I am a Principal Lecturer in Film Studies and documentary film practice. I am currently the Director of Postgraduate Research Degrees at the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries and the Associate Head Research in the School of School of Film, Media and Creative Technologies.   I am co-editor of the international journal Transnational Screens .

My research is at the intersection of film, screen cultures and politics. I am interested in the ways films and other screen media formats are shaped by political structures and the role they play in shaping public discourses, specifically in Global South contexts.  My work thus far focused primarily on my home region – the Middle East – and specifically on cinema in Palestine/Israel. It explores production processes, funding mechanism and exhibition contexts as well as analysing film texts, approaching it from theoretical perspectives of transnational cinemas, postcolonial theory and minority and migration studies.   

Having background in documentary production I also have a keen interest and am engaged in practice-based filmmaking research, especially in participatory action research, film activism and socially engaged cinema.  

I joined University of Portsmouth in 2010 and have been designing and teaching a range of modules in film studies and documentary filmmaking across the Film and Media undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, as well as supervising PhD students. I was a Course Leader and Academic Lead of Film & Media Studies and been an external examiner of BA and MA Film Studies coursed in several universities. Prior to joining UoP I was teaching on the MA programme in Global Cinemas and the Transcultural at School of Oriental and African Studies, on the humanities programme of Imperial College and at University of Westminster.

I hold an MA in Documentary filmmaking from Goldsmith University and a PhD from University of Westminster on the topic of Palestinian cinema. Prior to moving to the UK, I was working in politics and education and was involved in setting up and working in democratic schools.    

Key areas of my research interests are: 

• Transnational film theory
• Cinema and screen cultures in the Middle East
• Palestinian cinema and Israeli cinema
• Film and migration, cinema and identity
• Film activism; film and social change movements
• Cinema and screen cultures in conflict zones
• Filmmaking research