Assistant Professor of Visual Culture and Cinema Studies

Undergraduate Appointment: Department of Visual Studies (UTM); Institute of Communication, Culture, and Information Technology (UTM)

Contact

neil.narine@utoronto.ca

905-828-4877

CCT 3027, UTM

 

Education

PhD, Communication, Simon Fraser University

MA, English, McGill

BA, University of Victoria

SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Columbia University, 2011-2012 
 

Biography

Neil Narine is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Studies (DVS) and the Institute of Communication, Culture and Information Technology (ICCIT). He joined both faculties in September 2010, and currently teaches a communication and semiotics course, Representation in Language, Mind and Art, a consumer culture course, Communication and Advertising, and a film course, Introduction to Cinema Studies.

In Visual Studies, he also teaches a course on the political economy of meaning in advertising--North American Consumer Culture 1890-Present--and will teach Society and Spectacle this coming year, as well as a new senior seminar, Special Topics: The Network Society in Digital Visual Culture.

Current Research Projects

My dissertation research examined how contemporary world cinema "cognitively mapped" the possibilities and the traumas of the "network society." My postdoctoral research steps outside of these narratives to address how the circuitry of the network society is changing the power relations of digital media production, and thus the range of narratives being produced. In this SSHRC-funded project, "Beyond the Cinematic Network Society," I examine how filmmakers, human rights activists, and other media producers turn to “crowdfunding” platforms to forge networks of production, and networks of media distribution, that would have been impossible only a decade ago. The crowdsourced YouTube docu-drama, Life in a Day (2011) consists entirely of user-generated clips and thousands of perspectives on the global "age of connection," whilst truly independent projects on much smaller scales crowdsource funding to support more traditional media production with a singular vision.

Courses Taught

Undergraduate

VCC 490  The Network Society in Digital Visual Culture (upcoming)

VCC 336  North American Consumer Culture, 1890s-Present

CIN 205  Introduction to Cinema Studies

CIN 202  Introduction to Cinema Studies

CCT 316  Communication and Advertising

CCT 314  Representation in Language, Mind and Art

Select Publications

Essays

Narine, Neil. (2010). “Global Trauma and the Cinematic Network Society.” Critical Studies in Media Communication. 27 (3), 209—234. (Taylor and Francis Journals)

Narine, Neil. (2010). “Global Trauma and Narrative Cinema.” Theory, Culture and Society. 27 (4), 119—145. (SAGE Publications)

Narine, Neil. (2010). “Film Sound and American Cultural Memory: Resounding Trauma in Sophie’s Choice. Memory Studies. 3 (1), 33—55. (SAGE Publications)

Narine, Neil., and Sara M. Grimes (2009). "The Turbulent Rise of the Child Gamer: Public Fears and Corporate Promises in Cinematic Depictions of Children’s Digital Play.”
Communication, Culture & Critique. Volume 2 (1), 319—338. (Blackwell Publishing)

Narine, Anil. (2008). "Global Trauma at Home: Technology, Modernity, Deliverance.” Journal of American Studies. Volume 42 (3), 449—470. (Cambridge University Press)

Narine, Anil. (2006). “Policing Traumatized Boundaries of Self and Nation: Undocumented Labor in Blade Runner." Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture. Volume 5 (2). n.p. (Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture)

Book Chapter

Narine, Anil. (2008). “Chapter 6: Policing Traumatized Boundaries of Self and Nation: Undocumented Labor in Blade Runner. in Melissa Croteau (Ed.) Reel Histories: Studies in American Film. Los Angeles, California: Press Americana. pp. 111—123.

Popular Press Articles

“From Columbine to Kosovo: Violence is Here as Well.” The Daily Courier. Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada. pp. E1. April 29, 1999