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1986 …2024

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Research interests

Since the mid-90s my research has focused on themes and issues in Film Studies. 
My contributions in this regard were recognized by The Society for Cinema and Media Studies in 2019 when I was invited to participate in this organization’s Fieldnotes project. This project is described as follows: ‘Through interviews with foundational scholars, we believe that Fieldnotes will help to foster knowledge of and interest in the diverse and dynamic series of developments that have shaped the fields of film and media studies through the years, inspiring thought about the relationship of the past to the present and future of the discipline and the Society. Hundreds and hundreds of people have listened to the interviews that have been collected to date.’ Participation in the Fieldnotes project involved the production of a video focusing on my responses to a number of questions, primarily about my research. Video shot in the Fall of 2019, in Hong Kong. Interviewer, Dr. Missy Molloy, University of Victoria, New Zealand.

https://vimeo.com/416582967

I am associated with the field of small nations and film, a field that I am widely seen as having pioneered. Film in the context of talent development, creativity under constraint, risk, public value, transnational cinema, and human flourishing are other areas to which I have made substantial contributions. I was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Aalborg University, Denmark, for my contributions to transnational cinema.

A Statement of Research - ongoing

My ongoing research projects focus on (i) valuing arts education in Hong Kong; (ii) sustainable filmmaking; (iii) cultures of care; (iv) film and public value, and (v) film in the context of health humanities.

Valuing the Arts in Hong Kong
Based on my roles as Head of Department at HKU, Associate VP of Internationalisation and Quality Assurance at Lingnan, and Dean of Arts at HKBU, and on my three-year membership of the UGC, I have recently contributed an article on the captioned topic to a special issue of Daedalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The issue is edited by Howard Gardner, Wendy Fischman, and Bill Kirby, all at Harvard University. The title of the special issue is: “Advances and Challenges in International Higher Education” and the aim is to “learn about new and promising ideas in many sites, as well as challenges that may well be encountered widely, and how they might be dealt with effectively.” My current experiences in the UK and earlier experiences in Denmark provide a comparative perspective that enable me to tease out the many strengths of the Hong Kong context which continues, in my view, to be a place of great possibility for arts-based education. An example of relevant possibilities is the “Future Cinema Systems: Next-Generation Art Technologies” project, for which I served as project coordinator until recently. The project centres on the work of Jeffrey Shaw and Sara Kenderdine and involves three universities (Hong Kong Baptist University as the lead institution, City University Hong Kong, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)). With a budget of HK$ 35,424,462, this recently awarded ITF project is a response to then-Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam’s call for innovative (applied) research in the area of Art & Technology, an area that I had the opportunity to support in my role as Dean of Arts at HKBU. 

Sustainable Filmmaking
In 2016 I published the article “What Does It Mean to be an Ecological Filmmaker? Knut Erik Jensen’s Work as Eco-Auteur” (Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind 10.2: 104-124. doi: 10:3167/proj.2016.100206). My commitment to this and related areas of investigation remains strong, and thus I participated, from 2020-2022, in the University of Warwick-based international AHRC-funded network devoted to sustainability in filmmaking. I was to have hosted the network in Hong Kong in the Spring of 2020, but this undertaking was deferred to the Spring of 2022, due, first, to the occupation of our campus by protesters during a prolonged period of social unrest, and, second, to the travel complications caused by COVID-19. Eventually, the event took place virtually in 2022. We designed the event in such a way as to foster a robust exchange between sustainability coordinators and other relevant practitioners and scholars in North America, the UK, and Europe, and film practitioners in Hong Kong and Mainland China. The exchanges were very fruitful indeed and it became clear that there is a great appetite to pursue the issues in a systematic and deliberate manner. I am also keen to undertake research on sustainable filmmaking on an individual basis. An example is my recent contribution to Hunter Vaughan and Pietari Kaapa’s Film and TV Production in an Era of Climate Change (2022). Entitled ‘The Necessity of Sustainable Filmmaking: Production Notes from Palestine, Burkina Faso, and Zanzibar,’ my chapter draws on my field work in the relevant geographical sites, sites where I continue to have vital research interests.

Cultures of Care
I am a Co-I on John Erni’s Education University of Hong Kong-funded “Comparative Cultures of Care” (HK$ 5,390,000) project and will be contributing to two of the work packages, the one focused on developing a theoretical framework for care work, the other on forging student projects on a transnational basis. My participation in this project reflects my strong interest in concepts of care as they relate to the creative and cultural industries. Thus I recently participated in a round table discussion convened by Leshu Torchin of the University of St Andrews at the BAFTSS conference at the University of Lincoln in April 2023. This round table discussion focused on new roles such as Intimacy Coordinators, Sustainability Coordinators, Covid Compliance Officers, Accessibility Coordinators and Diversity Readers, the aim being to understand how these new roles reflect major shifts of culture, policy, and understanding.  

Film and Public Value
The sorts of films that get made and viewed have a direct bearing on the quality of our societies, a truth that has long been recognised by filmmakers on the African continent, where filmmaking is often regarded as a matter of public value (a significant strand of my research is based on my engagement with practitioners in Burkina Faso, Kenya, and Zanzibar). I am keen to make the case for film as a vehicle for public values of diverse kinds. Thus, I have recently published the Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Motion Pictures and Public Value (2022, co-edited with Ted Nannicelli of the University of Queensland). My research in this area is ongoing and connects with another broad area of concern: health humanities.

