Professor Lizelle Bisschoff
- Professor of Film Studies (Theatre, Film & Television Studies)
telephone:
0141 3306130
email:
Lizelle.Bisschoff@glasgow.ac.uk
School of Culture & Creative Art, Theatre Film and TV Studies, Gilmorehill Halls
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5820-0377Biography
I completed a three-year Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellowship in Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow from 2012-2015, and a two-year Leverhulme Trust Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Centre of African Studies (CAS) at the University of Edinburgh from 2010-2012. I hold a PhD on African cinema from the University of Stirling (2009), and an MSc in Cultural Studies from the University of Edinburgh (2005).
My PhD research focused on the role and representation of women in francophone West African and lusophone and anglophone Southern African cinema. In my Leverhulme postdoctoral research project my regional focus shifted to East Africa and I conducted research into the emerging film industries in East Africa, specifically in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. I have done field research on African film in various African countries (including South Africa, Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania), and have attended numerous international film festivals, often as invited speaker and jury member.
Africa in Motion Film Festival: At the start of my PhD research in 2006 I founded the Africa in Motion (AiM) film festival, an African film festival taking place annually in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I directed the festival from 2006-2011 and currently act as advisor and member of the festival’s Management Team and Board of Trustees. The inspiration for the festival grew out of my desire to combine my academic research with practical work in an attempt to make African cinema, which is hugely marginalised all over the world, more accessible to British audiences. In addition to the public outreach, education and dissemination dimensions of AiM, the festival also has strong academic and research elements, through academic symposia and panel discussions with invited international film scholars presenting their research and taking part in discussions. Film Studies students at the University of Glasgow have various opportunities to become involved in the festival, as volunteers, interns, as part of the festival’s selection committee, and more.
Research interests
My primary research interest lies in contemporary African cinema, and I am working on various aspects of this, including:
- Gender and African cinema: I am interested in the role of women in African cinema, in front of and behind the camera. I published a co-authored monograph (with Stefanie Van de Peer), entitled Women in African Cinema: Film Beyond the Body Politic in 2019.
- African film festivals, in Africa and internationally
- African film and digital technologies, in particular the video-film industries such as Nigeria’s Nollywood
- Diasporic and exilic African cinema
- Post-apartheid South African cinema
- Nationalism and post-nationalism in African cinema
- African film within popular culture
Grants
- PI on Scottish Research Council-funded project, "Building capacity for film curation and exhibition in East Africa" (£25,000), Oct 2018-2019
- PI on AHRC Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement grant, 2017-18 (£90,000), for a project entitled "Africa's Lost Classics in Context". The project entailed the restoration and screenings of around 20 African classics across the UK, in collaboration with the UK's five African film festivals (Scotland, London, Bristol, Wales and Cambridge).
- University of Glasgow Chancellor’s Fund, 2014, for an international one-day symposium entitled “Twenty Years of Democracy: Art and Activism in South Africa”. The symposium took place in Dec 2014 at CCA in Glasgow and featured world-famous anti-apartheid activist and former judge for the South African Constitutional Court, Albie Sachs, as keynote speaker.
- Leverhulme Postdoctoral Fellowship, Sept 2010 to Aug 2012, for research on the emerging East African film industries
- Scholarship from the British Federation of Women Graduates, July 2008 (£5,000), for PhD research
- Research grant from the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, June 2007 – June 2009 for a project entitled “Recovering Lost African Film Classics: Towards a History of Filmmaking by African Women”
- Small project grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), June 2006 – May 2007 for a project entitled “Recovering Lost African Film Classics: Towards a more complex history of African cinema”
Supervision
I welcome PhD applications from students in the areas of African film and media, popular culture, and gender.
