What are you currently researching?
I`m researching multilingual encounters in audiovisual fictions. I am exploring how filmic and narrative devices structure the on-screen encounters between two or more languages. I`ve recently published here an article analyzing bilingual encounters in the Israeli Arab Hebrew television series Arab Labor
How did you become involved in your research field?
The research on multilingual audiovisual fiction developed from my previous research project analyzing transnational television genres and formats (here).
What inspired you to become a researcher?
This is a difficult question. As a scholar, I have always been interested in the sinuous and complex relations between popular culture, media industries, and politics. Those questions are the outcome of my intellectual and personal life journey. I think that inspiration comes from different sources at the same time, and we are not always aware of the first sparks that trigger our interest in a topic. Which of your research findings would you like to highlight? I would like to talk about my last research study on bilingualism in television and film fiction. Instead of a thematic or textual analysis, I developed a research method that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis that allows us to measure the amount and the quality of linguistic interactions of multilingual audiovisual fiction series.
How does your research link to todays' challenges?
I think that film and media content impacts how we think, feel, and consume culture. I hope that my research will succeed in highlighting patterns and practices related to current media content production and consumption.
What excites you regarding your research field?
I will use my last research project as an example. Coming with a question, such as in what sense onscreen multilingual interactions differ from daily bilingual behavior, and assembling a documented answer that satisfies me is extremely rewarding.