Kirsten Smith (she/her), PhD Candidate
Joined the program in Fall 2020.
My research broadly focuses on multilingual cinema in the 21st century. While my primary focus is the representation of allophone languages in Québec, I also research SWANA francophone film archives, French co-productions and film institutions, Franco-Hispanic films, global film festivals, and Indigenous storywork and narratives in Canada. Additionally, I am interested in video game studies (ludology and narratology in video games). I am actively working on publications discussing the cinematics of video games in the late 20th and 21st century.
I started my academic career at Wright State University, where I received a Bachelor's of Arts in Spanish with a minor in Arabic, and a Bachelor's of Arts in French in the Fall of 2017. I received my Master's in French with a focus on Franco-Arab studies from the University of Cincinnati in the Spring of 2020. At the University of Minnesota, I have a minor in MIMS (Moving Image and Media Studies), and am currently writing my dissertation on multilingual Québécois cinema in the 21st century while completing an academic exchange at l'Université Paris Cité.
Smith, Kirsten. “(In)visible Borders in Beans by Tracey Deer”. Québec Studies. Vol. 75, no. 1, 2023, pp. 109-130. https://doi-org.ezp3.lib.umn.edu/10.3828/qs.2023.8
Smith, Kirsten. “Interview with Montréal la blanche Director Bachir Bensaddek”. Québec Cinema in the 21st Century: Transcending the National. Edited by Michael Gott and Thibault Schilt. Liverpool University Press. Forthcoming 2024.
“Habibi Collective and Platforming Franco-Arab Female Directors” at The 20th and 21st Century French and Francophone Colloquium, Spring 2023
"Motherhood in Crisis in Kuessipan (2019) by Myriam Verreault and Beans (2020) by Tracey Deer” at Motherhoods on Screen at Maynooth University, Ireland, Fall 2022
“The Road and the Return: Landscape and Language in Hassan Legzouli’s Ten’ja (2004) and Rachid Bouchareb’s Baton Rouge (1985)” at the Modern Languages Conference at the University of Alabama (online), Fall 2021
“Selma Baccar’s Fatma 75 (1976) and Collective Female Memory” at the World Languages and Literatures Graduate Conference at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities (online), Spring 2021
“Narrateur ou hakawati ? La représentation de la tradition orale arabe dans la littérature Franco-Arabe du Maroc et de l’Algérie” at the Cincinnati Conference on Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures at the University of Cincinnati, Spring 2019
College of Liberal Arts Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Fall 2023
Linda Odegard Scholarship, Summer 2023
Harold Leonard Film Memorial Fellowship, Fall 2022-Spring 2023
Peterson Summer Graduate Fellowship, Summer 2022
Pallister Fellowship, Summer 2021
MIMS Fellowship, Fall 2020
Charles Phelps Taft Graduate Enhancement Award at the University of Cincinnati, Summer 2019
Weisgarber Scholarship at Wright State University, 2016
Graduate instructor in the French and Italian Department at the university of Minnesota
Lectrice in the Département d'études anglophones at l'Université Paris Cité, Fall 2023-Spring 2024
CARLA Social Justice in Language Education Initiative, Summer 2023
Doctoral Intern at l'Université du Québec à Montréal in the Labdoc, Fall 2022-Spring 2023
Intern for Les Monteurs à l'affiche Film Festival in Montréal, Québec, Fall 2022
Graduate Teaching Assistant and French Conversation Co-Host at the University of Cincinnati, Fall 2018-Spring 2020
Co-Chair of the Cincinnati Conference for Romance and Arabic Languages and Literatures, Fall 2019-Spring 2020
Long-Term Spanish II Substitute Teacher at Clark-Shawnee Local Schools, 2018
From University of Minnesota to Université Paris Cité, 2023-2024
