
Dr Albertine Fox
Phd (Lond.), MA (Lond.), BA (Lond.)
Expertise
Fascinated by the relationship between sound and image, I work at the intersection of sound studies, film studies, and queer and feminist thought.
Current positions
Senior Lecturer in French Film
Department of French
Contact
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Biography
I was educated at a comprehensive school and developed my interest in cinema, music, and literature during A-Levels at a further education college. Here we studied films by Leos Carax, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Louis Malle, musical works by Dmitri Shostakovich, and poetry and literature by Jacques Prévert, Joseph Joffo, Toni Morrison, and Carol Ann Duffy. After completing my undergraduate degree, I spent time living and working in Montpellier and Paris, before deciding to embark on a PhD. I have also worked as an administrator at a Pupil Referral Unit, and as a TESOL assistant, providing English language support to refugees and asylum seekers. I have completed CPD certified training run by the National Autistic Society for people working in Higher Education, and CPD accredited Disability Equality Training at Bristol City Council.
Research interests
Areas of interest
- French and Francophone screen media
- Sound design and listening practices
- Feminist and queer filmmaking
- Queer theory and animal studies
Research
Fascinated by the relationship between sound and image, I work at the intersection of sound studies, film studies, and queer and feminist thought. Spanning fiction, documentary, short film, the essay film, and video art, my research explores how audiovisual configurations shape how we see, hear, and make sense of the world. Following a monograph on 'acoustic spectatorship' in Jean-Luc Godard's cinema, my current book project examines the listening experience in Francophone women's documentary filmmaking. It analyses feminist and queer documentary practices that disrupt dominant modes of looking and listening. Across themes of gender, sexuality, disability, and race, I explore broader questions about identity, the self, alterity, and visibility. My work investigates how the politics and ethics of audio-visual aesthetics structure how we experience, understand, and come to know others and ourselves.
Supported by a Faculty Research Fellowship in 2023, this research builds on previous collaborative projects and publications, including an extended conversation, in French and English, with the documentary filmmaker Katy Léna Ndiaye, accompanied by the essay 'Collaborative Listening, Collaborative Pedagogy' in Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies, and an interview and collaboration with the Lebanese filmmaker Corine Shawi in Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies.
My most recent work includes a chapter in a major new academic volume, co-edited by Mary Harrod and Ginette Vincendeau (Bloomsbury, 2026), on the director and artist Agnès Varda. My chapter addresses Varda's landmark film Sans toit ni loi (Vagabond, 1985), centred on the female protagonist's noisy sonic agency that shakes up a system from within. Prior to this, in 2024, I published a comparative study in Screen on lesbian representation and listening in contemporary Lebanese cinema. My earlier publications focus on the cinema and multmedia work of the Belgian director Chantal Akerman, including her musical collaboration with the cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton (MIRAJ, French Screen Studies, and Paragraph).
Past research awards
In 2014, I received the Susan Hayward Prize by the Association for Studies in French Cinema, and in 2012 I was awarded the R.H. Gapper Postgraduate Essay Prize by the Society for French Studies for an essay on Godard's 1979 feature Sauve qui peut (la vie). Prior to this, in 2007, my undergraduate essay on three novels by Marguerite Duras was awarded a Joint runner-up prize in the R.H. Gapper Undergraduate Essay competition, run by the Society for French Studies. This was published in 2008 as the short article 'Writing the Rhythms of Desire: Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, L’Amour and L’Amant' in French Studies Bulletin, A Quarterly Supplement.
PhD and MA supervision
Alongside the undergraduate modules I convene on cinema and documentary, I co-supervise theory and practice-based PhD and MPhil theses on a range of subjects, including:
- Sound in Chantal Akerman's cinema
- Queer European and Sinophone art cinema
- Trans visuality and the politics of visibility
- Female disability and the senses in libertine literature
- The documentary practice of Trinh T. Minh-ha
I have also supervised MA dissertations on a broad range of topics: gender ambiguity and queer aesthetics in film and visual art; the ethics of Trinh T. Minh-ha's theory and film; female corporeal experiences in translations of Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical works.
Administrative roles
I have acted as Director of Teaching for the Department of French at Bristol, as well as Postgraduate Teaching Officer for Bristol's School of Modern Languages, and Interim Programme Director for the Faculty of Arts' MA Black Humanities (cover for a staff member on leave).
Background
Before joining Bristol, I completed my BA in French with Music at Royal Holloway, University of London, followed by an MA by Research on the role of sound and music in the cinema of Marguerite Duras. I later completed my PhD, also at Royal Holloway, on 'acoustic spectatorship' and the post-1979 film and video work of Jean-Luc Godard, before taking up a three-year postdoctoral Junior Research Fellowship at Churchill College, Cambridge. Educated at a state comprehensive school before pursuing higher education, I am a strong advocate for social mobility and widening participation in academia.
Projects and supervisions
Thesis supervisions
Sensing the Self
Supervisors
'That which protects the Diverse'
Supervisors
Publications
Selected publications
20/05/2025Between metal and earth: the ‘noise music’ of Sans toit ni loi
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agnès Varda
Visibility Displaced: Lesbian Aurality and Disruptive Self-Naming in Sukkar banat/Caramel and Three Centimetres
Screen
Sounding queer collaborative acts: Chantal Akerman films Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Studies in French Cinema
Recent publications
20/05/2025Between metal and earth: the ‘noise music’ of Sans toit ni loi
The Bloomsbury Handbook to Agnès Varda
Visibility Displaced: Lesbian Aurality and Disruptive Self-Naming in Sukkar banat/Caramel and Three Centimetres
Screen
Money, Freedom, a Story of the CFA Franc / L’argent, la liberté, une histoire du Franc CFA. 2022. 104 minutes. French and Wolof, with English subtitles. Senegal/France/Belgium/Germany. Icarus Films, Docuseek platform. No price reported.: [No abstract]
African Studies Review
Extreme States: Remixing Cinema, Visual Art, and Music in Godard's Puissance de la parole (1988) (reprinted in full; originally pub. 2015)
Contemporary Literary Criticism
Collaborative Listening, Collaborative Pedagogy
Screen Worlds: Decolonising Film and Screen Studies
Teaching
At postgraduate level, I teach sessions on the MA Comparative Literatures and Cultures ('Cultural Encounters' and 'Theories of Visual Cuture') and I contribute to the MA Translation dissertation supervision. I also co-supervise MPhil and PhD students.
Teaching administration
I have acted as Director of Teaching in French (2020; 2025), interim Programme Director for the cross-Faculty MA Black Humanities (2021-22) and Postgraduate Teaching Officer (2021-23) for our MA programmes in the School of Modern Lanugages.
Supervisory interests
I welcome applications from PhD students interested in French and Francophone film studies, encompassing any of the areas outlined:
- French and francophone screen media
- Feminist filmmaking
- Film sound
- Documentary and experimental film
- Queer theory and film
- Gender and sexuality studies