Professor Stephanie Dennison
- Position: Professor of Brazilian Studies
- Areas of expertise: Brazilian Cultural Studies with special emphasis on contemporary film culture; World Cinema theory, including transnational film theory; 19th-century Brazilian history of ideas; Latin American cinema
- Email: S.Dennison@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 3523
- Location: 218 Michael Sadler
Profile
I'm originally from Northern Ireland but have lived between England and Brazil for most of my post-teenage years. After a brief stint teaching Portuguese and Spanish at the University of Liverpool, I joined the University of Leeds in 1994 where I currently hold a Chair in Brazilian Studies. I held a Leverhulme-funded International Academic Fellowship at the Multimeios Dept of UNICAMP, Brazil in 2015 and a Macpesquisa-funded Visiting Professorship on the Cultural History programme of Mackenzie Presbyterian University, also in Brazil. I was President of ABIL, the Association of Lusitanists of Great Britain and Ireland, from 2018-2021 (I now act as Past President member of the Executive) and I am a founding member of REBRAC, a European network of Brazilianists working in Cultural Studies. I was a member of the Modern Languages and Linguistics sub-panel for REF2021.
I have published a number of books on Brazilian, Latin American and World Cinema. My latest single-authored book, Remapping Brazilian Film Culture in the 21st Century, was published by Routledge in 2020. I was Primary Investigator and Co-investigator respectively on AHRC-funded projects Soft Power, Cinema and the BRICS and Voicing Hidden Histories, and I have published articles and book chapters and produced short films related to these projects. I am currently working on a BA-funded project with Vlad Strukov on streaming media and (inter)national film cultures, with a focus on South Korea, Turkey and Mexico. My most recent sabbatical period was spent developing a new project entitled Critical Lusofonia. A research film based on my initial findings is forthcoming
I am currently Head of the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (until 31 July 2023)
Responsibilities
- Interim Head of School
- Director of Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures
Research interests
I am interested in film culture as it is broadly understood, particularly, though not exclusively, in the contemporary period, and particularly as it is manifested in Brazil. I am also interested in new approaches to cultural studies, and especially popular culture and the soft power of film.
I currently supervise, or have recently supervised pg research projects on a much wider range of topics:
- Critical Discourse Analysis of Jair Bolsonaro’s tweets and facebook lives in relation to Brazil’s indigenous populations (Ben Simonsen)
- History of Independent Film Exhibition in Leeds (Alice Miller)
- Female Migration in European Cinema (Bengisu Kepsutlu)
- Masculinity in recent James Bond films (Itsna Dinurriyah)
- Japanese consumption of Korean Cultural Diplomacy (Stefania Pozzi)
- The Role of Media in the Revitalisation of the Jibbali Language (Kamela al Barami)
Qualifications
- BA Hons Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, King's College, London
- PhD Hispanic Studies, University of Liverpool
Professional memberships
- ABIL (Association of Lusitanists of Great Britain and Ireland). President of the Association.
- REBRAC (Rede Europeia de Brasilianistas de Analise Cultural). Founding member.
- LASA (Latin American Studies Association)
- BAFTSS (British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies)
Research groups and institutes
- Cinema and Television
- Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American
- Digital cultures
- The Camões Centre for Portuguese Language
- Fusão
- Cultural studies
- Network for Hispanic and Lusophone Cultural Studies
- Centre for World Cinemas and Digital Cultures