Film in the Context of Health Humanities
My own contribution to the above-mentioned Companion focuses on moving images, health, and well-being. In 2019, I guest-edited a special issue on this topic for the Journal of Scandinavian Cinema. Entitled “The Public Value of Film: Moving Images, Health, and Well-being,” my article in the special issue is an attempt to map the instrumental uses of moving images in connection with health outcomes (please see Journal of Scandinavian Cinema 9.1: 7-23). My next project in the area involves an in-depth study of the UK-based MediCinema initiative. The intention is to (a) assess the non-profit’s curatorial principles in light of the findings of neuro-scientists, positive psychologists, and cognitive film scholars, (b) explore the relative merits of screening different genres of filmmaking in hospital settings, and (c) identify the conditions that enable the implementation of MediCinema’s vision for hospital screenings, so as to facilitate knowledge transfer to, and localisation in, other jurisdictions. In light of the challenges faced by the health sector as a result of COVID-19, it is also important (d) to investigate the extent to which film screenings or viewings can be sustained in hospital settings in times of significant health crises, or in their wake. 

With public health services in many jurisdictions increasingly advocating social prescribing (the prescribing of culture rather than medicine for certain ailments) I see great research potential in the broad area of health humanities. It is fair to say that film’s potential contributions to health, well-being, and human flourishing have been largely neglected and are thus generally poorly understood. I am keen to change this.

Teaching Interests

I have developed programmes (for example, as Founding Head of Visual Studies at Lingnan University) and have developed and taught courses at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum and at postgraduate level. I have also developed teaching initiatives on a transnational basis. A staunch believer in the integration of theory and practice, I established an Artist in Residence Programme at Lingnan University, benefits arising from this programme falling within the sphere of talent development in Hong Kong and internationalisation at home. I have developed linked classroom initiatives, for example with the film school at NUI Galway, Lingnan University and the University of Copenhagen. I have also been responsible for delivering several summer programmes focusing on Film and Human Rights.

External Appointments

2024

Honorary Professor, SELCS, University College London


2019, 2023, 2024

Member of the Jury of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (Feature Films), President of the Jury in 2024


2024

Chair, Accreditation Panel, Hang Seng University of Hong Kong, for HKCAAVQ


2023- Trustee, Learning on Screen


2023

Member, CIHE Institutional Review for Private University Title Exercise, Hong Kong Council for Accreditation of Academic and Vocational Qualifications (HKCAAVQ)

 

2023

Member, Validation Panel, Film at Research Level (postgraduate), Linnaeus University


2022-2024

Appointed, Trustee of MACE (Media Archive for Central England)


2018 

Professor II, Department of Art and Media Studies, 

Norwegian University of Science and Technology

(20% appointment, in addition to the full-time position at UCPH; approved by UCPH)


2017-2018 (appointed for a four-year term, resigned in connection with Deanship at HKBU) Member, Board of the Danish Film Institute (appointed by the Ministry of Culture; policy making for and funding of the film sector)


2017

With Khulood Badawi, produced report, entitled ‘Why, Who and How?

To Develop Children and Young People’s Film and Media Literacy in Palestine: A Mapping of Organisations, Projects and Strategies,’ for FilmLab:Palestine, The Danish Film Institute, The Danish House in Ramallah and International Media Support. Presented during ‘Days of Cinema’ in Ramallah (October), and discussed with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Ministry of Culture in Ramallah.


2013-2016 (three-year term) Member, appointed in a personal capacity by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, of the 24-member University Grants Committee charged with funding and developing policies for the 8 government-funded universities


2011—

Founding Fellow, Hong Kong Academy of the Humanities (Treasurer, 2012-2013; Vice President, 2015-2016)


2008—

Affiliate Professor, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Washington, Seattle


2007, Fall

Visiting Leverhulme Professor of Film Studies (one semester), University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland


2007, Spring

Distinguished Visiting Professor, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University College London

Professional information

Personal profile

Danish by birth, I grew up in Kenya, East Africa, and was subsequently schooled in the UK and Holland. I went on to study in Switzerland, Canada and France and have held permanent positions, as an academic, in Canada, Denmark, the UK and Hong Kong. My work as a researcher and educator is informed by an aspiration to connect communities in different parts of the world. As a university administrator, some of the most rewarding work I have undertaken has been in the area of Internationalisation. Like some of the visionary vice chancellors I have had the good fortune to work for and with, I believe that international opportunities are often life changing for our students. Internationalisation is not always about the mobility of students, as 'internationalisation at home' is also crucial. In this regard I would highlight the contribution made by the Artist in Residence Programme that my colleagues and I established at Lingnan University almost two decades ago. Recruiting emerging and established artists from Hong Kong and internationally, this programme offered local Hong Kong students the opportunity to work closely with artists from around the globe, for example, with the Kenyan sculptor Elkana Ong'esa. My work in the area of international learning opportunities currently focuses on the East African island of Zanzibar.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
  • SDG 4 - Quality Education
  • SDG 5 - Gender Equality
  • SDG 10 - Reduced Inequalities
  • SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

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