, contemporary Arab cinema
Dylan Cree (2009-10), researcher, “An Islamic Genealogy of New Media”
Sharon Kahanoff (2008-2009), researcher, “An Islamic Genealogy of New Media”
Sobhi al-Zobaidi (2007), researcher, “An Islamic Genealogy of New Media”
Pessi Parvianen (2006): researcher, “An Islamic Genealogy of New Media”
Donna Szoke (2006-7): researcher, “An Islamic Genealogy of New Media”
Karen Earl (2005): researcher, “An Islamic Genealogy of New Media”
Carleton University
Jim Dean (2002), researcher, “Cultural Difference and New Media Practices”
James Missen (2001), picture researcher and consultant, Touch
Lee Carruthers (2000-2001), editor, Touch
Natalie Neill (1999), indexer, The Skin of the Film
Service, School for the Contemporary Arts
2021-2022 Tenure and Promotion Committee
2021 Hiring committee, Filmmaker
2011-2014, 2019-2020 Director’s Advisory Committee
2004-2009, 2011-May 2016, 2017- Graduate Program Committee
2015-2016 Hiring committee, Art Historian
Fall 2014 Acting Graduate Program Chair
2012-2015 Tenure and Promotion Committee
2012-May 2016; May 2017-August 2018 MA Program Coordinator
2011 Successfully developed proposal for Cohort Special Arrangements MA in Comparative Media Arts, which began September 2013
2003-present School Committee
2005-2009, 2009-2013 Art and Culture Studies area coordinator
2008-2010 Initiative for a university-wide Ph.D. in Cinema Studies
2007-2009 Graduate Program Chair
2007-2009 Appointments Committee
2004-2009, 2012-2016 Library representative
2004-2005, 2011-2012 Curriculum Committee
2003-2008 Tenure and Promotion Committee
2008 “Two art lovers in Iran,” travel talk with MFA student Natalie Sorenson, School for the Contemporary Arts (September)
2007 Organizer, “Wired for Passion” colloquium, Green Light Festival (April)
Service, FCAT
2014-2015 FCAT Decanal Search Committee
Service, Simon Fraser University
2018- Centre for Comparative Muslim Studies committee member
2018 First Nations Studies Tenure and Promotion Committee member
2015-2016 Academic Senate
2015-2016; 2017-2021 Diverse Qualifications Adjudication Committee
2015 “Eisenstein-Sembène-Akomfrah,” talk on panel with Dr. Daniel McNeill, October 14; and roundtable “Continuing Conversations: Stuart Hall’s Legacy,” organized by Dr. Henry Daniel, October 15
2012-2015 Senate Library Committee
2012 "Contemporary Art in the Islamic World,” lecture in CSCCME summer workshop (July 19)
2011-2013 University Appointments Committee
2011 “From idea to index,” featured talk in Celebration of SFU Authors at Bennett Library, March 22
2006-2011 Founding member, Centre for the Comparative Study of Muslim Cultures and Societies
2011 “Conference fashion, conference food,” talk at “The Conference on the Conference, MFA project (March)
2011 “The Index in Everyday Life,” talk in Contemporary Art 101, course for downtown residents offered through Vancity Community Engagement Office (July)
2009 “Inspiring Islamic Art” and "Contemporary Times," lectures, guided tour of Victoria and Albert Museum, in CSCCME summer workshop, at the Aga Khan University, London (July)
2008 “Inspiring Islamic Art,” lectures in CSCCME summer workshop (July)
2008 “Baroque fascination in casino movies and Safavid carpets,” keynote lecture at “Interculturality and Intermediality: an encounter of cultures, cinema and media,” graduate student film symposium organized by Dr. Hudson Moura (April)
Languages
Fluent written and spoken French; intermediate written and spoken Arabic. Ongoing training in Modern Standard Arabic and Lebanese dialect.
