My research interests include French and Francophone cinema, North African cinema and Italian cinema. My dissertation is a history of the transnational activities of the Algerian film industry, from its pre-independence roots in the mid 1950s to the end of the state monopoly on filmmaking in the mid 1980s. The dissertation argues that, though largely run by the state and partially motivated by a sense of nationalism, the Algerian film industry prized internationalization in the production and dissemination of its national cinema. This includes but is not limited to the undertaking of international coproductions, the circulation of Algerian films on the international film circuit, and the development of cinephile culture that emphasized internationalism. In all these cases, internationalization efforts occurred with the collaboration of European and North African institutions. Such research can expand scholars’ understanding of how a post-colonial government presented and enmeshed its cultural sector within the international community in a variety of political circumstances.
Education
- B.A. Film Studies (Minors in English and French) Muhlenberg College, 2015
- M.A. Film Studies, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin – Madison, 2019
Courses Instructed (as a Teaching Assistant)
- CA 100 – Introduction to Speech Composition
- CA 300 – Film Comedy
- CA 350 – Introduction to Film
- CA 355 – Introduction to Media Production
- CA 609 – Adaptation for Film and TV
Courses Instructed (as a Lecturer)
- CA 300 – Film Comedy (Summer, 2020)
- CA 313 – Indiewood (Summer, 2022)
Publications
- Bennett, John, “Narrative Structures of the French comédie communautaire: 2008-2017” The Oxford Handbook of Screen Comedy. Ed. Peter Kunze and William Costanzo. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2024. (Forthcoming)
Conference Presentations
- “Herman Shumlin: an Unlikely Political Auteur of 1940s Hollywood” Film and History, Madison, Wisconsin, 2018.
- “From Screen to Stage to Screen: The Remake Status of Movies of Musicals of Movies” Literature and Film, Portland, Oregon, 2019.
- “Narrative Structures of the French comédie communautaire” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, virtual, 2021.
- “The Mediation of Algerian Films at the Cannes Film Festival: 1966-1982” Questioning the Archive of Algerian Independence Symposium, Charlottesville/virtual, 2022.
- “Postcolonial Film Festivals: the Programming Ethoses of the Carthage Film Festival and the Panafrican Cultural Festival” Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference, Denver, 2023.
Honors & Awards
- Helen K. Herman Award – Department of Communication Arts, 2021
- Kepley Dissertation Award – Department of Communication Arts, 2023
- IRIS Graduate Student Summer Fieldwork Award – Institute for Regional and International Studies, 2023
- Student Research Grant Competition –Graduate School, UW Madison, 2023
- Marilynn R. Baxter Research Award – Department of Communication Arts, 2024
- Chateaubriand Fellowship – The French Embassy in the United States, 2024