Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp

  • Associate Professor of French and Film, Associate Chair, French Section Head
  • Phone: 401.874.4699
  • Email: lkealhofer@uri.edu
  • Office Location: Swan Hall 131
  • Website

Biography

Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp’s research and teaching interests are interdisciplinary, focusing on contemporary French cinema and television and notably the representations of immigrants and minority ethnic populations in France.

Research

Leslie Kealhofer-Kemp is the author of Muslim Women in French Cinema: Voices of Maghrebi Migrants in France (Liverpool University Press, 2015), the first comprehensive study on the cinematic representations of first-generation Maghrebi women in France. Her current research focuses on the cinema of Rachid Bouchareb and the films and careers of actors and actresses of North and West African origin in France, including Leïla Bekhti, Rachida Brakni, and Omar Sy. Her work has appeared in journals such as The French Review, Modern and Contemporary France, Studies in French Cinema, and Contemporary French Civilization.

Education

  • Ph.D., French, Florida State University, 2011
  • M.A., French Literature with a specialization in Francophone Studies, Florida State University, 2008
  • B.A., French & Political Science, University of Notre Dame, 2006

Selected Publications

Muslim Women in French Cinema: Voices of Maghrebi Migrants in France
Liverpool University Press, 2015
Contemporary French and Francophone Cultures, 41

2018  “Mixed Couples in Contemporary French Cinema: Exploring Difference, Integration, and Identity on the Big Screen.” Post-Migratory Cultures in Postcolonial France. Ed. Kathryn Kleppinger and Laura Reeck. Liverpool University Press. (Francophone Postcolonial Studies series, 2018). 202-18.

2018  “The Films and Career of Hafsia Herzi: Crossing Borders and Challenging Barriers through Global Roles.” Cinéma-monde: Decentred Perspectives on Global Filmmaking in French. Ed. Michael Gott and Thibaut Schilt. Edinburgh University Press, 110-28.

2018  “Introduction: World Cinema and Television ‘in French,’” Contemporary French Civilization 43.1, 1-15. Co-written with Michael Gott.

2018  Special issue of Contemporary French Civilization 43.1, “World Cinema and Television in French,” co-edited with Michael Gott (U. of Cincinnati).

2017  “Unpacking the Success and Criticisms of Intouchables (2011).” French Cultural Studies for the 21st Century. Ed. Masha Belenky, Kathryn Kleppinger, and Anne O’Neil-Henry. University of Delaware Press. 155-70.

2015  “Leïla Bekhti, Rachida Brakni, and the New Place of Maghrebi-French Actresses in French Cinema.” Contemporary French Civilization 40.1, 49-70.