Additional Training
2020 “Renewable Energy Transition Strategies,” course through SFU Faculty of Environment, April-June
Grants and awards
1991 University of Rochester, George Eastman House, Islamic Center. “Palestine: the Aesthetics of Exile,” screening series and panel. USD 4000 (including in-kind)
1992 University of Rochester. USD 7000
1993 University of Rochester. USD 7000
1993 University of Rochester travel fund. USD 300
199 University of Rochester Susan B. Anthony Center. USD 300
1994 Group application, Pyramid Arts Center. New York State Council on the Arts. Programming: “Rituals of Memory,” “Montage-Bricolage-Frottage.” USD 5000
1994 Banff Centre for the Arts. “A Deleuzian Politics of Hybrid Cinema.” CAD 3000 (in kind)
1994 University of Rochester Susan B. Anthony Center. USD 400.
1994 University of Rochester travel fund. USD 300
1994 Luce Foundation/ACLS. USD 15,000
1995 University of Rochester travel fund. USD 300
1995 University of Rochester Rush Rhees Foundation. USD 5000
1995 Mellon Foundation/Pew Charitable Trust. USD 25,000
1995 Lyn Blumenthal Fund. ““Video Haptics and Erotics.” USD 1000
1995 Ontario Arts Council. “The Haptic Critic.” CAD 1000
1996 CalArts travel fund. USD 800
1997 Carleton University. The Skin of the Film. CAD 3500
1997 Group: Available Light Collective screening series. City of Ottawa. CAD 2400
1997 Group: Available Light Collective screening series. SAW Video Co-Op. CAD 3000
1998 Carleton University travel fund and Dean's travel fund. CAD 2790
1998 Carleton University travel fund and Dean's travel fund. CAD 1250
1998. Carleton University travel fund. CAD 568
1998 Group: Available Light Collective event and screening series. Canada Council for the Arts. CAD 6000
1998 Carleton University. "Scholarly Applications of Interactive Multimedia.” CAD $3000
1999 Carleton University. "Cultural Difference and New Media Practices" and "Cinemas of the African Diaspora.” CAD 13,890
1999 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. "Cultural Difference and New Media Practices" and Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. CAD 35,000
2001 Carleton University Faculty publication fund. Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. CAD 300
2001 Film Studies group application. Carleton University Dean of Faculty. Student media studio. CAD 10,500
2002 Carleton University Dean’s Travel Fund. CAD 1282
2002 Canada Council for the Arts Travel Grant. Curated program, Argos festival, Brussels. CAD 1500
2003 Simon Fraser University Dena Wosk University Professorship. Research stipend, teaching release, and salary stipend. CAD 40,000
2004 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2005 Simon Fraser University President’s Research Grant. CAD 10,000
2006 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2007 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2007 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. “Arab and Islamic Approaches to Contemporary Media Art.” CAD 102,204
2008 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2009 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2010 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2011 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2012 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2013 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2014 SFU Dena Wosk University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2015 Simon Fraser University Graduate Studies Strengthening the Core, Fund for Innovation in Graduate Education. CAD 3,000
2015 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2015 Simon Fraser University Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines. CAD 5,000
2016 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2016 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. “Intercultural Approaches in Comparative Media Arts.” CAD $6700
2017 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2017 Simon Fraser University International Engagement. CAD 4,971
2017 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant. “Travels of the Abstract Line: Intercultural Deep Histories of New Media Art.” CAD 290,656
2018 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2019 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2020 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Knowledge Synthesis grant, Living within the Earth's Carrying Capacity. “Tackling the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Media.” CAD 50,000
2020 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2021 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Insight Grant, “Healing Media for Renewable Energy.” CAD 265,388
2021 Simon Fraser University Grant Strate University Professorship. CAD 40,000
2021 Joint application, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Connection Grant. "A Light Footprint in the Cosmos," outreach activity of Substantial Motion Research Network. CAD 49,144
2021 Faculty of Communication, Art and Technology Dean’s Event Fund. "A Light Footprint in the Cosmos," outreach activity of Substantial Motion Research Network. CAD 5000
2021 Simon Fraser University Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines. CAD 5,000
