Hegemony and counter-hegemony in cultural discourse; cinematic representations of class; Marxism and cultural studies; queer film and cultural theory; Arab cinema.
Current Research:
Malek is currently working on two projects on Arab cinema in various stages of completion. Both projects examine cultural, social and political aspects in Arab cinematic discourse and how they inform and are informed by the struggle for national liberation and anti-colonial resistance within the Arab world.
* Modernity and Post-colonial Resistance in Youssef Chahine’s Cinema
This is a SSHRC-funded book project on the discourse of Arab national liberation in films by veteran Egyptian filmmaker Youssef Chahine. The book focuses on the counter-hegemonic significance of Chahine’s work in connection with post-colonial political and cultural resistance. The book will be ready for publication in early 2007.
* Projections of Queerness in New Arab Cinema
The book studies elements in the depiction of queerness in contemporary Arab cinema. After examining how the celebration of bisexuality has been historically integral to Arab literary and artistic discourses, the book demonstrates how colonial and neo-colonial practices informed the suppression of bisexuality in Arab cinema. In this context the book studies how new Arab cinema, as part of a national liberation project, is reviving earlier cultural traditions in the depiction of queer sexual desire.
Current Courses:
COMS 601 (Interdisciplinary Approaches to Communication Studies)
COMS 603 (Critical Perspectives on Film and Television)
FILM 200 (Introduction to Film Studies)
FILM 300 (Introduction to Film Theory)
FILM 301.08 (New Latin American Cinema)
FILM 301.10 (New Arab Cinemas)
FILM 305.02 (Nightmares and Paranoias: The Horror Film)
FILM 305.06 (The Various Faces of Dracula)
FILM 305.08 (The Musical and Beyond)
FILM 401.06 (Film as Post-colonial Cultural Practice)
FILM 403.03 (Fellini/ Pasolini / Bertolucci)
FILM 403.08 (Oliver Stone)
Books:
Working On Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema, co-editor with Darrel Varga (University of Toronto Press: 2006).
Reds, Labour and the NFB: National Film Board of Canada Films (1939-1946) (forthcoming, University of Calgary Press: 2006).
Modernity and Post-colonial Resistance in Youssef Chahine’s Cinema (forthcoming: 2007).
Projections of Queerness in Arab Cinema (forthcoming).
Jamilie Hassan: essays de Heesook Chang, Monika Kin Gagnon, Marwan Hassan (Translation). Quebec: La Chambre Blanche. 1996.
Conference Presentations:
New Arab Cinema and National Identity: Re-incorporating the Jewish into Arab Identity. Public Lecture organized by Simon Fraser University School of Communication, Vancouver. March 6, 2006.
Contributor/discussant. 1st Annual Latin American Film Series. University of Calgary.
2005-06.
Modernist Approximations in the Cinema of Elia Suleiman. Invited talk with Canada Palestine Support Network. Plaza Theatre, Calgary, 20 November 2005.
Memory, Modernity and Reconstructing Identity: Re-incorporating the ‘Jewish’ into Arab National Identity in Forget Baghdad. Panel on Colonialism / Post-colonialism in New Arab Film and Media; Visible Evidence XII Conference, Concordia University. Montreal, Quebec, 21-25 August, 2005.
Organizer and Chair, Colonialism / Post-colonialism in New Arab Film and Media; panel in Visible Evidence XII, Concordia University. Montreal, Quebec, 21-25 August, 2005.
National Liberation and Neo-colonialism in New Arab Cinema. Panel on Imperialism and Film; Film Studies Association of Canada. London, ON, May 29-31, 2005.
Panelist: A Roundtable on Canada and the Muslim World. Conference on Intervention What Next? Reconstruction and Development in War-Torn Muslim Countries. Carleton University, Ottawa, ON. 17-18 December 2004.
Canadian Media & Film Culture and Canadian Arab Communities. Conference on Canada and the Arab World: Challenges and Opportunities. Organized the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations and the International Relations Office, University of Calgary. University of Calgary, November 2004.
Cup Final: Israeli Cinema and de-Othering Palestinians. Israel in Film: Wars and Ordinary People. University of Calgary, September-October 2004.
New Arab Cinema and the Politics of National Liberation. Canada-Palestine Film Festival. University of Calgary, October 2004.
Emergences and Continuities in Arab Cultural Discourse in the ‘Post-war on Terror’ Period. 7th International Conference of the International Centre for Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies: The Creation of New Partnership States: Challenges of Adaptation, Harmonization, and the Politics of Post-Conflict Reconstruction. Eastern Mediterranean University Gazimagusa, CYPRUS, April 29 to May 1, 2004.
