Shelleen Greene
Assistant Professor, Writing and Critical Thinking
PhD Program in Visual Studies, University of California, Irvine
BA English Literature, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
MIT 423
greenes@uwm.edu
Shelleen Greene received her doctorate from the Program in Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Her research interests include Italian film, race and representation, Black European studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, and globalization and visual culture. Her book, Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa - Constructions of Racial and National Identity in the Italian Cinema (Continuum Press, 2012) examines the representation of mixed-race subjects of Italian and African descent in the Italian cinema, arguing that the changing cultural representations of mixed-race identity reveal shifts in the country's conceptual paradigms of race and nation. At a moment of heightened anti-immigration sentiments within Italy and other countries in the European Union, a re-evaluation of the cinema's role in the popular dissemination of ideas about race, nation and citizenship is crucial to understanding Italy as a significant center of the African diaspora, and as a site upon which larger discussions regarding immigration and the "boundaries of Europe" must take place. Her work has also been published in From Terrone to Extracomunitario: New Manifestations of Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Shifting Demographics and Changing Images in a Multi-Cultural Globalized Society (Troubador Press, 2010) and Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Shelleen Greene has recently presented at the University of Bologna, Italy; Queen Mary, University of London; the Calandra Italian American Institute, CUNY; the Society for Cinema and Media Studies annual conference; and the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center at Indiana University.
Selected Publications
Books
Equivocal Subjects: Between Italy and Africa – Constructions of Racial and National Identity in the Italian Cinema. London and New York: Continuum Press, 2012.
Book Chapters
“Il soldato afroamericano nel cinema neorealista e postbellico italiano” (“The African American Soldier in Italian Neorealist and Postwar Cinema.”). L’Africa in Italia: cineasti afrodiscendenti e cinema della convivenza. Edited by Leonardo De Franceschi. Forthcoming.
“The African Diaspora in Italy: Immigration and National Belonging in Mohammed Soudani’s Where the Earth Freezes and Isaac Julien’s Western Union: small boats” in Un Nuovo Cinema Politico Italiano? Edited by William Hope and Luciana d’Arcangeli for Troubador Italian Studies Series. Forthcoming.
“Envisioning Postcolonial Italy: Haile Gerima’s Adwa: An African Victory and Isaac Julien’s Western Union: Small Boats” in Postcolonial Italy: Challenging National Homogeneity. Edited by Cristina Lombardi-Diop and Caterina Romeo. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 253-262.
“Il Mulatto: The Negotiation of Interracial Identity in the Italian Post-War Narrative Film” in From Terrone to Extracomunitario: New Manifestations of Racism in Contemporary Italian Cinema: Shifting Demographics and Changing Images in a Multi-Cultural Globalized Society. Edited by Grace Bullaro. London: Troubador Press, 2010. 25-60.
Book Reviews
Book Review: Affirmative Reaction: New Formations of White Masculinity. Hamilton Carroll. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010, 221 pp. The Journal of Popular Culture. 45. 4 (August 2012): 917-920.
Catalogue Essays
“Isaac Julien’s Expeditions.” Isaac Julien: Expeditions. Christina Dittrich ed. Milwaukee: Milwaukee Art Museum, 2012. 30-59.
Invited Essays
“Il soldato americano.” (“The American Soldier in Italian Neorealist and Postwar Film.”) Italy A/R: Migrazioni nel/del Migrations to/from the Italian Cinema. Daniela Aronica and Vito Zagarrio, eds. Special Issue, Quaderni del CSCI, No. 8 (Annual Journal of Italian Cinema, The Center for the Study of Italian Cinema, No. 8), 2012. 177-179.
“Il Mulatto.” “Italy A/R: Migrations to/from the Italian Cinema, Daniela Aronica and Vito Zagarrio, eds. Special Issue, Quaderni del CSCI, No. 8 (Annual Journal of Italian Cinema, The Center for the Study of Italian Cinema, No. 8), 2012.
Selected Awards and Research Grants:
2013 - Digital Futures Grant: Peck School of the Arts Slide Collection Digitization Project
2012-2013 - Center for 21st Century Studies/Master’s of Liberal Studies Fellow
2012 - Faculty and Staff Development Award, Peck School of the Arts
2011 - Faculty Diversity Research Award, UW Institute on Race and Ethnicity
2010-2011 - Essential Learning Outcomes Grant, Center for Instructional and Professional Development/Cultures and Communities Program