Staff Profile
Dr Dunja Fehimovic
Senior Lecturer
- Email: dunja.fehimovic@ncl.ac.uk
- Telephone: 0191 208 4410
- Address: Room 5.35, Old Library Building
Newcastle University,
Claremont Rd,
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RG
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
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Articles
- Fehimovic D. Ethics, hospitality and aesthetics in Fresa y chocolate/Strawberry and Chocolate (Gutiérrez Alea and Tabío 1993) and Santa y Andrés/Santa and Andrés (Lechuga 2016). Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 2020, 17(3), 409-425.
- Fehimovic D. The Appeal of the 'Old School': From De cierta manera/ One Way or Another (1974) to Conducta/ Behaviour (2014). Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas 2017, 14(2), 133-152.
- Fehimovic D. Not Child's Play: Tactics and Strategies in Viva Cuba and Habanastation. Bulletin of Latin American Research 2015, 34(4), 503-516.
- Fehimovic D, Stone R. Cuba's Cinematic Elan Vital: Cubanidad and Cubania as Citizenship and Sentiment. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies 2014, 23(3), 298-303.
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Authored Book
- Fehimović D. National Identity in 21st-Century Cuban Cinema: Screening the Repeating Island. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
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Book Chapters
- Fehimovic D. Connected in "another way": repetition, difference and identity in Caribbean cinema. In: Paul Cooke, Stephanie Dennison, Alex Marlow-Mann, Rob Stone, ed. The Routledge Companion to World Cinema. Routledge, 2018, pp.111-121.
- Fehimovic D. Zombie Nation: Monstrous Identities in Three Cuban Films. In: Guy Baron, Ann Marie Stock, Antonio Álvarez Pitaluga, ed. The Cinema of Cuba: Contemporary Film and the Legacy of Revolution. I. B. Tauris, 2017, pp.147-170.
- Fehimovic D. Cinema and Nation Branding in Cuba. In: Dinnie K, ed. Nation Branding : Concepts, Issues, Practice. London: Routledge, 2015, pp.131-134.
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Edited Book
- Fehimovic D, Ogden R, ed. Branding Latin America: Strategies, Aims, Resistance. Lexington Books, 2018.