Dr. Neil Narine is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Studies (DVS) and in the Institute of Communication, Culture and Information Technology at the University of Toronto. He recently completed a PhD in Communication at SFU investigating how "technologies of mass culture," such as the motion picture and newer media forms, envision the new proximities of the "network society."

His ongoing research project examines how popular discourses "cognitively map" our connectedness and render global social networks and cartels visible, intelligible, and meaningful. Networks enable the co-ordination of a great range of activities, as techno-enthusiasts point out. But global social and commercial networks also facilitate the efficient exploitation of vulnerable populations and resources. Although economic globalization continues to foster new linkages between distant populations, the free-flowing, neo-liberal network society has yet to forge more "horizontal" modes of exchange.

Neil has recent papers on the cinema of globalization, the network society, critical theories of technology, and film sound and the cinematic flashback (analepsis). He pursued an honours and a master’s degree, respectively, at Victoria and McGill Universities.

E-mail: amnarine [at] sfu [dot] ca

Faculty page: DVS, University of Toronto

Publications

Articles

Narine, Neil. (2010). "Global Trauma and Narrative Cinema." Theory, Culture & Society. Volume 27 (4). pp. 119-145. http://tcs.sagepub.com/content/27/4/119.abstract

Narine, Neil. (2010) "Global Trauma and the Cinematic Network Society." Critical Studies in Media Communication. Volume 27 (3). pp. 209-234. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a924736997~frm=titlelink

Narine, Neil. (2010) "Film Sound and American Cultural Memory: Resounding Trauma in Sophie’s Choice." Memory Studies. Volume 3(1). pp. 32-55. http://mss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/3/1/33

Narine, Neil. and Grimes, Sara M. (2009). "The Turbulent Rise of the ‘Child Gamer’: Public Fears and Corporate Promises in Cinematic and Promotional Depictions of Children’s Digital Play."Communication, Culture & Critique. Volume 2 (3), 319-338.http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/cccr/2009/00000002/00000003/art00003

Narine, Neil.  (2008).  "Global Trauma at Home: Technology, Modernity, Deliverance." 
Journal of American Studies.  Volume 42.  Issue 3. pp. 449-470  http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=AMS

Narine, Neil. (2006). “Policing Traumatised Boundaries of Self and Nation: Undocumented Labor inBlade Runner." Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture.  Volume 5. Issue 2.http://www.americanpopularculture.com/journal.htm

Book Chapters

(2008) “Chapter 6: Policing Traumatized Boundaries of Self and Nation: Undocumented Labor in Blade Runner." in Melissa Croteau (Ed.) Reel Histories: Studies in American Film. Los Angeles, California: Press Americana. http://www.amazon.com/Reel-Histories-Studies-American-Film/dp/097890415X

Presentations and Lectures   

"Global Trauma at Home" paper presented in the "American Studies" panel of the Hawai’i International Conference on Arts and Humanities (HICAH). Hilton Hawai’ian Village, Honolulu, Hawai’i. Jan. 9-12, 2009. http://www.hichumanities.org/index.htm

“‘Global Trauma Films’ and the Cinematic Network Society.” Paper presented in the “Globalization and War Correspondents” Panel at the Media, War, and Conflict Resolution Conference. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio. Sept. 17-19, 2008.  http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/mc/page52424.html

“‘Global Trauma Films,’ Vicarious Witnessing, and Global Citizenship.” Paper presented in the “Cinema” Panel at the Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Annual Conference, a meeting at the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CFHSS) 2008 Congress: “Thinking beyond Borders. Global Ideas, Global Values.” University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. June 2-5, 2008. http://www.acc-cca.ca/reg/viewabstract.php?id=614&cf=5

"Technologies of Memory: Interactive Media and Holocaust Museums." paper presented at theAssociation of Internet Researchers (AOIR) Annual Conference 8: Let’s Play. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia. Oct. 18-20, 2007 http://conferences.aoir.org/viewabstract.php?id=1144&cf=6

"Citizenship at the Cinema?" paper presented at the Union for Democratic Communications (UDC) Annual Conference: Enclosure, Emancipatory Communication, and the Global City. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia. Oct. 25-28, 2007.http://www.sfu.ca/conferences/udc2007/home.html

"Playtime is over! Children’s digital gaming as productive leisure or wasted time" paper presented at the Cultural Studies Association (CSA) Annual Conference, George Mason University, Arlington, Virginia, April 20-22, 2006. Co-presented with S. M. Grimes.http://www.csaus.pitt.edu/conf/viewabstract.php?id=390&cf=3

"Playtime is over! Children’s digital gaming as productive leisure or wasted time" paper presented at the Popular Culture Association National Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, Apr.13-16, 2006.  Co-presented with S. M. Grimes. http://www.popularculture.org/2006%20PAGES/Program%20Full.htm

"Obsessive Reading: A Surfeit of Memory in Sophie’s Choice" paper presented at READ: An Interdisciplinary Conference. Department of English, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Nov. 11-13, 2004. 

"Identification in Marcel Ophuls’s The Sorrow and the Pity." paper presented in the "History and Trauma" panel at the Film Studies Association of Canada (FSAC) Annual Graduate Colloquium, Green College, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Feb. 25-27, 2004.http://www.film.ubc.ca/fsac/index.htm

"Beloved Which Was Not Beloved: Tony Morrison’s Deconstruction of Double Silence." paper presented at the 7th Annual McGill Roundtable: Literature and Public Life.  Department of English, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, March 23, 2001.