Congratulations to Stephanie Dennison!

Warm congratulations to Stephanie Dennison who has recently been promoted to a Chair in Brazilian Studies.

Professor Dennison's main areas of research are Brazilian film culture and the broader context of World Cinema, with numerous key publications in both (for example, Brazilian National Cinema, with Lisa Shaw, Remapping World cinema, with Song Hwee Lim, and Contemporary Hispanic Cinema). Her background is in Cultural History, and she has published on the socio-political context of Brazilian writing, and more specifically on the work of Joaquim Nabuco and the Brazilian Belle Epoque.

Her current research on film culture and soft power brings these two cultural history strands of her research together: she leads an AHRC-supported research network entitled Soft Power, Cinema and The BRICS. The network will investigate the relationship between non-state actors in the cultural industries of the BRICS countries and national 'soft power' strategies, by focusing on the nature and function of the film industry. One of its key objectives is to bring culture, and specifically film, to the centre of discussions on soft power, by focusing on big-screen narratives, and their on-and off-screen stories, with a view to analysing the extent to which film industries are being harnessed in the exercise of cultural diplomacy and the generation of soft power, and to what ends.