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Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

 

Karim Townsend

College: Fitzwilliam

Email: ks576@cam.ac.uk

Supervisor: Dr Laura McMahon

Research Topic: Ecological relationality and the Anthropocene in contemporary film and television: politics, neoliberalism, community

 

About

Karim is a PhD student at the Centre for Film and Screen. Prior to beginning his doctoral work at Cambridge, he completed his MA in Film Studies at University College London, where his work centred primarily on American and European cinema. He also holds a BA in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and German) from the University of Cambridge.

 

Research

Karim’s doctoral research focuses primarily on questions of ecological relationality and the politics of community in the Anthropocene. His thesis is interdisciplinary in nature and examines twenty-first century US film and television, exploring connections between neoliberal capitalism, ecocriticism, continental philosophy, pop culture, politics, race, affect, and critical theory. He is particularly interested in ecologies, environmental crisis, critical animal and plant studies, posthumanism, new materialism, and the broader ways in which the moving image mediates the nonhuman world. In addition to his PhD work, further publication plans include writing on works by Laurie Anderson and Mike White.

Given his academic background in modern languages, Karim also maintains a strong interest in French and German film and visual media, thought, and culture.

 

Scholarships/Prizes

  • Fitzwilliam College Graduate Scholarship 2021/22
  • Fitzwilliam College Senior Scholarship 2021, 2022
  • UCL Faculty of Arts and Humanities Dean’s List 2017

 

Teaching       

2020-22: Supervisor and seminar leader for CS6 European Film (MMLL Tripos Part II paper)

 

Conference papers                    

  • ‘“Big, beautiful sea turtle”: Exploring Mike White’s subaquatic utopia from Enlightened to The White Lotus’, Blue Extinction Symposium, Sheffield Animal Studies Research Centre (ShARC), University of Sheffield, 7-8th July 2022.
  • ‘“Welcome to history. Welcome to America”: primitivism, animality and coloniality in The White Lotus’, Screen Studies Conference, Glasgow, 1-3rd July 2022.
  • ‘Revisiting the prescient politics of HBO’s Enlightened’, Critical Studies in Television Slow Conference 2022: The Outliers of Television (Studies). Online, June 27-July 15, 2022.
  • ‘Rethinking transcendental style from Bresson to Schrader: ecological crisis and the (in)conspicuous nature of the nonhuman in First Reformed (2017)’, Second International Environmental Humanities Conference: Critical Animal and Plant Studies, Cappadocia University, May 16-18, 2022.
  • ‘Agent of Change: activism, futurity and the “New World” of social media in Enlightened’, Visions of Change: CMF Graduate Student Conference, University of Calgary, May 11 2022.
  • ‘“The revolution starts here”: HBO’s Enlightened and ecological realignment in the age of social media’, British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) 10th Annual Conference: “Collaboration and Cross-pollination”, University of St Andrews, 20-22 April 2022.

 

Publications

‘“The mother is a child, too”: neoliberal segmentarity, reproductive futurism, and the politics of becoming in Enlightened’ (accepted; forthcoming in The New Review of Film and Television Studies)

 

Other activities and roles

Karim is a member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS).