Having completed an MA in History and Film Studies at the University of Warwick in 2015/16, followed by a period working as an Assistant Film Programmer for French Film Festival UK at the Institut français d'Écosse in Edinburgh, I returned to Warwick to join the School of Modern Languages and Cultures on a PhD Research and Teaching Fellowship in Autumn 2017. During my first spell at Warwick I sat on the editorial board for Retrospectives: A Postgraduate History Journal, as well as collaborated with Warwick Arts Centre on a number of public engagement initiatives. I am also currently a PG Repesentative on the Executive Comittee for the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies (SFPS).

Research interests

Generally speaking, my current research examines the ways in which contemporary French cinema shapes and reflects ideas of nation and identity, with an emphasis on issues of race. My MA dissertation looked at representations of contemporary Paris and its inhabitants in the films of Claire Denis. Co-supervised by Dr Mary Harrod and Dr Douglas Morrey, the working title for my PhD is 'Immigration and Ethnicity in Twenty-First Century French Cinema'. This study will cut across both auteur and more popular cinematic forms, exploring how recent films engage with the evolving nature of French identity in the context of increasing multiculturalism, heightened national security and renewed racism in France. I also maintain an interest in the history of the national French football team, particularly as a lens through which to observe broader social concerns.

Teaching

2017/18

FR344: French Cinema

FR340: States of Nation – French Cinema and Society From the 1990s to the Present

FR251: France and the World Since 1945

FR252: Representations of the Holocaust

LN210: Languages and Cultures Beyond Boundaries

Publications

Review: French-language Road Cinema: Borders, Diasporas, Migration and ‘New Europe’ (Edinburgh University Press, 2016) by Michael Gott, Studies in European Cinema (2017): dx.doi.org/10.1080/17411548.2017.1363495.

Review: Laurent Cantet (Manchester University Press, 2015) by Martin O'Shaughnessy, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media Issue 11 (2016), 127-131.

Recent conference papers

2016: ‘Peau noire, tapis rouges: Ethnicity and Stardom in Contemporary French Cinema’, Contested Histories Postgraduate Conference, Department of History, the University of Warwick.

Professional memberships

The British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Special Interest Group: French and Francophone Cinema.

Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies (SFPS).

Recent academic awards

2017: French Studies PhD Research and Teaching Fellowship (School of Modern Languages and Cultures, the University of Warwick).

2016: Sir John H. Elliott Prize (Department of History, the University of Warwick).

- MA in History and Film Studies Special Achievement Award (Department of Film and Television Studies and the Department of History, the University of Warwick).

2015: Departmental MA Scholarship (Department of History, the University of Warwick).

Ally Lee

alan.lee@warwick.ac.uk

For appointments please email.