Youssef Chahine: Between Art Cinema and the Art of Cinematic Resistance. Association of Egyptian Film Critics Conference. Cairo, EGYPT, March 2004.
New Arab Cinema as Modernist Cinema. Conference on Arab Cinemas: The HigherInstitute of Cinema, Cairo, EGYPT, February 2004.
What is the Future of the Indigenous Film Industry in Alberta? The $100 Film Festival. Calgary, AB. March, 2003.
Post-Colonial Resistance and Modernity: Chahine’s The Destiny. Film Studies Association of Canada. Toronto, ON, May 2002.
Othering the Worker in Gay Canadian Cinema: An Examination of Thom Fitzgerald’s The Hanging Garden. Symposium on the Images of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema; Film Studies Association of Canada. Toronto, ON, May 2002.
Canadian Cinemas: Which Way Forward. How Canadians Communicate Conference. University of Calgary. Calgary, AB, November 2001.
Organizer & Coordinator: Symposium on the Images of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema. Film Studies Association of Canada. Toronto, ON, May 2001.
Pedagogy and Film Analysis. Winter 2001 Faculty Development Session. Learning Commons, University of Calgary. Calgary, AB. March, 2001.
Historicizing Canadian Cinema: Overcoming the ‘Big Brother’ Syndrome. The Four O’clock Lecture Series. University of Calgary. Calgary, AB. December, 2000.
The Politics of Class in Teaching and Studying Canadian Cinema. Film Studies Association of Canada. Ottawa, ON. May 1998.
Cinematic Tales and Commonsensical History: Resistance and Submission in the Age of Contingency Labour. Conference on the Image of Class in Literature, the Media, and Society. University of Southern Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO. March, 1998.
Ideology, Hegemony, and Film Theory. Politics and Languages of Marxism Conference. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. December, 1996.
Critical Discourse on Canadian Cinema. School of Canadian Studies Conference. Carleton University, Ottawa, ON. March, 1996.
School of Canadian Studies Conference. Carleton University, Ottawa, ON. March, 1996.
Recent Journal Articles:
“Arab Cinema: Landmarks and Emergences,” in Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film, edited by Barry Keith Grant. Thomson Gale (forthcoming: December 2006).
“A Parochial Newfoundland: John and the Missus as a Tale of Tradition, Progress and Submission” in Rain, Drizzle, Fog: Essays on Atlantic Canadian Film and Television, edited by Darrell Varga (forthcoming).
“Othering the Worker in Canadian 'Gay Cinema': Thom Fitzgerald’s The Hanging Garden” in Working on Screen: Representations of the Working Class in Canadian Cinema, edited by Malek Khouri and Darrell Varga. "University Of Toronto Press, 2006, pp. 134-147."
“Anxieties of Fundamentalism and Post-colonial Modernist Resistance: Youssef Chahine’s Al Maseer (The Destiny),” CineAction, no. 69 (Spring 2006), pp. 12-23.
“Origins and Patterns in the Discourse of New Arab Cinema,” Arab Studies Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1/2 (winter/spring 2005), pp.1-20.
“Film and Film Culture in Canada: Which Way Forward,” in How Canadians Communicate, edited by David Tarras, Fritz Pannekoek, Maria Bakardjieva, University of Calgary Press, 2003, pp. 185-201.
“Counter-hegemonic discourse on the Working Class in NFB World War II Films,” in History of Intellectual Culture, vol. 1, no. 1, 2002, www.ucalgary.ca/hic/, [12 pages].
“John and the Missus: Progress, Resistance, and Common Sense,” in CineAction, no.49, June 1999, pp. 2-11.
"Theorizing Ideology: Contextualizing Marxist Intervention in Film Theory,” in Nature, Society, and Thought, vol.11 no. 2, 1998, pp. 133-169.
“The Communist Party and the Crisis in Canadian Social Democracy,” in Spark, no.8, 1998, pp. 4-11.
"Arab Cinema: A New Dimension from Tunisia," in Arab Affairs, vol.2, no.3, spring 1985 (20), pp. 2-3.
"Arab Film: A Look into the History and Contributions of a Special Art Form," in Arab Forum, vol.1, no1, fall 1985, pp. 18-23.
About Me:
In addition to my academic research and teaching, I am currently the editor of the book series Cinemas Off-Centre at the University of Calgary Press. I am currently the Vice-President for Programming at the Calgary International Film Festival. I have been also the Vice-President of the Film Studies Association of Canada (FSAC/ACEC) between 2001 and 2003. I worked as a filmmaker, theatre director, an actor, and as a cultural attaché for the League of Arab States Information Office in Ottawa between 1982-1992.
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(403) 220-7339
khouri@ucalgary.ca
SS 350