Aliisa QureshiDoktorand

My ongoing PhD dissertation project, “Projecting Power: Cinematic Diplomacy at European Union Film Festivals”, explores film festivals that are organized and programmed by delegations, embassies, cultural institutes and other diplomatic institutions under cultural diplomacy frameworks, viewed as a formation of soft power. It will examine the European Union Film Festival (EUFF) phenomenon to reveal how diplomacy film festivals function, exploring the nature of contemporary cultural diplomacy, the relationships and tensions between cinema, culture, diplomacy, and soft power. I plan to employ an interdisciplinary theoretical framework combining cinema, cultural, and international relations perspectives along with a mixed methods approach comprising of archival research of film festivals, close and distant analysis of films, and interviews with actors and participants of the film festival.

This project builds and expands on the subject of my master’s thesis, “Cultural Diplomacy Film Festivals: The Role and Efficacy of Film Festival Programming as Contemporary Cultural Diplomacy at the European Union Film Festival of Toronto” (Carleton University).

My other research interests include archival activism, archival materiality, film festival ephemera, film festivals and cities, diasporic and transnational cinemas, and cultural heritage.