The Bass School’s Film Studies program hosted in-person keynote addresses, panels and workshops with internationally recognized scholars in world cinema on Nov. 1 and 2.
The inaugural Global Cinema Symposium, held in the Edith O’Donnell Arts and Technology Building at UT Dallas, assembled a network of scholars from around the world to develop theories, conceptual frameworks, and methodologies to reshape the field of global cinema.
Dr. Warren, the Associate Dean of Graduate Studies, emphasized the significant role of graduate students in organizing the event. “Film Studies has been a cornerstone of our Visual and Performing Arts Program at UT Dallas for decades, but in recent years students have increasingly drawn energy and inspiration from debates about the politics and poetics of world, global, and transnational cinemas,” she said. “Their pursuits and desire for expansive approaches to the moving image have motivated us to diversify and decolonize our curriculum, our faculty, our research, and our programming. Our ambition for this first symposium is to build on these exciting developments and create a space and community for discussion and debate about the world-building potential at the heart of the art of cinema.”
This year’s symposium, titled “Engaging Global Cinema Cultures: Discourses and Disruptions,” featured keynote addresses by two distinguished scholars: Dr. Lúcia Nagib from the University of Reading and Dr. Lalitha Gopalan from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Nagib, an internationally recognized specialist in world cinema, cinematic realism and cinematic intermediality, presented a keynote titled “Human, Humane, Nonhuman: An Evolving Realist Trend in World Cinema.” Meanwhile, Dr. Gopalan, a specialist in feminist film theory, Indian cinema, and experimental film, delivered her talk, “Pulling Focus With Leeward Cinema.”
During the two-day symposium, the panelists and invited guests discussed various aspects of world cinema. Among the topics examined during the conference were Temporal Aesthetics in Global Cinema, Negotiating the Nation and Reimagining Globality, Emerging Aesthetics and Form(s) in Global Cinema, and New Discourses in Global Cinema. A pedagogy workshop, led by prominent scholar Shekhar Deshpande, kicked off the second day, providing participants with innovative insights into teaching global cinema.
The symposium concluded with a State-of-the-Field Roundtable moderated by Dr. Shilyh Warren and featuring three distinguished scholars: Samirah Alkassim (George Mason University), Iggy Cortez (University of California, Berkeley), and Meta Mazaj (University of Pennsylvania).
Reflecting on the symposium’s impact, Alkassim remarked, “So many thoughts and questions are going to be processed from this event and many of them are going to be laced through my current work. Thank you all for the tremendous effort and, for me, unprecedented generosity within an academic sphere. I leave with the sense of having made new friendships and connections and in some ways greater faith in human effort, labor, goodwill as we look upon many diminishing horizons.”
Dr. Gopalan echoed these sentiments, saying, “I loved the cosmopolitan accents of our gathering, our varied histories, and our collective enthusiasm for ‘World Cinema.’” Michael Allan, another presenter, expressed his gratitude, stating, “I leave Dallas energized and enthusiastic about the remarkable work in our field.”
In addition to hosting the Global Cinema Symposium, the Film Studies program organizes events like the Shot/Reverse Shot semesterly screening series. For more information, visit their website at https://filmstudies.utdallas.edu/