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Associate Professor Michelle Royer
PhD (UNSW), BA (Paris), MA (Paris)
Associate Professor
Chair of the Department of French and Francophone Studies
Chair of the Department of French and Francophone Studies
Address
A18 - Brennan MacCallum Building
The University of Sydney
I have dedicated more than two decades of my career to the University of Sydney, where I held the position of Chair in the Department of French and Francophone Studies for an eight-year period. Within my role as a film specialist, I have shaped the cinematic landscape of the department by introducing new courses.
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- Films Studies
- Film Festivals
- Francophone Oceania and the arts
- Environment, Francophone Oceania and the arts
- Neurosciences and cinema
- French cinema
- World cinema
- Film stars studies
- Socio-political cinema
- Francophone cinema
- Feminist film theory
- Marguerite Duras’ films, novels and autobiographic writing
- Marguerite Duras and the French media
- Senescence in cinema
- Creative processes
Teaching
- French Language (2nd Year Advanced FRNC3633)
- French cinema
- Visual cultures
- Intellectual movements and cinema
- Stars in World cinema (International Comparative Literature Studies)
- Migrant and Diasporic cinema (European Studies)
- Honours seminar on minorities in French cinema.
Supervision - PhD students and recently awarded PhDs
- Catia De Piccolo: 'Caricature de moeurs' in the Francophone graphic satire landscape
- Annabelle Doherty: ‘French Heritage Film and Cinematic Cultural Memory’.
- Kari Hanet: ‘Hollywood remakes French films (1990-2010); the remake as cultural translation’
- Miriam Thompson: ‘Rebellious maids in French Film’
I supervise Honours, MA and PhD theses in any area of French, Francophone and world cinema, on film festivals (particularly French), on Francophone Oceania and the visual arts, and on any aspect of the work of Marguerite Duras.
Francophone Oceania Project:
- I have been at the forefront of a research project focused on Francophone Oceania and obtained a Pacific Fund (French Embassy) (with Dr Léa Vuong and Dr Nathalie Segeral). As part of this project.
- I co- convened an international symposium in February 2023, on 'Arts and Environmental Concerns in Oceania' (University of Sydney, February 2023), which was jointly funded by a Pacific Fund (French Embassy), Sydney Environment Institute, Power Institute and the School of Languages and Cultures.
- I am currently working on a publication based on the papers presented at the symposium.
- I am co-editing a volume of essays which looks at contemporary Francophone literature, visual arts, film, and music in the region. Oceania Today: Francophone Oceania Today: Literature, Visual arts, Music and Cinema(Liverpool University Press) will be released in 2024. Itis the first collection of essays to establish an état present of research into recent and contemporary Francophone Oceanian literature, visual and performing arts, film and their circulation networks. It opens up a critical conversation among the various cultural productions of Francophone Oceania, aiming to draw interdisciplinary bridges among literature, cinema, music and visual arts so as to paint a dynamic picture of the various cross-fertilisations happening in the region.
- I have written a chapter on ‘Francophone Oceanian Film Festivals and Visual Sovereignty’ to be published in Oceania Today: Francophone Oceania Today: Literature, Visual arts, Music and Cinema(Liverpool University Press)
Marguerite Duras ‘s Cinema Project:
- I am continuing my long-term project on Marguerite Duras’ cinema and have focused my recent research on autobiography, cinema and multisensoriality which has lead to the publication of an article for the Australian Journal for French Studies: ‘Présence auctoriale dans les films de Marguerite Duras’, to be released in 2024.
Associations and professional contributions
- Société Internationale Marguerite Duras (SIMD)
- Association Marguerite Duras
- ASFS (Australian Society for French Studies)
- Société des Océanistes
- MLA (Modern Language Association)
- WIF (Women in French)
- Member of the reading committee, Collection Marguerite Duras, Peter Lang Bruxelles.
- Australian Representative and co-treasurer of the SIMD (Societé Internationale Marguerite Duras)
- Editor and project coordinator for the translation and publication of Robert Dessaix's books: A mother's Disgrace, Night Letters, Corfu.
- Project liaison for the publication of Australian literature in French for French publisher 'Le Reflet'
- Diploma of Editing and Publishing (Sydney 2001)
- Formerly Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at UNSW (1999-2001)
| Project title | Research student |
|---|---|
| Improving the Mental Health Education Materials Translation for Chinese in Australia -- from the Perspective of Adaptation Theory | Jenny YANG |
Selected publications
Marguerite Duras a la croisee des arts
(Peter Lang, 2019)
The Cinema of Marguerite Duras: Multisensoriality and Feminine Subjectivity
(Edinburgh University Press, 2019)
Stars in World Cinema: Screen Icons and Star Systems Across Cultures
(I.B. Tauris, 2015)
Corfou
(Le Reflet, 2003)
Night letters : lettres de Venise : un voyage en Suisse et en Italie
(Le Reflet, 2001)
Repenser les processus createurs = Rethinking creative processes
(Peter Lang Publishing, 2001)
L’Ecran de la passion Une étude du cinéma de Marguerite Duras
(Boombana Publications, 1997)
Recherche mode d'emploi
(UNSW Press, 1996)
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Publications
Selected Grants
2022
- Symposium on cultural expressions of climate change across the French speaking islands in the South Pacific, Royer M, Segeral N, Vuong L, Embassy of France in Australia/Pacific Fund Research Grant
2005
- Social suffering as spectacle in French cinema 1995-2005, Royer M, University of Sydney/Research & Development
International Conferences Convener
- Co-convener of ‘World Literatures and the Global South’ at the University of Sydney, Australia, congress organised by the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney, the Australian Studies Centre at Peking University and the World Literature Association, 23-25 August 2019.
