Dr Julia Dobson

Title: Senior Lecturer

Contact

Telephone: (0114) 222 2877

Qualifications

PhD, MA Critical Theory, BA Joint Hons French and Russian, University of Nottingham

Biography

After graduating in French and Russian from the University of Nottingham (1988), I completed an MA in Critical Theory. I began teaching at the University of Wolverhampton in 1992 and completed my PhD `Constructions of Identity in the Theatre of Cixous and Tsvetaeva´ in 1996 (Nottingham). I taught at Nottingham, Warwick and Leeds before joining the department at Sheffield in 2004.

Research Interests

My research engages primarily with shifting dynamics of relationships between self and other and with the mapping of cultural constructions of alterity. Such questions inform my research in two fields: contemporary theatre and contemporary film.

Professional Activities

Member of Editorial Board Studies in French Cinema
Member of French Studies Executive Committee 1995-1999
External examiner for PhD thesis, UCL and Cambridge
Visiting Researcher, Forum des Images, Paris
Research Fellow, Institut International de la Marionnette

Current and Recent Research Projects

I have published widely on the theatre of Hélène Cixous and continue to work on the importance of theatre to radical (de)constructions of alterity in her work - particularly the role of 'puppet-actors' in Tambours sur la digue.
I am planning a major research project (and festival) which will explore contemporary puppet theatre in France with a particular focus on questions of agency, distance and embodiment.
I am continuing to work on documentary film - particularly the phenomenon of first-person documentary and tropes of the confessional and of therapy.
A recent KToF award enabled a collaborative project,'French through Film for schools', which brought together local schools, Docfest, the Showroom cinema and the Department of French.
Recent publication on models of filiation in the films of Jacques Audiard has led to further work on the theme of filiation in contemporary cinema in France.
I have recently finished a book; 'Negotiating the Auteur: Dominique Cabrera, Noémie Lvovsky, Laetitia Masson and Marion Vernoux', to be published with Manchester University Press. This research focuses on the re-mappings of generic, gender and filmic discourses in constructions of personal and social identity.

Publications since 2001

Negotiating the Auteur: Cabrera, Lvovsky, Masson and Vernoux forthcoming Manchester University Press, 2011
'Marionnettes' in E. Prenowitz (eds) What Occurs has No Name: Selected Essays of Hélène Cixous, Vol. 1, Edinburgh University Press, forthcoming 2011.
'Asserting Text, Context and Intertext: Jill Forbes and French Film Studies' in Higbee and Leahy (eds) Studies in French Cinema. Perspectives 1985-2000 intellect, 2011, pp. 115-126
Hélène Cixous:'First of all (from the margins) I am a reader reading ...' in Willis and McQuillan (eds) The Origins of Deconstruction, Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
'Cixous' Theatre and the Returns of the Dead' in Hutton (ed) redefining the real: The fantastic in Contemporary French and Francophone Women's Writing, Peter Lang 2009, pp. 173-186.
‘Jacques Audiard: Contesting Filiations’ in ‘K. Ince (ed) Four Directors: Auteurism from Assayas to Ozon, Manchester University Press, 2008, pp. 38-59
‘Timely Resistance in the Documentary Work of Dominique Cabrera’ French Studies, LXII (3) (2008), pp. 290-300.
‘Jacques Audiard and the Filial Challenge’ Studies in French Cinema, vol 7.3, (2007) pp. 179-189.
‘The Scenes of Writing: Poetic Identity in Cixous’ Recent Theatre’ republished in Hansen and Cahill (eds) French Feminists: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory, Routledge, 2007.
‘Hélène Cixous’ in J. Simons (ed) Contemporary Critical Theorists, Edinburgh University Press, 2004, pp. 118-134.
The Scene of Writing: Hélène Cixous and the Theatre, Peter Lang, 2002

List of Publications

Current Teaching

Fre267/268 New French Theatres 1950-1970
Fre373/374 Contemporary French Theatres
Fre106 French Film classics
FRE305/6 Film Studies
FRE239/240 Actualités françaises
FRE301/302 French Language and Communication Skills
FRE109/110 French Language & Communication Skills & French Studies
FRE107/8 French Studies
FRE6653/4 French Cultural Studies (MA)
Research Training Programme

Departmental Responsibilities

Director of Graduate Studies, SOMLAL
Member of Faculty Postgraduate Committee
Director of Taught Graduate Programmes in French
Member of Faculty Student Review Panel

Postgraduate Research

I welcome proposals for postgraduate research projects in the fields of contemporary French theatre and film.

Interests:

live performance, the great outdoors.