Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Staff Profile

Dr Dunja Fehimovic

Senior Lecturer

Background

I joined Newcastle University's School of Modern Languages in September 2016, after completing an AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Cambridge on national identity in contemporary Cuban film. During my MPhil in Latin American Studies, also at the University of Cambridge, I worked on Latin American film more widely, as well as on music (rap and reggaetón) in Cuba. My thesis was an exploration of documentary films shown at the Muestras de Nuevos Realizadores in Cuba in relation to national identity. 

I have a background in English literature and Spanish (language and literature), and have dabbled in documentary filmmaking. I have worked on the Latin American news website Pulsamérica (www.pulsamerica.co.uk) as both writer (for the Caribbean) and sub-editor. I have contributed to the Palabras errantes (www.palabraserrantes.com) project as translator.

I teach mainly on the literatures, films, and cultures of Spain and Latin America, and my research focuses on Cuban, Puerto Rican and Dominican cinema.

Areas of expertise

  • Cuba
  • Caribbean
  • Film
  • Latin American studies
  • Cultural studies

Google scholar: Click here.
SCOPUS: Click here.
ORCID: Click here.

Research

My work on insular Hispanic Caribbean - and particularly Cuban - cinema so far has developed a particular focus on:

  • National, transnational and diasporic identities
  • Cultural, place, and nation branding
  • Ethics, hospitality, and otherness
  • Place and space
  • Genre, particularly horror
  • The representation of children on screen

 

I am now adopting a comparative approach informed by concepts such as Relation (Glissant) to argue for the productivity and importance of making connections between the cinemas of the Caribbean, particularly of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and their diasporas. This comparative spirit is behind international conferences 'Decentred / Dissenting Connections: Envisioning Caribbean Film and Visual Cultures’ (2018, co-convened with Dr Francisco-J. Hernández Adrián, Durham University) and Mapping New Caribbean Cinema (co-convened with Professor Mary Leonard, Universidad de Puerto Rico-Mayagüez), and the Caribbean Film Forum (co-founded in 2021 with Professor Leonard), an online platform that aims to build up the network of filmmakers, curators, scholars, and lovers of Caribbean film through a series of in-person and virtual conversations, and the Caribbean Film Educators' Network (co-founded in 2022 with Professor Leonard), which aims to facilitate collaboration and connection between film educators and students across the region.


My current research examines 21st-century insular Hispanic Caribbean film in order to develop an understanding of the relationship between coloniality and ecology, asking to what extent, and in what ways, film can build decolonial ecologies.



Teaching

I am module leader of

LAS2033: Envisioning Identities in Latin American Film

LAS4032: Caribbean Imaginaries: Image, Text, Music


and I contribute to

SML1021: Introduction to International Film

SPA4081: Level D (HE Further Advanced) Spanish: Advanced Writing Skills 

FMS8055: Approaches to Film History and Theory (Masters)

FMS8037: Cinematic Others (Masters)


PhD Supervision

I am interested in reviewing and supervising MLitt and PhD work on Caribbean and Latin American cinema and visual culture, and on other inter-disciplinary areas (please see research interests). 


Publications