- Brown, Michelah
The Dilemma of Freedom for the Black Body in Performance - Ibrahim, Umloda
Resistance within/of Sudanese Cinema
Teaching
- Convenor: MSc Film Curation
- Level 1: Key Moments in the History of Film and Television
- Convener and presenter of Honours option course, Introduction to African Cinemas
- Convener and presented of Honours option course, Race on Screen
- Sessions on Festivals course, on arts festivals on the African continent
- Sessions on MLitt Advanced Topics in Film Studies course, on Transnational Cinemas
- Sessions on MLitt Film and Television core course, on Third Cinema and African Cinema
- Sessions of MSc in Film Curation core course, on the Africa in Motion film festival
Additional information
Affiliation
Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (HEA)
External Responsibilities
- Member of the Board of Trustees of the Africa in Motion Film Festival
- Member of the editorial board of Journal of African Cinemas (Intellect)
Administration
- Chair: School of Culture and Creative Arts EDI (Equalities, Diversity and Inclusivity) Committee
- Convenor MSc Film Curation
Conferences and Presentations
Invited presentations – academic institutions
- “Centralising Africa: Decolonising Film Studies research and teaching”, keynote presented at Postgraduate Film Studies Conference, University of St Andrews, May 2019
- “Hidden Herstories: Charting the Roles of Women in African Cinema”, research seminar for the Department of Film and Television, University of Bristol, May 2018
- “Contemporary African Cinemas: New genres, aesthetics and themes”, research seminar for the Centre of African Studies, University of Birmingham, Nov 2017
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“Curating Africa in Scotland: The Africa in Motion Story”, research seminar for the Division of Communications, Media and Culture, University of Stirling, March 2016
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“From colonial reminiscences in film to Black cinema in Britain”, presentation at Humanizing Culture, Art and Media International Conference, Afrika Filmfestival Leuven, Belgium, March 2016
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"Women in African Cinema: Presence and Absence", presentation as part of Gender Week, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, March 2016
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“Alternative futures and mythological pasts: African science fiction and fantasy in film”, presentation for the School of Modern Languages and Cultures seminar series, University of Glasgow, Feb 2015
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Presentation on African film and African film festivals at Centre of Global History workshop at the University of Dundee, Sept 2014
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“The impact of digital technologies on the consumption of African audio-visual content”, presentation at World Cinema on Demand workshop, Queen’s University Belfast, Sept 2013
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“Film as a tool for social change: Anti-FGM activism in Sembene’s Moolaadé”, presentation at The Arts of Peacebuilding: Theatre, Film and Dance workshop, University of Edinburgh, Aug 2013
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“Archival Film Festivals: The Lost Classics of African Cinema”, presentation at Imperial Archives and Cities workshop, AHRC Utopian Archives Research Network, University of Stirling, Feb 2013
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“Digital as the new popular in African cinema? The impact of digital technologies on African screen media”, presentation as part of Screen seminar series, Film and Television Studies, University of Glasgow, Jan 2013
Invited presentations – non-academic institutions
- “Africa’s Lost Classics: Histories of African Women in Film”, workshop presented at the Zanzibar International Film Festival, July 2018
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“From colonial reminiscences in film to Black cinema in Britain”, presentation at Humanizing Culture, Art and Media International Conference, Afrika Filmfestival Leuven, Belgium, March 2016
- Panel member for Glasgow Short Film Festival symposium, March 2015
- Presented two workshops on African film festival management and curation, Colours of the Nile Film Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 2014
- “Film distribution and the Africa in Motion film festival”, presentation at Film Africa Festival Distribution Forum, London, Oct 2012
- “Beyond the tourist curios: Popular arts in contemporary Africa”, presentation at Creative Scotland International Conference Engaging with the arts and infrastructure of sub-Saharan Africa, Edinburgh, Oct 2012
- “Africa in Science Fiction”, presentation at the Arnolfini Arts Centre, Bristol, June 2012
- “Women in African Cinema: Questions of presence and absence”, masterclass presented at National Gallery of Zimbabwe as part of International Images of Women Film Festival, Harare, Zimbabwe, Dec 2011, funded by the British Council in Zimbabwe
Conferences
- “Women in African Cinema: Female identity on screen”, presentation at (Re)reading African Feminisms Colloquium, Rhodes University, South Africa, July 2017
- Panel convener and chair for series of panels on the theme “African Utopias/Dystopias”, African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) conference, University of Sussex, Sept 2014
- Panel convener and chair for series of panels on the theme “Global and transnational connections in contemporary African arts and creative practice”, European Centre for African Studies (ECAS) conference, Lisbon, Portugal, June 2013
- “Beyond social realism: Fantasy and science fiction in contemporary African cinema”, African Cinema Conference at University of Westminster, London, Nov 2012
- “A modern medium in an ancient world: Reflections on the Zanzibar International Film Festival”, presentation at the African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) conference, University of Leeds, Sept 2012
- Panel convener and chair for series of panels on African cinema at African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) conference, University of Leeds, Sept 2012
- “The rise of East African cinema: Women leading the way”, Women in Film and Africa Conference at University of Westminster, London, Nov 2011
- “Representing Africa in Europe: Programming the Africa in Motion Film Festival”, presentation at the African Studies Association UK (ASAUK) conference at St Antony’s College, Oxford, Sept 2010
- “Digital production and distribution in African Cinema”, Postcolonial Studies Association Conference at University of Stirling, May 2010
