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Bianca Friedman

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Profile

Biography

Bianca Friedman started her PhD on the representation of equine characters’ point of view in live action films in October 2021, she teaches as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and she enrolled in the PGCERT programme in January 2022. She has an MA in Comparative Literatures (Università di Pisa) and her thesis won the national prize “Premio Paolo Zanotti”, in which she focused on film parody of gothic horror genre in Young Frankenstein. She is currently a member of the Centre for Human Animal Studies at Edge Hill. Her research interests include film theories and analysis, cultural studies, human animal studies and critical animal studies, film representation and queer theories.

Qualifications:

  • Associate Fellow in Higher Education Academy (D1) (August 2022)
  • “Paolo Zanotti” Award for best MA thesis (November 2019), title: “Young Frankenstein: dinamiche e strategie nella parodia gotica di Mel Brooks”
  • MA in Euro-American Literatures and Philologies at Università di Pisa (June 2018), 110/110 cum laude
  • BA in Comparative Literatures at Università di Pisa (October 2015), 110/110 cum laude

Teaching:

  • MED2082: Creative Methodologies and Professional Ethics (2021-2022)
  • MED2318: Spectacles, Bodies and Other Pleasures (2021-2022)
  • MED1457: Media and Society (2022-2023)
  • MED1445: Working in Creative Industries (2022-2023)

Research Interests:

  • Film theories and analysis
  • Cultural studies
  • Film representation
  • Human Animal Studies and Critical Animal Studies
  • Human-Equine Studies
  • Queer theories
  • Comparative literatures (literature and cinema)
  • Film parody
  • Reader response criticism
  • Adaptation studies

Journal articles

FRIEDMAN, B., 2022. The Experience(s) of the Spectator of Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein. Journal for Literary and Intermedia Crossings. (forthcoming)

FRIEDMAN, B., 2022. « Need a hand ? » « No thanks, have one ! ». Dalla centralità alla corporeità dello spettatore di Young Frankenstein. Contemporanea. Rivista di studi sulla letteratura e sulla comunicazione, 20, pp. 121-134

FRIEDMAN, B., 2020. Performing le ‘cheval sauvage’ in Crin Blanc. Dynamics of Filmic Representation Between Humanity and Animality. Whatever. A Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theories and Studies, 3, pp. 45-94. Available from: https://doi.org/10.13131/2611657X.whatever.v3i1.44

FRIEDMAN, B., 2019. That dog is real: Queer identities in the New Wes Anderson’s Film Isle of Dogs. Whatever. A Transdisciplinary Journal of Queer Theories and Studies, 2, pp. 199-231- Available form: https://doi.org/10.13131/2611-657X.whatever.v2i1.36

Conference papers

‘Approaching animal agency in War Horse: an intermedial study on inclusiveness’ at 9th ESCL/SELC Congress ‘Imagining inclusive communities in European cultures’ (Università La Sapienza in Rome, 5th-9th September 2022)

‘Representing an equine’s point of view in films: reflections on ethics and War Horse case study’ at Discussing Equine Ethics: Taking Stock from Theory and Practice (Université de Fribourg in Fribourg, 1st-2nd September 2022)

‘Between images and fairy-tale: prescriptive and coercive visions on animality in Crin Blanc’ at 3rd Equine Cultures in Transition Conference: Past, Present And Future Challenges [online] (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Uppsala, June 2021)

‘Performare “le cheval sauvage” in Crin Blanc: dinamiche della rappresentazione cinematografica tra umanità e animalità’ at Second CIRQUE Congress ‘Performativity: Pasts, Presents, and Futures’ (Università di Pisa in Pisa, June 2019)

‘“That Dog Is Real”: Queer Identities in the New Wes Anderson’s Film Isle Of Dogs’ at BASN (British Animal Studies Network) ‘Animal machines/Machine animals’ meeting (University of Exeter, November 2018)

“Quale nord? Momenti e tendenze del cinema scandinavo contemporaneo” lecture in Scandinavian Literatures module (Università di Pisa, May 2018)