- ‘Marguerite Duras et les arts’, held at the University of Sydney, July 2016.
- CAP-FIPF 2010: ‘Le Francais et la diversité francophone en Asie- Pacifique, 2ème Congrès de la Commission Asie-Pacifique’2-5 December 2010, held at the University de Sydney.
- 18th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for French Studies University of Sydney ‘Playtime: forms, functions and theories of games’held at theUniversity of Sydney 30 September-2 October, 2010.
- ‘Repenser les Processus Créateurs/Rethinking Creative Processes’, conference held at the University of Sydney, September 2000.
Symposia and Public Events Co-convener
- Cultural Expressions of Climate Change Across the French-Speaking Islands in the South Pacific, February 2023.
- ‘Screening the world’, Sydney Ideas, University of Sydney, November 2018
- ‘Film Festival Event: Application and Research’, Sydney, June 2018.
- ‘Visual Art, the Senses and the Brain’, symposium University of Sydney, August 2017.
Keynotes and Conferences
- ‘Synesthésies et tactilité: le cinéma de Marguerite Duras, entre peinture et poésie, international conference on ‘Marguerite Duras et les arts’, July 2016.
- ‘Marguerite Duras et Claire Denis : colonialisme et filiation’, ASFS conference, University of Adelaide, December 2016.
- ‘Marguerite Duras et Claire Denis : Une filiation’, Association Marguerite Duras, Duras (France), May 2016.
- ‘Rencontres sensorielles : le films durassien et ses spectateurs’ presented at the international conference on Marguerite Duras : Passages, Croisements, Rencontres for Duras Centenary, held at Cerisy International Conference Centre (France) on 16-23 August 2014.
- Andrea Bandhauer and Michelle Royer ‘Star Embodiment: Ageing and the Tragic Star’ presented at Revisiting Star Studies, an international conference, held in Newcastle University (UK), 12-14 June 2013.
- ‘Tu me tues, tu me fais du bien’ (Hiroshima mon Amour, Resnais, 1959) : la mémoire spectatorielle dans Amour de Michael Haneke (2012)’ at the ASFS conference, held in Brisbane in December 2013.
- ‘Retracer le processus de l’hybridation par le cinéma : le bruissement sonore des films de Marguerite Duras et ses images’, paper presented at the conference on Le cinema de Marguerite Duras, l’autre scène du littéraire ? At the Centre de recherche sur le texte et l’imaginaire, held at UQÀM, Montréal 6, 7 et 8 September 2012.
- Humour in Marguerite Duras’films’ presented at the Duras Society Conference on Marguerite Duras: le rire dans tous ses éclats. Conference organised by the Duras Society (UK) and the University of Western Washington (Bellingham WA, US), 19 -21 May 2011.
- Françoise Grauby & Michelle Royer, ‘Collaborative teaching in language departments: Benefits and pitfalls’ presented at LCNAU (Languages & Cultures Network for Australian Universities) National Colloquium 2011 - The Next Step: Introducing the Languages and Cultures Network for Australian Universities, held at the University of Melbourne.
- ‘Atelier Cinéma: Enseigner le cinema dans le cadre du FLE’ presented at CAP-FIPF 2010 Conference: Le Francais et la diversité francophone en Asie- Pacifique, 2ème Congrès de la Commission Asie-Pacifique 2-5 December 2010, held at the University de Sydney.
- ‘La voie du gai désespoir, en compagnie de Marguerite Duras’, presented at the 18th Annual Conference of the Australian Society for French StudiesUniversity of Sydney Playtime: forms, functions and theories of games,held at theUniversity of Sydney 30 September-2 October, 2010.
- ‘Conflits de générations et intégration : les femmes musulmanes dans Inch’Allah Dimanche de Yamina Benguigui (2001)’, presented at the 24th International congress CIÉF (Conseil International d'Études Francophones), on Femmes d’islam dans la littérature et le film francophone held in Montreal (Canada), 27 June - 4 July 2010.
- ‘Women of Islam meet Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialism on screen: The case of Yamina Benguigui’s Inch’Allah Dimanche’ presented at the Politics of World Cinema Symposium organised in collaboration with Worldwide University Network, The White Rose Consortium and RMIT and held on13-14 December 2010 at the University of Sydney.
- ‘Marguerite Duras, Cinema et Métisssage’, paper presented at the Duras Society Conference on the theme of The Orients of Marguerite Duras, 9-11, September 2009, held at the University of TOHOKU in Sendai (Japan).
- Féminisme, écriture féminine et féminin dans la parole publique de Marguerite Duras. Marguerite Duras et la pensée contemporaine / Marguerite Duras and Contemporary Thought, Gothenburg, Sweden: Goteborg University, 2008.
Selected Faculty Grants
- ‘Suffering as Spectacle in French cinema since 1995’ (2005, 2006); Sesqui R&D
- ‘Marguerite Duras ‘s public contributions and French feminist thought’ (2007); FARSS
- ‘Marguerite Duras and the Orient’ (2008) FARSS
- ‘The Other within: Simone de Beauvoir ‘s Old Age and 21st century French cinema’ (2009); FARSS
- ‘Politics &/of realism in World Cinemas’ (2010); FARC
- ‘World cinema and Photography’, SSSHARC (2017)
- Industry Engagement Fund, grant for Film Festival Research, University of Sydney, (2018).
In the media
- ABC Radio National, ‘Australia Talks’ on French Tunisian film The Secret of the Grain by Abdel Kechiche, 25 March 2008.
- ‘Le cinéma de Marguerite Duras’, a two-hour radio interview for SBS radio on my book L’Ecran de la passion. (June 1998)
- Eastside Radio 89.7FM, ‘screening the World’1st November 2018.