I am a Ph.D. candidate in French with a designated emphasis in Film and Media. My research interests lie in representations of post-colonial subjectivities in France (especially of the North African diaspora), through aesthetics of be.longing and attention to spatial paradigms and movement in French and Francophone contemporary narratives across media (literature, cinema, television, new media), with an emphasis on the nascent serialized narratives on streaming platforms.
At the intersection of French and Francophone Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Film and New Media Studies and Cultural Studies, my dissertation aims at re-articulating ideas of be.longing (this spelling is made to emphasize the desire of belonging itself) for descendants of immigrants (DOI) in contemporary Hexagonal France. In a socio-political context where legal French citizens are still marginalized due to their immigrant origin, this project aspires to foreground autobiographical and fictional narratives of DOI and the way they navigate their postcolonial hybridity in a French republic that disavows these very differences as contrary to its democratic values. This exploration of be.longing journeys draws from a multi-media corpus made out of works of literature, cinema, television and most importantly new media, in an effort to both delineate an aesthetic of be.longing across media and render mainstream streaming productions legible in academic research. This project engages with the theoretical framework of “cultural citizenship” to highlight the paradoxical position of DOI in France, at once citizen and marked as immigrants, and proposes a focus on space and movement as analytical frameworks to explore the self-making practices and phenomenology of DOI in their ultimate goal of social belonging. The thematic comparative analyses developed in this project will highlight hybridity as a salient and critical tool of emancipatory praxis from French postcolonial exclusionary power dynamics, and apparatuses. As a third generation North African immigrant myself, my hope is that by the end of this dissertation, readers will have arrived at a widened conception of what it means to be French and a DOI in hexagonal France, as well as possess a deeper understanding of the role streaming serialized productions have in expanding the possibilities of these narratives of be.longing and in intervening in the politics they challenge.
Before coming to Berkeley, I earned a BA and MA in English literature and cultures from the University of Tours (France), where I wrote a thesis on The Representations of Black Masculinities in American television series from 2014 onwards. This thesis allowed me to focus on subjects that became central to my research interests — namely, cultural studies, media studies, and gender and sexuality studies— all through an intersectional analytical framework. A one-year student exchange in the French department at the University of Colorado Boulder helped rekindle my interest in French literature and media, and led me to graduate from CU Boulder with an MA in French and Francophone literature.
When I am not obsessively reading about banlieue cinema, I am binge-watching television series (for research of course), spending time at a local theater or exploring nature in the Bay!
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Feel free to contact me for any questions (teaching, research, tutoring) by email.
Office Hours: Wednesday 12pm-1pm; Friday 12pm-1pm
Selected Publications
Book Chapters (editor-reviewed)
- “Gender Dynamics and Spatiality in Banlieue Education Films”. Gender in French Banlieue Cinema: Intersectional Perspectives, edited by Marzia Caporale, Claire Mouflard, & Habib Zanzana, Lexington Book Publishing, August 2024, pp. 97-113.
- Co-authored with Pr. Georges-Claude Guilbert. “Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood as Queer Utopian Uchronia.” Ryan Murphy's Queer America, edited by Brenda R. Weber & David Greven, Routledge, 2022, pp. 105-118.
- “Titus Andromedon’s Intersectional Identity in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015-2020).” Intersectionality in Anglophone Television Series and Cinema, edited by Kévin Drif & Georges-Claude Guilbert, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2020, pp. 36-47.
Edited Volume
- Co-edited with Pr. Georges-Claude Guilbert. Intersectionality in Anglophone Television Series and Cinema. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, December 2020.
Book Reviews (editor-reviewed)
- Review of Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes USby Karen Tongson. Continuum, 28 Feb. 2024, DOI: 10.1080/10304312.2024.2325097
In Preparation
- “Halqa performance and fourth stage in Kateb Yacine’s Le cadavre encerclé.” Revue Internationale des Inventions Théâtrales Africaines, inaugural issue. (to be published in Fall 2025)
- “When the Banlieue Meets the Third Arrondissement: Education, Hip Hop, and Emancipation in Allons Enfants (2022).” Education in Contemporary French and Francophone Film, edited by Rhiannon Harries and John Marks. (to be published in 2026)
20th and 21st century French and Francophone literature and culture; North African diaspora and migration narratives; French children of immigrants identities via film and media studies, television studies, post-colonial studies.
